With the world in the grip of a pandemic that has shuttered opera houses around the globe, composers, librettists, directors, and singers are exploring new ways to connect with audiences and explore technology. With disruption comes innovation, and the spirit of invention took hold of composer Kamala Sankaram, librettist Rob Handel, and HERE Arts Center artistic director Kristin Marting, inspiring {…}
The recording of “Pepito,” a comedic opera in one act with music by Nicolas Lell Benavides and libretto by Marella Martin Koch, is set to release on May 1, 2020 and it is an amusing, quick-hit of delightful opera worth a listen. This compact, 20-minute chamber opera tells the story of Pepito, a shelter dog meeting a husband and wife who {…}
Long is the shadow that Enrico Caruso and his recordings cast on the history of singing. At a critical juncture of technological advance, they inspired not only an epigonal school of tenors (whose famous “sobs” entered the mainstream of verismo singing) but also a whole array of cultural byproducts that range from semi-fictional biopics to Lucio Dalla’s global hit. On {…}
Little could Met audiences know about the full fledged lyricism of Petr Nekoranec when he took on the spieltenor role of the Doyen in the company’s premiere production of “Cendrillon” in 2018. Certainly, the Doyen has earned his keep in the eclectic repertoire of Jules Massenet and the long tradition of French opéra comique; it remains, however, a somewhat ungrateful {…}
(Credit: Anja Koehler) The Bregenz Summer Opera Festival was founded in 1946, just one year after the end of the second World War. It offers a great variety of musical events in four different venues, but it is in the “Seebühne” or floating stage, set in a platform over the Costanze lake where the big opera performances take place in {…}
(Photo:Richard Boll) The Greek myth of Arianna (Ariadne in English) is a story rich in strong and contrasting emotions, for she is a woman who experiences love in extremis, and pays the price of loving the wrong man, Theseus, with whom she flees her home and betrays her family, only to be abandoned by him on the island of Naxos. {…}
Any new “Otello” recording is usually the focus of major conversation. The Verdi and Boito opera is undeniably one of the pinnacle works in the standard repertory, encompassing a vast array of emotional colors with some of the greatest music humankind has ever conjured up. And the world has seen some truly legendary recordings over the past century with some {…}
An Opera Rara is a love letter to Bel Canto fans. Not only does the company research, rediscover, restore, record, and perform the forgotten operatic heritage of the 19th century, but they offer it up to collectors in a vibrant and potent packaging that includes a generous booklet with a extended article about the opera, photos and lithographs from the {…}
As so much of the world hunkers down during a pandemic that has shuttered live music venues for the foreseeable future, there’s no better time than now to discover new music. “Off the Beaten Track” highlights an album of note–not necessarily a new recording, but one that has caught my attention as I explore the universe of classical vocal music. {…}