On April 20, 2019, audiences gathered at the Metropolitan Opera for one of the last few performances of this season’s run of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata.” The nearly-full auditorium was abuzz and for a number of reasons. This new production by Michael Mayer opened in December to mixed reception, resuming its run in the beginning of April. Despite the gorgeous {…}
“Don Pasquale” is often considered Donizetti’s comic masterpiece, and if it is not perform as regularly as Donizetti’s “ L’Elisir d’Amore” one need not look further than the demanding part written for the tenor; but when you have Javier Camarena in the cast, you have no reason to worry about anything. But this production was not only about the great {…}
(Photo Credit: Rupert Larl) Strange as it may now seem, but “Mignon” by the French composer, Thomas, was one of the most popular operas of its day. Premiered at Paris’ Opera-Comique in November 1866, it received its 100th performance by July the following year, and its 1,000th by 1894. Its reception in Germany, however, was less successful, maybe unsurprisingly so, {…}
Saturday, April 13, 2019 saw the second performance of the Manhattan School of Music’s production of the Springtime favorite, “Albert Herring.” With the production running for three nights, each night featured a different cast, comprised of students from the school’s Senior Opera Theater, headed by conductor Jorge Parodi and director Dona D. Vaughn. This effervescent work, composed by Benjamin Britten, {…}
On April 12, 2019, the Metropolitan Opera resumed it season’s run of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” Occupying a rather unique space as a dramma giocoso, the work unfolds the allegorical message through often-comedic methods. The cast and crew of Friday’s performance strongly favored these comedic elements, much to the delight of the audience. Michael Grandage’s production highlights the universal nature of {…}
The Paris Opera revived the Calixto Bieto’s production of “Carmen” at La Bastille with a cast to die for: Anita Rachvelishvili and Roberto Alagna as the tormented couple of Carmen and Don Jose, and Nicole Carr and Roberto Tagliavini as Micaëla and Escamillo. Lorenzo Viotti also made his debut with the company conducting the Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris. {…}
On April 14, The Metropolitan opera opened the third opera in Wagner’s tetralogy, “Siegfried.” Perhaps the least performed of the four operas due to its nearly impossible tenor role, the Metropolitan Opera landed one of the best performances of the season and with it saw a heroic and historical debut. A Heroic Performance In his Met debut, Stefan Vinke got {…}
Serse’s short aria, “Ombra mai fu,” in which he passionately addresses a plane tree, may be the most famous aria from Handel’s opera “Serse,” but is it the most significant moment in the work? Certainly, an argument could be made for it being the case, as it establishes from the outset Seres’s strong, but superficial emotional response to the world {…}
A Gothic fairy tale, the “Faust”s of Goethe and Gounod are both ahead of their time as morality plays – duplicitously tempting their readers and spectators with the very hedonism they purport to chastise. At the end of Act three, Méphistophélès crassly laughs over the end of Faust and Marguerite’s tender duet. The contrast between bewitching, shimmering violins exuding ripening {…}