(Photo Credit: Chris Lee) On Friday, Nov 8, 2019, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra took to Carnegie Hall for a highly touching concert of R. Strauss and Brahms. Conducted by Mariss Jansons, the evening’s program was comprised of personal works from the composers, being some of the last works they ever put on paper, while touching on themes of love, {…}
(Credit: Javier del Real) He came, he saw, and he conquered. All in one day. Mexican tenor Javier Camarena was only involved with the Teatro Real de Madrid’s “L’Elisir d’Amore” on Nov. 9. It is a role that he had not taken on in seven years, but there was no doubt from the moment he opened his mouth, that this {…}
(Photo: Clive Barda) There is certainly something of a Vivaldi revival going on in the opera world at the moment. In less than seven days, I managed to catch Irish National Opera’s splendid presentation of “Griselda,” the first ever production of a Vivaldi opera in Ireland, followed by Wexford Festival Opera’s production of “Dorilla in Tempe.” They employed two very {…}
On November 8, 2019, Arizona Opera presented composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce’s 2016 opera “Fellow Travelers.” Premiered at Cincinnati Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago presented the work in March 2018, and Minnesota Opera staged it three months later. That is not a surprise to anyone who has heard its enchantingly original music. Yes, it has its Puccini-style moments, but it also relates to much earlier music and contains tonal vocal harmony rarely heard in 21st century opera. Spears’ music shows human grace and warmth one moment and counteracts it with chilling dissonance the next. Thus, he magnifies and intensifies the conflict between characters.
“Manon Lescaut” opened at the San Francisco Opera in a revival of Olivier Tambosi and Frank Philipp Schlossmann’s production. It was a reminder of many of the opera’s riches: lush musical textures with various orchestral harmonies; the rich exploration of human drama; and the insolence of fate. When Puccini set out to compose his opera on Manon, people chided him {…}
The Staatsoper Berlin’s “King Arthur,” in its current production by Sven-Eric Bechtolf and Julian Crouch, began with a deceptively childlike staging. Thirteen empty chairs lined the edge of the stage, their backs against a scrim with the pale blue and white pattern of wallpaper. As René Jacobs led the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin through the overture, actors entered from {…}
Philip Glass has a solid trajectory at the Metropolitan Opera. Though few of his operas have had major representation at the hallowed house, their scant performances have tended to be major successes, often flanked by fantastically conceived productions that manage to get the utmost of his meditative masterworks. “Satyagraha” remains one of the great achievements in the Peter Gelb era, {…}
Irish composer Charles Villiers Stanford (1852 – 1924) is a largely forgotten name in the opera world, being better remembered for his church and orchestral music. Occasionally, productions of his operas do crop up, but they tend to be performed by small-scale companies operating on the fringes. Recordings of excerpts from his operas do exist, and a live recording of {…}
Star Russian soprano Hibla Gerzmava performed a recital program featuring art song compositions by Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Prokofiev sprinkled with a dramatic dash of Donizetti and Verdi on Nov. 1, 2019 at Carnegie Hall. Her appearance was not without controversy. To get to the main entrance, recital-goers needed to push past Pro-Ukrainian activists lining the sidewalk and holding placards in {…}