(Photo: Cassandra Hannagan) The enthusiastic reaction of the audience on opening night for Pinchgut Opera’s latest production of Handel’s 1711 opera, “Rinaldo,” makes it easy to understand why this opera was so popular at the time of its premiere 312 years ago. It is also important to bear in mind how operatic productions back then would have boasted a lot {…}
Opera is not one thing, as many people know. Instead, opera is an umbrella term for a large host of different categories and types ranging from the typical to the rather peculiar. While Mozart looks one way, Monteverdi and Wagner will look a different way. Of course they all follow the same trajectory, but their style has led them in {…}
The Teatro La Fenice is set to present Handel’s “Rinaldo” to kick off the fall season. The theater will revive the legendary staging by Pier Luigi Pizzi from 1985. The staging has been performed at 20 major opera houses and this time the production will star Teresa Iervolino in the title role. The cast will also include Leonardo Cortellazzi, Francesca Aspromonte, {…}
San Francisco’s Pocket Opera has announced the second of its three virtual mini-concerts comprising the company’s aptly named PocketWatches series. “Handel with Care” features soprano Marcelle Dronkers and pianist Jefferson Packer performing arias from Handel’s “Agrippina,” “Alcina,” and “Rinaldo.” The concert will stream on Sunday, April 18, 2021, at 3:00 P.M. PDT, on Pocket Opera’s Facebook and YouTube channels. The {…}
(Credit: Mikhailovsky Theatre official website) Mezzo TV is set to broadcast Soprano Angela Gheorghiu’s concert from Turkey. The concert, which was held on Dec. 4, 2020, showcased the soprano at the grand opening of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall in Ankara, Turkey. Mezzo TV will broadcast the concert on Dec. 28, 2020 at 6:35 p.m. CET. The concert also {…}
(Image Provided by Glyndebourne) Glyndebourne has announced new programming for its Open House streaming service. In addition to presenting Mozart and Da Ponte’s trilogy between May 24 and June 13, the company will also be showcasing two unique works spanning hundreds of years. On June 14, the company will be present “Vanessa” in collaboration with OperaVision. The operatic thriller hails {…}
(Credit: Claudio Papapietro) It’s been a great month for Handel fans in New York City. Earlier this February, the Metropolitan Opera premiered Handel’s 1709 opera “Agrippina” for the first time (ever!) in a new production by David McVicar. And just a few weeks later, The Juilliard School presented another early Handel piece – his 1711 opera “Rinaldo,” just across the {…}
(Credit: Marty Sohl / Metropolitan Opera) The Met has a long, celebrated history with the works of Verdi, Puccini, and Mozart. But not so much with Baroque composers. In the Met’s 140-year history, the company has only presented four operas by Handel (four and a half, if you count the pastiche “The Enchanted Island”). But that’s all slowly changing. The {…}
This week, baroque dominates the forthcoming releases. One of the new albums showcases the latest solo effort by one of today’s leading countertenors, while the other showcases a recent production from an Italian festival. Cavalli: Ombra mai fù Countertenor Philippe Jaroussky releases a new album made up of vocal and instrumental highlights from more than a dozen of Francesco Cavalli’s {…}
Brescia shares its opera season with a number of other cities in Italy’s Lombardia region, courtesy of the touring company, Opera Lombardia, and if the quality of its recent production of Handel’s “Rinaldo” is representative, then it certainly does not suffer from the arrangement. Boasting a quality young cast, including the highly respected French contralto, Delphine Galou, and two singers {…}
OperaWire was lucky enough to catch up with the wonderfully talented soprano Carmela Remigio, during the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca, where she sang Armida in Handel’s “Rinaldo.” Known as “Madame Mozart” in Italy, owing to her close association with Mozart’s operas, and especially “Don Giovanni,” her repertoire is, in fact, far wider. In 2019, she is scheduled {…}