(Credit: Ken Howard / Met Opera) The Metropolitan Opera is in the midst of reviving “Un Ballo in Maschera” for the first time since 2015. Considered one of Verdi’s masterpieces, the work has some of the greatest arias and ensembles the composer ever wrote. For this revival, the Met brought a solid cast in an unfortunate production that should have {…}
Composer Edmund Cionek and librettist Maryanne Bertollo’s “Returning; The Ordeal of Olive Oatman,” makes its world premiere with Tribeca New Music at the National Opera Center on Oct. 2. “Returning; The Ordeal of Olive Oatman,” is based on the true story of a Mormon girl taken captive by Native Americans, in the Southwestern USA in 1851. The opera depicts the {…}
(Credit: KarenAlmond/Metropolitan Opera) A “shabby little shocker.” That’s how musicologist Joseph Kerman described Puccini’s “Tosca.” Shabby? No. A little shocker? No. It’s a big shocker. Perhaps we’ve become inured to how dark and violent “Tosca” is with scenes of rape, murder, torture, and suicide. There was no mistaking the grittiness of Puccini’s fast-paced thriller at the Metropolitan Opera. The October {…}
It was a typical Monday at Port Authority. People hustling and bustling about trying to make their respective connections. Long lines outside bus terminals. General white noise echoing around the building. But around 5 p.m. something in the atmosphere changed. If you were walking around the terminal at that time, you might have started to hear “O soave fanciulla” from {…}
Christopher Job and Glenn Seven Allen are set to join Andy Cohen on Bravo on June 20, 2018. The New York City Opera announced via social media that the two singers will be showcased on “What Happens Live,” mixing drinks with Cohen for celebrities Tinsley Mortimer and Zoey Deutch. The talk show, which features celebrities is one of the most {…}
This review is for the performance on June 3, 2018. It’s quite often that operas, great and otherwise, have been adapted from, what we’d call today, other media. Whether plays or novels, it was standard practice for composers such as Verdi, Puccini and even Wagner to repurpose story and characters for the operatic stage. And there are so many impressive {…}
Christopher Job has seen it all. The bass-baritone has worked with many of the world’s greatest artists, all while building up a unique career singing smaller roles at the Metropolitan Opera while performing bigger ones with other companies. The California native recently had an opportunity to perform with the LA Philharmonic on its 100th-anniversary concert. It was a major homecoming {…}