(Photo credit: Hans Jörg Michel) Hans Thomalla’s third opera “Dark Spring”—the others being “Fremd” and “Kaspar Hauser”—was premiered by Mannheim Opera in Fall 2020 and recorded by Oehms Classics over the course of its five performances. Since November a recording has been available both online and as a CD. It is this recording which is now being reviewed. This work {…}
(Credit: Yanny Tokyo) It could have seemed like an ill-advised idea for some, but Russian soprano Anna Netrebko hit her stride on a remarkably successful return to the concert stage this week after a brief hiatus marked by political controversies. Accompanied by pianist Malcolm Martineau at the great Pierre Boulez Auditorium at the Philharmonie in Paris under the auspices of {…}
(Photo: Teatro Municipale Valli) Weill and Brecht had major disagreements over the meaning and location of their opera “Aufstieg und Fall Der Stadt Mahagonny.” While Brecht saw it as a criticism of the evils of capitalism, for Weill, it was more an exploration of human greed, which for many people, with only a superficial understanding of the word capitalism, amounts {…}
(© Richard Hubert Smith) Ethel Smyth’s opera “The Wreckers” opened the Glyndebourne Festival Opera last weekend, receiving its first-ever performance in the original French – libretto by Henry Brewster – and with many savage cuts restored. Its journey has been a long one: Smyth was repeatedly thwarted by war, misogynistic attitudes, musical conservatism, and meddling conductors. For some context – {…}
Comic? Sassy? Wagner? In English? That’s what’s on offer with Pocket Opera’s “No Love Allowed,” a bright, energetic revival of Richard Wagner’s second opera, “Das Liebesverbot.” The production features a translation by the company’s beloved founder, Donald Pippin, as directed by Stage Director Nicholas A. Garcia, and with music conducted by Jonathan Khuner. In this work, the Sorcerer of Bayreuth {…}
What is our relationship to music? Do we know what music is? Have we listened to the world around us as we probably should? When was the last time we just stopped and began to “hear?” Questions like these draw us out of our realities and into realms of musicking that seem entirely foreign to the conventional methods of listening {…}
Every element in Seattle Opera’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” which I saw on opening night, focused the production into a sunny comedy brimming with goodwill. You’d have to look hard to find any political overlays, class resentment, sexual aggression, or personal bitterness on stage amidst the humorous antics. Any elements of the story that might harbor threats of dark antagonism {…}
(Credit: Evan Zimmerman) Met audiences love “La Bohème.” The company has staged the opera 1,356 times over the past 122 years and has presented the Zeffirelli production for the last 40. The years-long affair with Puccini’s story of Parisian bohemians centers on one of the most potent motivating forces in our lives: love, and we like to see romance play {…}
(Credit: Karen Almond / Met Opera) Back in 2017, The Guardian meditated on why, despite being one of the world’s greatest plays, “Hamlet” had no great corresponding operatic adaptation. The article notes that despite there being about 40 actual operatic adaptations, none have stood the test of time or held the stage. Perhaps the lone work with staying power is {…}