(Photo: Marek Olbrzymek) “Every stage work takes on new meanings with each new interpretation.” So reads the opening line of the program notes by dramaturg Marta Ljubková, writing about Janáček Brno Festival’s production of “Jenůfa.” She was being somewhat disingenuous. What was presented was not a change in emphasis or an exploration of hidden themes; rather, it was a heavy-handed {…}
(Photo by : Herwig Prammer) In 1857, when the Teatro San Carlo in Naples commissioned a new opera from Giuseppe Verdi, he selected a libretto by Antonio Somma, inspired by the real-life assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden. The king was shot in 1792 by political opponents during a masked ball at the Stockholm Opera. Somma added a romantic {…}
On November 21, 2024, Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle hosted the opening concert of the five-day Viva Napoli festival, featuring the modern premiere of Leonardo Vinci’s Oratorio per la Madonna del Rosario after three hundred years’ obscurity. Composed for the annual Rosary Sunday celebrations established by Pope Gregory XIII to commemorate the Holy League’s 1571 victory over the Ottomans at Lepanto, Vinci’s Oratorio {…}
(Photos: Marty Sohl / Met Opera) The Metropolitan Opera’s “La Bohème” celebrated a new season of success thanks to Kensho Watanabe at the podium and a stunning cast of favorites, including Ailyn Pérez, Dmytro Popov, Boris Pinkhasovich, Bogdan Talos, Emily Pogorelc, Gihoon Kim, and Donald Maxwell. Conductor Kensho Watanabe’s Midas Touch Conductor Kensho Watanabe, who made his Met debut with {…}
Image courtesy of Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Photo by Jay Patel. With “Die Walküre,” the second opera of Richard Wagner’s four-opera “Ring” cycle, the epic plot comes down to the human level, having begun in the first opera, “Das Rheingold,” in the realm of gods (albeit flawed), Rhinemaidens, giants, and other immortals. This November 15 and 17’s performances of “Die Walküre” in {…}
(Photo: Zani-Casadio) Following on from the previous day’s performance of Monteverdi’s “Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria,” Ravenna’s Teatro Alighieri continued with a production of Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” coupled with “Hail, Bright Cecelia,” presented by the same cast under the musical direction of Ottavio Dantone. The fact that Pier Luigi Pizzi, who had been responsible for the lackluster staging {…}
(Photo: Dutch National Opera/Monika Rittershaus) (*** Trigger warning based on explicit content & suicide ***) “Le Lacrime di Eros” takes the audience back to the Italian city states of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a period still basking in the afterglow of the High Renaissance, in which the artworks of Da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo hung in the {…}
(Photo: Zani-Casadio) In his program notes, the director, Pier Luigi Pizzi, writing about “Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria,” stated that “the opera speaks for itself,” adding, “we must not induce or force its interpretation… It is up to the audience to confront it, to think about it, and to decide for themselves whether or not it is worthwhile.” Even {…}
For the first time in 11 years, the Metropolitan Opera has revived what I consider to be one of its greatest productions in my lifetime. Herbert Wernicke’s production of “Die Frau ohne Schatten” is simply one of the most sublime marriages of stage direction and opera in recent Met history. First off, it’s a challenging piece, not only musically, but {…}