What a wonder Giuseppe Verdi’s final opera “Falstaff” is. After all, he had, outside of his “Quattro pezzi sacri,” retired from the “arena” of composing and opera (with one of the grandest of all grand operas, “Aida”). But then, fate conspired, in a rather unlikely way, to have the maestro cross paths, and then lives, and ultimately work itself, with {…}
(Photo: Amati Bacciardi) “Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra,” premiering in 1815, was Rossini’s first of eight operas for Naples’ Teatro di San Carlo. Having already established himself in Venice and Milan, he was set on conquering the Neapolitan public. This was no easy task, given the opposition he faced from the local cognoscenti. Such was his determination, however, he gave considerable attention {…}
(Credit: © Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photo: Bill Cooper) Glyndebourne’s final production of this year’s festival is a semi-staged realization of Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde,” conceived by Daniel Dooner and featuring Glyndebourne music director Robin Ticciati in the pit, accompanied by their resident orchestra the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s a production that boldly sets out several role debuts, in Simon {…}
Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” has been performed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu 302 times since its premiere in 1849. The work has remained a house favorite and was hugely anticipated since its last new production came in 2015. And for the closing production of the 2020-21 season, the Catalan Opera house lined up two of its famed interpreters, Nadine {…}
(Credit: Karli Cadel Photography) This review for a performance on August 7, 2021 For the past few years, I have been a big fan of the Glimmerglass opera festival. Taking place in Cooperstown — a significant three and a half hour drive from New York City, and set on a lake — this jewel of a festival consistently presented powerful {…}
(Photo: Amati Bacciadi) Rossini’s opera “Moïse et Pharaon” was premiered at the Paris Opera in 1827. Although it is based on his opera “Mosè in Egitto,” written for Naples’ Teatro di San Carlo in 1818, it is largely a new work with significant differences. The libretto, rewritten by Luigi Balocchi and Etienne de Jouy, altered the dramatic structure, for which {…}
Credit: (Jonathan Tichler / Met Opera) August 8, 2021, saw the return of the Metropolitan Opera’s SummerStage Recital for a single evening of operatic favorites from acclaimed artists. Opera lovers new and old gathered in Central Park amid the fog and rain with their spirits mostly undamped. The artistic lineup was comprised of tenor Paul Appleby, soprano Leah Hawkins, and {…}
Credit: (OHP Marketing/Opera Holland Park) The last offering from Opera Holland Park’s (OHP) 2021 summer season was another collaboration: W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance”, co-produced with Gilbert & Sullivan specialists Charles Court Opera, postponed from last summer. A Playful Production How do we imaginatively enter the topsy-turvy world of Gilbert & Sullivan, with its surreally distended {…}
(Photo: Amati Bacciadi) Rossini’s setting of “Il Signor Bruschino” to a libretto by Giuseppe Maria Foppa was the last of five one act farces Rossini wrote for Venice’s Teatro di San Moise between 1810 and 1813, and apart from “Adina” written for Lisbon in 1818, and to which he gave only cursory attention, it was a form to which he {…}