This week the Tiroler Festspiele Erl opens a production of “Der fliegende Holländer” with numerous rising stars including Nian Bezu, who will make her role debut as Senta. Bezu is a rising star who has performed at the Theater Baden, Finnish National Opera, Auditorio de Zaragoza, and Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, among many others. In anticipation for {…}
On June 29, the Royal Opera House will present a new production of “I Puritani,” featuring Lisette Oropesa in her signature role and led by one of the great Bel Canto conductors working today, Riccardo Frizza. The performance will mark Frizza’s debut on the podium of the Royal Opera House, and it comes as he celebrates 25 years since his {…}
Photo Credit: David Bachman/Pittsburgh Opera In these uncertain times, where rights are being systematically upended, questioned, destablized, and generally violated, art provides opportunities to reflect on the stories, legacies, and tribulations of those who came before. During these summer months, we will look at three operas that epitomize this very dynamic, namely the ways opera creates space to think about {…}
This week, the Teatro Verdi Trieste is set to present Strauss’ masterwork “Elektra” with two different casts. The opera is known for its demanding roles especially the title character, requiring a soprano with immense stamina. For this run, the company has brought two of the great interpreters of the role including Diana Lamar. The production in Trieste will mark her {…}
The relationship between a conductor and a singer is one of the least examined and most consequential elements of operatic performance. Audiences follow the voice. Critics assess the voice. The conductor, who shapes the tempo the voice breathes within, the space it is given, the dynamic world it moves through, tends to appear in reviews as a presence behind the {…}
(Photo: Chris Tribble) “Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound. There are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving” wrote Gustav Mahler, commenting on his 8th Symphony. On 16th May, the majestic, (if not suitably astronomical), Coventry Cathedral hosted a remarkable and rarely performed work that received a rapturous reception at its cessation, much {…}
(Photo Credit: Sarah Peet) In 1753, a 47-year-old Philadelphia writer, editor, scientist and inventor was given a new title by his London overlords. The British Crown named Benjamin Franklin “Deputy Postmaster for the Colonies,” a position he’d sought, and financially lobbied toward, for a couple of years. The gig offered a way to spread publications and patronage. Multiple family members {…}
(Credit: Simon van Rompay) This week La Monnaie opened the world premiere of Iain Bell’s new opera “Medusa.” The work explores the human dimension of the Medusa myth, headlined by soprano Claudia Boyle, who showcases Medusa as reborn as a complex and deeply moving woman, alone amid the stone statues of those who, in their thirst for glory, tried to {…}
(Photo Credit: WDR/Teatro Real/Javier del Real) From the earliest days of opera to the cutting edge of today, work was and remains at the heart of opera plots no matter how inventive they are. One of the earliest operas, essentially the one which spearheaded the start of opera itself, Jacopo Peri’s ‘Dafne‘ (1598), features the theme of labour as Apollo’s {…}
