(Photo: David Bazemore) Now that 2025 has come and gone, and we are facing a new year of possibilities, it’s best to take a quick review of the stories we’ve explored together in the last years before 2026 really begins. While there has been a good deal of historical articles like the cinematic presence of Maria Callas and Wagner, there’s {…}
(Credit: Ken Howard) This week, The Dallas Opera opens a starry production of Verdi’s epic “Don Carlo.” The production showcases some of the lead interpreters of the opera as well as some house debuts. Among them is that of baritone Étienne Dupuis, who will make his Dallas Opera debut in one of his signature roles. The baritone first sang the role {…}
(Photo: La Boheme movie still press image) There’s no denying it. Italian opera, or ANY opera in another language for that matter, loses something, intrinsically, when it’s sung in English. Additionally, operas performed as a motion picture for cinema lose something more, by necessity, the artists having to mime to a pre-recorded rendition, negating the true passion and emotion of {…}
Photo Credit: Michael Cooper/Canadian Opera Company (2017) Generally absent from contemporary musical discourse, performance repertoire, and the operatic stage today, the name Harry Somers still carries considerable weight in Canada. He was instrumental in creating many of the musical institutions Canada now enjoys, such as the Canadian League of Composers (1951-), Canada Council (1957-), and the Canadian Music Centre (1959-). {…}
(Photo Credit : © Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com) “You sing this piece very well and it is interesting, but not well-known. It’s risky to do this repertoire in a conservative industry that more likely favors the rep they will know and understand. Something they can compare it to.” I’m hearing these words from a successful opera professional. This person is nice {…}
(Photo Credit: Jo Schramm) Operatic depictions of cruelty, vengeance, wrath, mercilessness, wickedness, barbarism, savagery, and anger seem hallmark elements of the genre itself. From villains like Queen of the Night, Lady Macbeth, and Don Giovanni to ghastly characters like Elektra, Scarpia, Iago, Mefistofele, and Caesar, all the way to troubled souls like Wotan, Giorgio Germont, Turandot, Poulenc’s Chaplain, Anna Bolena, {…}
This week, in time for Valentine’s Day, the San Diego Opera is set to present “The Barber of Seville” featuring a cast of rising stars including Dean Murphy, who returns to the United States after eight years. The American baritone first debuted the role of Figaro 11 years ago at the Connecticut Lyric Opera in 2015 and has gone on {…}
This February, Opera San José is set to open the famed double bill of “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Pagliacci.” These highly dramatic verismo operas are notable as stories in which women’s fidelity and sexuality are called into question by the male-directed societies. Men have the upper hand in these operas and their machismo views of fidelity, as well as their lust {…}
(Credit: Marco Borggreve) This week the Dutch National opera open a revival production of “Tristan und Isolde” by the late Pierre Audi. Every time that the Wagner work is presented is special as it one of the most challenging in the repertoire and therefore rarely performed. For this revival, the Dutch National Opera has chosen a well-known Wagnerian tenor and {…}
