After leaving the premiere of La Fenice’s production of “Mefistofele,” I dried two little tears from my eyes and, in a burst of emotion, was possessed by one thought: how underrated Boito is. Usually relegated merely to the place of the fanciest of Verdi’s librettists, Boito was much more. His works extend from a few musical pieces to many (untranslated {…}
(Photo: Archive Teatro Alla Scala) Every Friday, Polina Lyapustina delivers a short essay on some of the most sensitive topics in the industry with the intent of establishing a dialogue about the opera world and its future. Back in 1996, the Italian government altered its approach to organizations representing priority national interests in the music sector. According to Legislative Decree #367, all {…}
Teatro La Fenice certainly plays its part in making “La Traviata” the most oft-performed opera in the world. This season alone it will present 35 performances, with another 25 scheduled for next year. As in many houses, therefore, Verdi’s much loved opera forms part of the company’s staple repertoire. Obviously, an orchestra’s familiarity with a work may act as either {…}
Giorgio Battistelli is Italy’s most prolific living opera composer, with a catalogue of more than 30 compositions for the stage. In 2005, his opera, “Richard III,” received its world premiere at the De Vlaamse Opera, Belgium, to considerable acclaim and was followed by revivals in Düsseldorf and Geneva. Now, after more than 13 years, it has received its Italian premier {…}
More than 300 years ago, in 1694, the small Venetian theatre of Teatro Grimani di SS Giovanni e Paolo presented Albinoni’s first opera, “Zenobia, Regina de’ Palmireni,” as part of the carnival season. It has now returned to Venice, this time at the Teatro Malibran, for only its second production in the modern era (The first being in Damascus in {…}
La Fenice opened its 2017-18 season with an interesting and courageous production of Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera,” a production which under the direction of Gianmaria Aliverta aimed at producing a deeper reading of the work, one which sought to uncover the underlying structural political conflicts that led to the assassination of a political leader. Verdi and his librettist, Antonio {…}
For the final new production of the 2016-17 season, La Fenice presented Krenek’s chamber opera, “Cefalo e Procri,” consisting of a prologue and three scenes. Written in 1934, for the 3rd International Festival of Contemporary Music at the Venice Biennale and premiered at the Teatro Goldoni, to a libretto by Kuefferle, it received only a lukewarm reception and promptly disappeared {…}
This weekend, a number of productions continue runs all over the world with many of the biggest stars singing. Check out what companies have to offer. Austria At the Vienna State Opera, Carlos Álvarez and Dorothea Röschmann continue their run of “Le Nozze di Figaro” on Friday while on Sunday audiences get another chance at “Chowanschtschina” with Ferruccio Furlanetto. On Saturday, {…}
Written in only 11 days, “L’occasione fa il ladro” was the fourth of five operas Rossini had been contracted to write for Venice’s Teatro San Moisè. Although only a relatively small theater, with a limited budget and basic scenery and boasting only a small cast of singers and without a chorus, it was the perfect size for the one act {…}
“Madama Butterfly”, a perennial favorite with the opera-going public, seems to be, for good or ill, immune to large-scale meddling from directors attempting to impose their own reading on, what is by opera standards, a well-known story. Rarely do productions step outside late 19th/early 20th century Japan, replete with kanzashi hairstyles, colorful kimonos and obi, houses with paper walls adorned {…}
Bellini’s pastoral opera “La Sonnambula” made a welcome return to La Fenice, in a revival of Bepi Morassi’s 2012, widely-acclaimed production. In this outing, conducted by Fabrizio Maria Carminati, Irina Dubrovskaya played the role of Amina, with Shalva Mukeria as Elvino and Roberto Scandiuzzi as Rodolfo. The minor roles were undertaken by Julie Mellor as Teresa, Silvia Frigato as Lisa {…}
