Credit: Kathy Wittman It might be ingenuous to say, but in one’s opinion any opera that features a dragon singing a long melisma on the word “whore,” especially when it follows the ominous words “son of a,” is an unforgettable piece of theater. “The Dragon of Wantley” is based on the old legend that a dragon roamed South Yorkshire, a {…}
Credit: © OMC-Marco Borrelli On Sunday November 26th, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo gave the final performance of its first staged opera of the season, a new production of Verdi’s “Don Carlo” in the four-act Italian version of 1884. The staging was entrusted to the Turin-based Davide Livermore, scenographer Giò Forma, costume designer Sofia Tasmagambetova and Video designer D-WOK. Although Livermore {…}
Credit: Meg Goldman Verdi’s “Rigoletto” was staged by Regina Opera Company in Brooklyn, New York, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help on Nov. 18, 2023. Impressive vocalists in the cast included Peter Hakjoon Kim in the title role, Veronica Mak as Gilda, and Christopher Trapani as the Duke of Mantua. Scott Jackson Wiley was on the podium, conducting the Regina {…}
(Credit: Kristen Loken / San Francisco Opera) San Francisco Opera ended its Fall Season by going back to basics with Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore,” boy loves girl, girl not at all sure about boy, charlatan quack-doctor with his “magical elixir” will cure that, comic hi-jinx, chorus of happy men and women, hotel by the sea, hot air balloon, motorized vespas, and {…}
(Photo credit: Daniel Boud) Concert performances of “Das Rheingold” by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) in the Opera House Concert Hall November 16-18 were the most recent events in what is shaping up to be a bit of a Wagner year in Australia. Next month sees Opera Australia’s much-awaited new “Ring cycle” in Brisbane, delayed twice previously by COVID. Back {…}
(Photo Credit: Richard Termine) On November 17, 2023, The New York Pops returned to Carnegie Hall for a special concert, featuring Broadway stars Kelli O’Hara and Sutton Foster. The concert comes as part of the company’s “One Night Only” series which sees renowned guest artists in a specially-tailored program celebrating their careers on stage. Most recently, O’Hara has taken on {…}
(Photo credit: Rob Davidson for Miller Theatre) Columbia University’s Miller Theatre featured “John Zorn at 70,” with works by avant-garde and experimental composer and conductor John Zorn on November 16, 2023 to a sold out audience. Zorn, well-known for his “deliberate category resistance,” is one of New York’s most important composers. His support for his artistic community is unconditional and {…}
(Photo: Clive Barda) Anyone who has heard Opera Rara’s recording of Donizetti’s “Zoraida di Granata” must have been very excited by the Wexford festival’s decision to put on a fully staged production. It is a veritable bel canto feast with beautiful arias and ensemble singing, stretching over a period of approximately three hours. “Zoraida di Granata” premiered in Rome’s Teatro {…}
© Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith Trigger warning: Mozart aficionados, look away now. One might think Wolfgang Amadeus to be somewhat overrated, and the fact that he was hugely prolific, widely acknowledged to be a prodigy and is almost globally asserted to have been a genius, does little by way of endearing his music to my ear. I {…}