An opera composer, regardless of their era, always has to address the question, “Why opera?” The answer must come from the opera itself. Francesco Filidei and Joël Pommerat’s “L’Inondation” tell us their “whys.” Opera, though deemed an anachronic format, brings back this lyrical rhetoric tradition to recover an overpowering form of sensibility. “L’Inondation,” was based on Yevgeny Zamyatin’s novella “Navodneniye (The Flood),” which tells {…}
Photo Credit: Marc Brenner English National Opera has had a stay of execution from the swinging cuts imposed on them by Arts Council England before Christmas. At least another year of funding is guaranteed, though it has not come without casualties; the “Siegfried” planned as the next installment of their burgeoning “Ring” has reportedly been pulled. A pity, as Richard {…}
A recorded speech before the performance of “Aquiles en Esciros,” explained to the audience that this opera production reached its final stage rehearsals when the pandemic closed down the theatre for months. Not knowing how the situation would develop, the theater kept the sets on the stage for weeks before dismantling them. The opera composed by Francesco Corselli premiered in Madrid {…}
Photo: Anke Sundermeier In 1972, President Nixon made his historic visit to China. The event, at the time, was seen as a pivotal moment in establishing political relations with a country that, since World War Two, had remained largely closed to the wider international community. The significance of Nixon’s visit was reflected in the fact that it received widespread media {…}
Photo Credit: Marty Sohl On February 28, 2023, the Metropolitan Opera raised the curtain on this season’s run of Bellini’s “Norma,” starring Sonya Yoncheva in the title role. Revenge is a Forest David McVicar’s 2017 production is faithful to its source material and effective in its simplicity. The many slender trees either filled the space between the numerous warriors for choral {…}
Photo: Guy Davies It is common for a theater to wait until “a suitable break” in a performance to admit latecomers. Still, it’s a shame some of the audience for Opera Australia‘s matinee performance of “Adriana Lecouvreur” at Sydney Opera House on Feb 25th missed out on the great Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho’s ‘Io son l’umile ancella.’ This aria, touted {…}
Photo Credit: Ken Howard The Met Opera presented Wagner’s “Lohengrin” with tenor Piotr Beczała, Wagnerian sopranos Tamara Wilson and Christine Goerke, under the direction of François Girard, and Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin, for the 2023 season opening on February 26th. “Lohengrin” was first performed in Weimar, Germany, in 1850 at the Staatskapelle Weimar, under the direction of Franz Liszt. However, the {…}
Photo: Jaclyn Simpson Grammy award-winning baritone Will Liverman performed a comprehensive collection of works by Black composers at Alice Tully Hall on February 15, 2023, alongside pianist Paul Sánchez, in an astounding breadth of numerous complexities. The selected songs were from his Grammy-nominated album “Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers” and presented in collaboration with The Metropolitan {…}
Photo: William Beaucardet It was the third production of Gluck’s “Orphée et Eurydice” in Paris this season; still, it sounds like a completely different opera each time. Les Arts Florissants is arguably the most well-regarded historically informed group in France, so it was with not a little anticipation that I entered the Philharmonie de Paris building for this “Orphée.” First, {…}