(Credit: Richard Termine) One of the best parts about the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions is that it’s open to the public. But even more exciting than that is coming across a singer that makes an aria completely their own, so much so that it changes your interpretation of the music. Now that’s a star. And who else can say {…}
(Credit: Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera) For its final new production of the 2019-20 season, the Metropolitan Opera turned to Wagner’s “Der Fliegende Holländer” in a production by François Girard, whose previous work with the company is an iconic “Parsifal” production. The beauty of that production is how it illuminates one of the most complex and philosophically dense operas ever {…}
(Credit: Tim Trumble) On February 29, 2020, Arizona Opera presented Craig Bohmler and Stephen Mark Kohn’s opera “Riders of the Purple Sage,” a revival of the production seen and much appreciated there in 2017. In 2020, the stage picture was updated with powerful new projections by Greg Emetaz that add to the gorgeous desert colorations gracing the mountains and rocks {…}
(Credit: Karen Almond/ Dallas Opera) “…[A] dramatist of considerable dramatic sophistication, capable of great irony in his musical treatment,” so says Stephen Lawless of Gaetano Donizetti. The comment appears in a director’s note in the program booklet for Los Angeles Opera’s production of Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux” which opened Feb. 22 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. A Stunning Production & Leader {…}
(Credit: Richard Termine / Met Opera) The role of Violetta in “La Traviata” is one of the most challenging in all of the repertory despite its ubiquity. As such, there are a lot of sopranos who manage to pull off the role, though few with overall great vocal and dramatic consistency on stage. But Lisette Oropesa, taking on the role {…}
(Credit: Deutsche Oper Berlin/Bettina Stöß) When Giacomo Meyerbeer died on May 2 in 1864 in Paris, he was one of the most performed composers of his time. However, in Berlin, where he was dubbed “the greatest Berlin composer,” Meyerbeer’s operas were seldom performed. And in the years since his death, his work has never quite managed to find a foothold {…}
On Feb. 25, 2020, the Teatro Mayor in Bogota debuted a new production of Mozart and Da Ponte’s “Don Giovanni.” “Don Giovanni” is one of the most controversial yet relevant operas of today. It is an opera that tells the story of a man who abuses women and gets away with it, all while mocking them. Given the social context, {…}
The Teatro alla Scala in Milan presented Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” in a production by the American director Bartlett Sher and revived by Dan Rigazzi. For this production, the tragedy of the Verona lovers, with the libretto by Carré and Barbier, is set in an eighteenth-century Italian city, with a sumptuous neoclassical style palace at the core of the scenery {…}
(Credit: Deutsche Oper Berlin/Bettina Stöß) Based on a comedy by William Shakespeare, Britten and Pears’ “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” had its world premiere at the Aldeburgh Festival on June 11, 1960, with the composer conducting. Britten and Pears tried to bring Shakespeare’s magical world onstage both as a play and as a vocal piece. Alas, the opera has since struggled {…}