(Photo: Michael Brosilow) Fresh from a Metropolitan Opera premiere last spring (and its subsequent Grammy Award victory), Terence Blanchard’s first opera in jazz, “Champion,” enjoyed its Lyric Opera of Chicago premiere in James Robinson’s vivid and effective staging, a co-production on January 27th, 2024. A dazzling cast led by Justin Austin as Emile Griffith made a powerful case for repeated {…}
(Photo: MoniQue) Composer Marius Binder and librettist Robert Prosser see their new opera, “Lorit,” as a modern version of the mediaeval mystery play, in which allegorical figures embodying present-day values and behavioral traits are used to educate the audience. The plays were re-enactments of well-known religious stories containing issues that would have weighed upon the mediaeval mind, such as The {…}
The world of what is considered recognized literature and art has come a long way since the days of completely disregarding dime comics snatched from the spinner rack at the corner candy store, all set to be instantly disposable. And — oh the lucky few who preserved those “classics,” featuring caped heroes, now worth not-so-small fortunes. No, with advent of {…}
(: Chris Lee Photographer) On Jan. 31, 2024, the New York Philharmonic performed an interesting program that included Mozart and Mahler, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. The program focused on the joy of music, bringing together fine artistry from its orchestra and soloists. On this evening Golda Schultz and Francesco Piemontesi were the evening’s guests and both had tremendous success on {…}
(Photo: Rusalka Nice Dominique Jaussein) In the highly centralized French operatic world where the Opéra de Paris reigns supreme, any initiative to breathe new life into the seasons of regional theaters is a positive development. In this context, four major opera companies of the Mediterranean region have created a new partnership to pool their artistic, financial and logistical resources in {…}
(Credit: © Steve J. Sherman 2024) It’s been five years since the New York audiences have heard soprano Kristine Opolais. Once a stalwart at the Metropolitan Opera, the soprano has now dedicated herself to performing mostly in Europe and seeking “something special” in the productions or performances she does. And in her return to New York, the soprano found that {…}
(Photo: Studio B12 di Gianpaolo Guarneri) The duet “Pur ti miro, pur ti godo,” which brought Teatro Aligheri’s presentation of “L’Incoronazione di Poppea” to its conclusion, was rightly met with enthusiastic applause from the audience. The sensitivity, emotional depth and detail that countertenor Federico Fiorio and soprano Roberta Mameli were able to bring to their singing was breathtaking. Their voices {…}
Photo: Winslow Townson The first time my partner watched Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” he couldn’t believe that the composer ever thought a Stalinist regime would be pleased with the opera. The “in-your-face” power of the work made him—a (handsome) man whose political convictions ponder between socialism and cowboyism—find endearing that ‘Shosta’ could not see his censoring coming. Even today, {…}
Photo credit: © António Pedro Ferreira / São Carlos This year marks the 50th anniversary of Portugal’s Carnation Revolution, a momentous historical event which brought down the totalitarian regime installed by fascist dictator Antonio Salazar in 1974. This bloodless revolution led the small Iberian nation on a path towards a modern, humanist and democratic European republic. This season many of {…}
