What does an unfinished opera have in common with a historical landmark, Chinese cultural history, thousands of singers, eloquent music, and expert dramaturgy? In 1998, just like Wagner’s trilogy, these disparate elements come together to form a work of epic proportion in Zhang Yimou and Zubin Mehta’s collaborative project, “Turandot at the Forbidden City.” In this article, we will explore {…}
Albert Edward Sutherland’s film “Champagne Waltz” (1937) is many things. A film where jazz coolness and Viennese waltz culture combine in a forceful yet graceful dance of push and pull, punctuated by a story about a romance born from rivalry as two cultures butt heads before ultimately capitulating to the other. Starring soprano Gladys Swarthout, whose singing in the film was {…}
(Photo Credits: H. Paul Moon) Performed among the foliage and resplendences of Campos Community Garden in New York City, one of a myriad of analogous respites, sanctuaries if you will, from the tyranny of cement and metal, the monotonous timbres and assaults of the urban soundscape, and the droning apathy and cold banality of inner-city dwelling, the caressing melodiousness of {…}
Having recently become a Knight and awarded the prestigious, “Ordre des Arts et des Lettres,” baritenor Michael Spyres has quickly arisen as one of modern opera’s central luminaries, sensuously consonant with others like the ineffable Sondra Radvanovsky, the Puccini grande dame Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna, Susan Graham, Mikhail Kruglov, Allan Clayton, Elīna Garanča, and Javier Camarena to name only a {…}
The amount of films about opera and that use opera are endless, and yet, as it happens, time and time again the same studio seems to make an appearance. But, more importantly, the operatic stars at the center of these films seem to be just as copious as the titles. Completed by Austrian director Rudolph Maté in 1959, the film {…}
Having grown up with opera in the traditional format, meaning either you go and sit quietly while the opera is performed and only then do you show your adoration or you perform in the opera following a very strict set of procedures which you’re lucky if you get to extend as a soloist. My gut reaction to opera innovation is {…}
An exciting new project by New Camerata Opera, the animated short-film opera entitled “One Train,” bears the markers of a great path towards making opera more inviting. A joint effort by librettist Hannah McDermott and Hilary Purrington, the story weaves a path of awareness, magic and selflessness. It is bound to surprise even the most well-seasoned opera goer. This {…}
As the day opens up and the bustle of Seville begins to come to life, the barber makes his grand entrance with his mighty welcoming melody announcing his presence before his body can do the job. I’m talking about our beloved friend as depicted in Rossini’s acclaimed opera “Il Barbiere di Sivilgia” and his electric cavatina, “Largo al factotum.” But {…}
It’s easier to appreciate Robert Ashley’s 1983 “Perfect Lives” by simply accepting it on faith as an “opera” rather than try to cram it into the narrow definition established for the genre. There’s quite a bit of text, some singing, a story with characters, and perhaps too much of a visual spectacle. Purists with preconceived notions about how exactly these {…}
A film about an opera singer falling in-love, only to fall out of love and pursue her career, is perfect for the screen. Produced in 1953 by American playwright and producer Harry Kurnitz, the embellished biopic “Melba“ is the story of the famed figure of operatic history Nellie Melba who was personified by an equally great actress-singer, Patrice Munsel. Although a {…}
(Photo Credit: Ken Howard) Does opera seen at the movies count as its own experience? With the advent of streamed opera in movie theaters, the idea that filmed opera can somehow replace or make up for the real-life experience is a touchy point. Of course, one can’t compare the feeling of being in an opera house with being in a {…}