Being one of the leading tenors in the operatic world, Lawrence Brownlee is no stranger to interpreting works of art and lending them his own brand of beauty and meaning. On April 24, Brownlee took to Carnegie Hall to deliver a performance nearer and dearer to his heart, and one that places a firm finger on the pulse of tensions {…}
The remote Baltic coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern might seem a strange place for a Music Festival, but for 25 years the island of Usedom has been hosting artists of international repute. Skeptical foreign visitors expecting bleak windswept dunes with a few forlorn fishermen’s shanties shrouded in eau de poisson will be in for a big surprise. Usedom’s popularity reached its apogee during {…}
Lago di Como is said to be the most beautiful place in Italy, which is a very big call indeed. Since Pliny the Younger, Lake Como has attracted discerning aristocrats, poets, politicians and potentates, artists and arrivistes, cultivated voyageurs and celebrity votaries. Stendhal and Mark Twain, George IV’s unwelcome wife Queen Caroline, Sir Winston Churchill, Gianni Versace, numerous Rockefellers, Richard {…}
After a delightful performance of Isouard’s “Cendrillon” during their fall 2017 season, Manhattan School of Music (MSM) showcased another version of the beloved story of Cinderella this weekend, with Rossini’s “La Cenerentola. ” While still celebrating the success of “The Barber of Seville” and not yet 25-years-old, Gioacchino Rossini met Jacopo Ferretti and together they decided to create “La Cenerentola, Ossia La {…}
Is there a better way to spend an opera festival in Nebraska than to see an opera set in Nebraska? My weekend at the inaugural ONE Festival presented by Opera Omaha was highlighted by seeing the brand-new “Proving Up” by the dynamic duo of Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek on two occasions. The opera is based on the short {…}
Jules Massenet is one of the great composers that can’t be called an auteur in the traditional sense. When you go to any performance of music by virtually any composer, you can pretty much guarantee that said composer’s voice will come through consistently even if the means or style deviates ever so slightly. Verdi remains Verdi whether you are listening to {…}
Written in collaboration with David Salazar It’s been years in the making – Anna Netrebko singing “Tosca.” The soprano has been outspoken about her dislike for the character and about her doubts singing the role, but it’s a character that audiences have been dying to see her sing. Afterall, who but Netrebko can be considered the quintessential diva of the {…}
Leonard Bernstein is the composer’s seminal theatrical work, a work that has suddenly become ever-present around the United States. Almost every major company or concert hall has mounted some iteration of the work in the last year or so to celebrate the composer’s centennial birthday. And this was the case at the legendary Carnegi Hall, which held a benefit concert {…}
Premiering in 1773, Jean-Phillipe Rameau’s first opera, “Hippolyte et Aricie,” was considered to be a ground-breaking and controversial work that would further inspire a continuation of masterpieces that Rameau would create in support of “modern” music. Modeled after Racine’s tragedy “Phèdre,” Rameau created a tragédie lyrique, that stirred perspectives surrounding a genre of French opera that began with Jean-Baptiste Lully {…}