In 1995, a young Rosetta Cucchi first walked through the door of the Theatre Royal in Wexford, home of the Wexford Festival Opera, beginning an association, which almost 25 years later, is still going strong, having just been been appointed as the company’s Artistic Director. Cucchi will take over the running of the festival from 2020, replacing David Agler, who {…}
During early June, tucked away in the Blackwater Valley in Ireland’s southeast, the small town of Lismore plays host to Ireland’s other opera festival. Not nearly as famous as the Wexford Festival, the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival has been slowly developing its profile, and attracting the attention of a wider public, although it still remains relatively unknown outside Ireland. This {…}
It all started in a restaurant. Specifically, the Ristorante di Musica in Santa Monica, California. That’s where the Verdi Chorus could be seen throughout the years since its inception in 1983. As patrons arrived to enjoy their meals, the music of the great opera composers would be just feet away. But the restaurant goers were not the only ones benefiting {…}
(Photo: Janita Sassen) Amsterdam’s “Opera Forward Festival” is an event which showcases new or relatively new operas, by well-known and lesser known composers. One of the operas on offer at this year’s festival was Micha Hamel’s “Caruso a Cuba.” Hamel is not an especially well-known composer outside his native Netherlands, but within his country he has had a number of {…}
Opera Fayetteville is a small opera company with a big mission. Situated in a college town with a crackling cultural scene, the company brings cutting-edge operatic programming to an opera-starved corner of Northwest Arkansas. For Tamara Ryan, Boston-based soprano and Opera Fayetteville founder, bringing opera to her hometown is a labor of love and a source satisfaction. Creating An Opera {…}
British composer Iain Bell and librettist Emma Jenkins previously collaborated on their opera “In Parenthesis” in 2016 and their new work, “Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel” opens at English National Opera on March 30, 2019. In a recent talk with OperaWire, the duo commented on storytelling, Ripperology, and opera’s answer to “Ocean’s 8”. OperaWire: Tell us about how the {…}
Mozart’s operas are among the most complex, but few have quite the reputation as “Così Fan Tutte,” which is often placed under a very critical lens for its rather questionable treatment of women (which is underlined by its very title). But Skylark Opera Theatre Artistic Director Robert Neu doesn’t feel that the opera warrants such a reputation. In fact, he’s {…}
Readers looking for a thought-provoking, feel-good book about the powers of arts education and music’s spiritual force: look no further than “The Spirit of This Place: How Music Illuminates the Human Spirit (The University of Chicago Press).” Written by Houston Grand Opera Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers, a self-professed lover of writing, the book is a collection of 36 {…}
The Pacific Opera Project opened its 2019 season on March 2 with an ingenious production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” set in classic video games from the 1980s. The fairy-tale story that premiered in Vienna in 1791 has lent itself over time to innumerable adaptations, and is often used as a way to attract children to the opera hall. With {…}
Few directors in the opera world are quite as iconic as Robert Wilson. While his style, with its cool color palettes and calculated and slow movements that look like pantomime, may not be for everyone, there is no denying that he has a clear vision for how he sees theater. He’s worked a nearly any major theater organization you can {…}
Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is one of the most iconic novels ever written, its meditation on men’s relationship with technology always appealing to people across generations. Film adaptations of the legendary work have been a major fixture of 20th century popular culture and in recent years, there have been a number of composers who have tried to put their own touches {…}