(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 {…}
(Credit: © David Ruano) This week, the Gran Theatre del Liceu opens a new production of “La Gioconda,” one of the most challenging operas in the repertoire. For the occasion, the Barcelona theater has put together two outstanding casts featuring some of today’s most renowned singers. Leading one of the casts is American tenor Michael Fabiano, who continues to expand {…}
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: 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, {…}
I have often been struck by how suddenly an opera audience can erupt. Not a polite swell of applause, but an immediate, collective response, as if the entire hall had agreed in advance. No signal is given, no delay occurs; it happens after a phrase, a held note, sometimes even a silence. What fascinates me is not simply that audiences {…}
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 {…}
(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 {…}
(Credit: Guergana Damianova / OnP) This week the Opéra de Paris will open a new production of “Eugene Onegin” with a cast of rising stars. It will also mark the operatic debut of famed actor Ralph Fiennes, who will direct the Tchaikovsky work. It will also mark his Paris Opera debut. Fiennes’s first experience with the famed Pushkin work was {…}
What is it about Emily Dickinson that keeps us coming back? Perhaps that her life feels like finding a door to another world in the cupboard. She lived a quiet, isolated life, mostly confined to home. But after her death, a blooming inner life burst forward with the poems she left behind. Her poems are an “endless trove of inspiration,” {…}
