(Photo: Amati Bacciadi) Rossini’s opera “Moïse et Pharaon” was premiered at the Paris Opera in 1827. Although it is based on his opera “Mosè in Egitto,” written for Naples’ Teatro di San Carlo in 1818, it is largely a new work with significant differences. The libretto, rewritten by Luigi Balocchi and Etienne de Jouy, altered the dramatic structure, for which {…}
Credit: (Jonathan Tichler / Met Opera) August 8, 2021, saw the return of the Metropolitan Opera’s SummerStage Recital for a single evening of operatic favorites from acclaimed artists. Opera lovers new and old gathered in Central Park amid the fog and rain with their spirits mostly undamped. The artistic lineup was comprised of tenor Paul Appleby, soprano Leah Hawkins, and {…}
Credit: (OHP Marketing/Opera Holland Park) The last offering from Opera Holland Park’s (OHP) 2021 summer season was another collaboration: W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance”, co-produced with Gilbert & Sullivan specialists Charles Court Opera, postponed from last summer. A Playful Production How do we imaginatively enter the topsy-turvy world of Gilbert & Sullivan, with its surreally distended {…}
(Photo: Amati Bacciadi) Rossini’s setting of “Il Signor Bruschino” to a libretto by Giuseppe Maria Foppa was the last of five one act farces Rossini wrote for Venice’s Teatro di San Moise between 1810 and 1813, and apart from “Adina” written for Lisbon in 1818, and to which he gave only cursory attention, it was a form to which he {…}
Following its successful “20 Shots of Opera,” which streamed to widespread acclaim, Irish National Opera has created “A Thing I Cannot Name,” a newly filmed opera, which it recently premiered at the West Cork Literary Festival. With a running time of approximately 20 minutes, it builds upon the company’s experience of presenting short new works through the medium of film, {…}
This review is from the last performance of Tosca the 24th July 2021 The Teatro Real de Madrid closed the season with one of the most anticipated performances of “Tosca.” It was set to be a major event with Anna Netrebko returning to the Madrid stage in an opera for the first time since 2001, singing alongside Yusif Eyvazov and {…}
(Photo C.W. Hoesl) Every Friday, Polina Lyapustina delivers a short essay on some of the most essential topics in the industry with the intent of establishing a dialogue about the opera world and its future. It comes to everyone in a different way. The inner voice, friend’s suggestion, family talk, and the therapist session, but in recent years, we all slowly accepted {…}
For over a month, there have been no big headlines about the Metropolitan Opera in news. Sure, there are cast changes and the likes, but that’s kind of business as usual per the Met. And it creates a sense of progress toward the opening of the new season. But this apparent progress or achievement, which during the summer was routinely {…}
(Photo: Franco Lannino) For its summer season Palermo’s Teatro Massimo moves outdoors to the Teatro di Verdura, situated in parkland on the outskirts of the city centre. The cool evening heat, with a gentle breeze blowing in from the sea, along with the theatre’s sizable stage and substantial amount of raked seating with excellent sight lines suggested everything was just {…}