(Credit: Frank Wing) “Aci, Galatea e Polifemo” is probably not one of those Handel works that you remember prominently. But it can definitely be among the most memorable when produced with the passion on display in San Francisco recently. Under Nicholas McGegan’s expert baton, the Philharmonia Baroque Chamber Players’ and producers Anthony Roth Costanzo and Cath Brittan and Brooklyn’s National {…}
[Credit: Martha Benedict] For the first production of their 10th anniversary season, Los Angeles’s Pacific Opera Project chose to pair two one-act operas, Puccini’s late comic opera “Gianni Schicchi” with Ravel’s magical “L’Enfant et les sortilèges.” The performance took place at Thorne Hall at Eagle Rock’s Occidental College. Pacific Opera Project (POP) claims that this is the first time these {…}
On Saturday, January 25, 2020, the Tucson Desert Song Festival presented a concert of American songs by Metropolitan Opera bass Morris Robinson and Tucson choral group True Concord. American Folk Hymns The chorus opened with American Folk Hymns, the first of which was “How Firm a Foundation.” Collected by John Rippon, it is said to date to 1787. True Concord’s {…}
Every year the Tucson Guitar Society presents a recital in which a soloist is accompanied by guitar and it is always a crowd-pleaser. This year’s event, held on Wednesday January 22, 2020, in Tucson at the University of Arizona’s 200-seat Holsclaw Hall, starred tenor Ian Bostridge and guitarist Xuefei Yang gave a recital that included music by John Dowland, Benjamin {…}
It is hard for established labels to profitably market a new release – let alone for an independent one like Prima Classic. Long gone are the days when John Culshaw and Walter Legge spearheaded the industry, setting the standards by which every decade or so had its memorable Violetta. Prima Classics – with its reduced catalogue of only four titles {…}
(photo credit: Hunter Canning) La MaMa presented Object Collection’s utopian space-opera, “You Are Under Our Space Control” (YAUOSC) in an engrossing theatrical atmosphere that felt wildly predestined. Founded in 2004 by writer/director Kara Feely and composer/musician Travis Just, Object Collection values accumulation above cohesion. The group seeks to radically inspire moments of innovative thought with dense layers of creativity and {…}
In Phoenix on January 24, 2020, Arizona Opera presented Giacomo Puccini, Luigi Illica, and Giuseppe Giacosa’s popular opera “La Bohème.” Illica and Giacosa wrote the opera’s libretto and I agree with modern writers that librettists deserve as much credit as composers. When the curtain opened, Stage Director Paul and Scenic Designer Peter Dean Beck gave us a two-level garret that would return for the last act. In it he did not use what I guess was merely a sleeping loft on the upper level. This construction is actually part of a most effective unit set that formed the second act hillside street, and the third act gate.
***This review has been edited from its original form. A previous version stated that the presentation of the concert version was the result of a “break down of the machine” by Robert LePage, which was incorrect and irresponsibly misinterpreted information on the part of the writer. Last June, the Metropolitan Opera announced that its upcoming production of “La Damnation de {…}
(Photo Credit: Jennifer Taylor) On Jan. 14, 2020, SongStudio opened its second year of masterclasses and performances at Carnegie Hall, continuing in the legacy of supporting and nurturing young artists started by revered mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne. Among the distinguished instructors of the program, led by Renée Fleming, were Elīna Garanča, Julia Bullock, Gabriel Kahane, and Hartmut Holl, Gabriel Kahane The {…}