(Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera) The 2019-20 Metropolitan Opera New Year’s Eve gala started at 5:30 p.m and was scheduled to end around four hours later, leaving plenty of time for pre-midnight festivities. However, throughout the performance, you often wondered if the audience, despite witnessing three short Puccini acts from “La Bohème,” “Tosca,” and “Turandot,” might actually welcome the {…}
On December 22, 2019, Talents of the World returned to Carnegie Hall for their second annual Christmas Ball. Featuring a program of opera, musical theatre, traditional songs, and holiday favorites, Sunday’s concert saw the company and guest artists delight the audience through irresistible renditions of beloved works. Drinking Songs & More Opening the concert was company president and baritone David {…}
(Credit: Javier del Real) The Teatro Real de Madrid presented Bellini’s rarely performed “Il Pirata” with three casts in an aesthetically powerful production by Emilio Sagi in what is likely to be one of the highlights of the 2019-20 season. While the headliners of the first cast were Sonya Yoncheva and Javier Camarena, it was the second cast of Yolanda {…}
On December 21, 2019, the Eurasia Festival presented the second concert of its Park Avenue Concert Series. Held at the organization’s new location of the Eurasia Cultural Center, this series gives performance opportunities to students of the “Azatt Sessions,” a series of classes taught by director Mark Verzatt and Eurasia Festival President and pianist, Aza Sydykov. A Tenor Opens Opening {…}
(Credit: Catherine Ashmore) This review is for the performance on Dec. 21, 2019. Richard Eyre’s production of “La Traviata” is celebrating its 25th year at the Royal Opera House, having proved itself a rock-solid box office winner alongside John Copley’s recently retired production of “La bohème.” This season will see 20 performances of it with three conductors and four casts, {…}
(Photo Credit: Giorgi Gogidze) On Dec. 19, 2019, Talents of the World returned to Carnegie Hall to kick off its second annual Christmas Festival with a spirited concert, titled “All I Want for Christmas is Three Tenors.” The evening’s program consisted of a selection of well-known operatic arias, holiday carols, art songs, and more. Leading the roster of artists were {…}
(Photo: J.Quast) Theater Regensburg’s new production of Vivaldi’s “La Fida Ninfa” was a bold, ambitious, and possibly even reckless, decision for a provincial opera company with a non-specialist baroque orchestra, and a group of singers who, with one or two exceptions, have limited experience in singing baroque opera. Yet, it is illustrative of the extent to which Vivaldi’s operas are {…}
Credits: Lithuanian National Opera Every year the Lithuanian Nation Opera starts the festive season with “Die Fledermaus.” The timeless production by Gediminas Šeduikis always causes laughter and a good mood, so the operetta remains in repertory yearly since its premiere back in 2016. But before we talk about the novelty of this year’s performances, it is essential to note that {…}
(credit:Philicia Endelman) For the second opera in their inaugural season, Los Angeles company Numi Opera presented Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s rarely-performed one-act comedy “Der Ring des Polykrates” at Zipper Hall at the Colburn School. Numi Opera, formed by Gail R Gordon, is dedicated to works by composers whose voices have been silenced, in particular by Hitler whose rise in the 1930s {…}