(Credit Sunny Martini) Right from the start of Seattle Opera’s “Rigoletto,” stage director Lindy Hume signaled not to expect the evening to adhere too closely to operatic convention. The curtain went up suddenly with the house lights still on, showing us, in silence, a man dressed as a waiter or Maitre D’ sitting on a deluxe leather sofa in a {…}
(Photo: Martha Benedict) The 1912 Ebell Club in Los Angeles’ Highland Park has been the venue for a number of Pacific Opera Project performances. It’s a favorite venue for their popular show “La boheme: AKA: The Hipsters”. And its informal setting worked well for this intimate version of “The Mikado,” in which the audience was able to sit close at {…}
“La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’ isola d’ Alcina” (“The liberation of Ruggiero from the Isle of Alcina”) is an opera of firsts. It was the first opera composed by a woman. It was the first opera performed outside of Italy. And, perhaps, it was the first opera in which the male-female roles are reversed with a strong female coming to {…}
Since his breakthrough as Rodolfo in Bellini’s “La Sonnambula,” 42-year-old Ildar Abdrazakov has cemented his reputation as one of the world’s leading bass singers at both European and American opera houses. With his repertoire spanning the early and mid-19th century, he has gradually moved from the Belcanto tradition to Verdi and the development of modern music drama per se; it {…}
There are times when we experience something very special, almost historical. This was the case at the world premiere of “Princess Maleine,” a new opera staged by the Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble. The premiere was part of Dell’Arte’s 2019 festival, “Voices from the Tower.” The series, as described by Artistic Director Chris Fecteau, is “dedicated to the female creative voices who {…}
(Photo: Innsbrucker Festwochen/Rupert Larl) In 1732, “Merope” was premiered at the Turin carnival. It was written by the now little known composer Riccardo Broschi to a libretto by Apostolo Zeno. The complex plot is typical of the period, in which a usurper, Polifonte, has taken the throne of Messene, after having murdered its King, Cresfonte, and his children. Such an {…}
Would Brecht have liked it? The effort? Definitely – the range of visual idea, the splicing of moments of fantasy with hard-core, everyday sauciness, and the righteous indignation of the young, the belligerent, i.e., the protest. Would Weill? The sharp cacophony of instruments injected any hint of romance or nostalgia, with splatter, splash, and crash, the happy-go-lucky life of the {…}
I think the trickiness of reviewing this work – for me, at least – can be expressed by an exchange I had with a couple at Bard’s Sosnoff Theater during the intermission of the Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s opera, “Das Wunder Der Heliane (The Miracle of Heliane).” Apparently, a woman had noticed me taking notes during the performance, perhaps deduced I {…}
(Photos: Celina Friedrichs) When Alessandro De Marchi took up his post as Artistic Director of Innsbruck’s Early Music Festival one of his first innovations was to introduce the “Cesti Competition,” with the aim of promoting the profile of, and opportunities for, young singers specializing in the baroque. Now in its tenth year, the competition’s status on the international stage is {…}