(Credit: Miguel Lorenzo/Mikel Ponce) Rossini’s “Il viaggio a Reims” is a difficult show to stage. To begin with, it was written as a “cantata” and not an opera, and it has 14 solo voices. Moreover, it is a compilation of Rossini’s past compositions, including his opera buffa and serious works, but with a stronger influence of the French “Grand Opera” {…}
(Credit: Javier del Real) The Teatro Real de Madrid continued its staging of Wagner’s tetralogy with the second, and arguably most popular installment, “Die Walküre.” The production features the same artistic-conducting team with Robert Carsen directing and Pablo Heras-Casado on the pit. Sadly, given that each opera of this cycle is being performed one season at a time, the casts {…}
On February 28, 2020, a globe-spanning roster of artists came together in St. John’s in the Village for an evening of cultural songs, presented by Meche Kroop of Voce di Meche. A firm supporter of the performing arts, Kroop encourages emerging artists through performance reviews as well as sponsoring prizes in vocal competitions with organizations such as NYIOP and the {…}
(Credit: Bill Cooper) Anticipation was already at fever pitch for this new production of “Fidelio” in London, even before Oliver Mears, Royal Opera Artistic Director, appeared on stage before curtain up, evidently the bearer of bad news. “Please don’t be alarmed,” he reassured: Tenor Jonas Kaufmann only had a cold, would indeed sing, and asked for our indulgence. “We’ve been {…}
(Image Source: Official website) The great critic Edward Said saw Mozart and Da Ponte’s “Così fan tutte” as a work of irreconcilable contradictions: astonishingly tender in its explorations of longing, fear, and regret, yet also strangely cold and unredeemed; a world of libertinage and manipulation that burns forward without any clear moral purpose. The frivolity of its scenario is powerfully {…}
(Credit: Brandon Patoc) Esa Pekka-Salonen, Music Director Designate of the San Francisco Symphony, conducted a largely French program this past week with soprano Julia Bullock. At the core of the program were two vocal cycles including Britten’s Illuminations and Ravel’s setting of poems by Mallarmé. Bookending these pieces was Henry Purcell’s Funeral March reframed by Steven Stuckey, and the Ballet {…}
On February 28, 2020, ASU’s Music Theatre and Opera Department presented Kurt Weill’s “Street Scene” at the Evelyn Smith Theater. Weill composed “Street Scene,” to a libretto by Elmer Rice and Langston Hughes, after arriving in the United States and it is very different from the works he wrote in Germany. Musically, its numbers run the gamut of styles from Puccini to 1940’s jazz. Weill described Street Scene” as an American opera despite its spoken passages. His music may show its European roots, but the text reflects specific American problems of the ‘40s.
(Credit: Richard Termine) One of the best parts about the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions is that it’s open to the public. But even more exciting than that is coming across a singer that makes an aria completely their own, so much so that it changes your interpretation of the music. Now that’s a star. And who else can say {…}
(Credit: Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera) For its final new production of the 2019-20 season, the Metropolitan Opera turned to Wagner’s “Der Fliegende Holländer” in a production by François Girard, whose previous work with the company is an iconic “Parsifal” production. The beauty of that production is how it illuminates one of the most complex and philosophically dense operas ever {…}