Staging a new production of a Ring cycle is always daunting because of history; no other opera is held up in comparison to previous productions more than Wagner’s grand gesamtkunstwerk. How David Pountney’s new production, now halfway complete at Lyric Opera of Chicago, holds up to history remains to be seen after his “Die Walküre” opened Wednesday night in front {…}
Luis Buñuel’s “The Exterminating Angel” is one of the iconic surrealist masterpieces of all cinema. Set at an upper-class dinner, the film analyzes how people revert to their basest of instincts when they get stuck in a room that they inexplicably cannot escape. The film succeeds in its ability to blend the normal with the unreal in rather claustrophobic fashion, {…}
In 1914, James Joyce’s “The Dubliners” was published, in which he penned a number of portraits of lower-middle/middle class Dublin folk. The book painted a picture of Dublin as inward looking, parochial city, in which its people’s horizons were very low, in which they were at the mercy of the church, corruption, and their own and other people’s prejudice. They {…}
In order to successfully produce any work for the theatre, be it an opera or otherwise, a director must have a clear vision of the themes they wish to explore or highlight, and of the means by which they will present them, so that the audience can engage with the work in an intelligent and meaningful way. Fiona Shaw, the {…}
Wexford Festival Opera’s shortworks, performed during the afternoon at White’s, a local hotel, are small-scale productions of known and lesser-known works in a reduced format with piano accompaniment. The aim is to provide an opportunity for festival singers appearing in minor roles or the chorus to showcase their talents in more substantial roles. Of course, it also provides further opportunities {…}
The Lyric Opera of Chicago opened its season with a fabulous collaboration with the Joffrey Ballet with the French version of “Orphée et Eurydice.” It was a sensational production, although the fact that Gluck’s work doesn’t really feature a great amount of singing perhaps left a void for some hearty Lyric operagoers. Anybody who felt that way certainly had their {…}
Following Donizetti’s death in 1848 the mantle of Italian opera eventually passed onto Verdi, something that today appears to have been a natural and uncontested succession. Yet, this was not so certain a transition as it now seems. A number of other composer also vied for the accolade, including a now almost unknown composer from Verona, called Jacopo Foroni. Hailing {…}
On October 27, 2017, Pacific Opera Project presented the world premiere of Brooke DeRosa’s “The Monkey’s Paw” along with a revival of Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Medium” at the Ebell Club in Los Angeles. Brooke based the libretto for her opera on W.W. Jacobs’ 1902 supernatural thriller of the same name. The mystic tale, sometimes read in high school classes, {…}
If you were to see The New York City Opera’s production of “Dolores Claiborne” — and I recommend you do, though this sold-out run has just finished –it might be a useful to cite some references that occurred to me. There were many, and they were diverse. But just to orient those new to the opera — and its source, {…}