Undeniably the big story of this production of the Royal Opera House’s “Madama Butterfly,” as directed by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, was that revival director Daniel Dooner would work to create a dialogue around the work’s most problematic aspects. Such a program involved extensive instruction workshops designed to teach the cast playing Japanese characters how to move, act, laugh, {…}
(Credit: Teatro Carlo Felice) In 2021 the Teatro Carlo Felice Genova Foundation, under the artistic direction of Francesco Meli, launched its Accademia di Alto Perfezionamento, a course aimed at perfecting and consolidating the skills of young professional singers, with lessons in vocal technique, musical interpretation, and theatrical art, under the guidance of internationally renowned artists, which culminated in the opportunity {…}
Photo: Fritz Myers On June 17, 2022, at New York’s Fotografiska, Jeff Beal’s “The Paper Lined Shack,” received its New York and string quartet premiere, along with the world premiere of the composer’s “Things Unseen” for string quartet. And though “Things Unseen” is an instrumental work, it’s worth some words. The piece sets up “The Paper Lined Shack” by acquainting {…}
In February 2022, OperaWire got a sneak peek at Thomas Cabaniss’ new song cycle, “FireSongs” at Bare Opera’s season opening gala. Cabaniss took to the stage himself and sang a few selections, and in doing so, brought the audience inside of his creative process. Cabaniss, in a June 2022 interview with OperaWire, stated, “I spend a lot of time speaking, {…}
(Credit: Cory Weaver) Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang’s “Dream of the Red Chamber,” abundant with beauty, color, sound, and light, lifts the original tale from the 18th century novel by Cao Xueqin by setting it into a Buddhist/Confucianist perspective. Thus, while we recognize familiar societal obstacles that thwart Bao Yu and Dai Yu from their particular happiness and discover {…}
San Francisco Opera’s summer production of Mozart’s dark comedy “Don Giovanni” gives us so much more than we could ever ask for from this operatic gem. From the opening downbeat, conductor Bertrand de Billy led us through the variant plot twists and turns with the only questions being – Will we cheer for the great libertine’s demise? Or will we {…}
The eighth concert in Clifton International Festival of Music’s 11-concert series, Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater,” was hosted at the Clifton Cathedral on a bright and temperate Friday evening. Coupled with Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” earlier in the evening, Pergolesi’s work made a lovely complement to an evening full of baroque refinement. The soloists for the evening’s concert was Daisy Walford (soprano) and {…}
On a sunny and lazy Sunday evening, the 2022 Clifton International Festival of Music held its fourth performance. From the captivating beauty of the English choral tradition, paying special homage to Vaughan Williams (this year marking his 150th anniversary), the Festival moved to the English Renaissance. Hosted within the grand and imposing nave of the Clifton Cathedral–a quintessentially Brutalist building {…}
Photo credit: © Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. “La bohème”, as the archetypal verismo opera, tends to resist stagings that take it much beyond the confines of nineteenth-century Paris, and indeed non-naturalistic approaches to the work. (Audiences tend to resist them too.) The two most successful in London recently have been John Copley’s recently retired version at the Royal Opera House – {…}