This weekend, Dvorak’s “Dimitrij” premieres at the Bard Summerscape. The opera is being staged in the U.S. for the first time by director Anne Bogart, a Bard graduate. She has directed numerous opera productions including Bizet’s “Carmen” and Verdi’s “Macbeth” at the Glimmerglass Festival and has also helmed Bellini’s “Norma” with the Washington National Opera. Her theater work has been {…}
Ever heard of Georges Auric? Unfortunately, few have. And Colin Roust, Assistant Professor in Musicology at the University of Kansas, believes that that needs to change. And he’s doing something about it, writing a full-length biography about Auric, “George Auric: A Life in Music and Politics” which will be published by Oxford University Press in 2018. Roust recently won a {…}
Opera has been a “western” art for centuries. But when the “eastern” world produces it, the experience can be truly riveting. Such is the case with “Datong: The Chinese Utopia,” composer Chan Hing-yan’s three-Act work that took Hong Kong by storm and is set to do the same in just a few days. Following the story of philosopher Kang Youwei {…}
When “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs” makes it world premiere on July 22, 2017, at the Santa Fe Opera, there will be two musicians in the pit of varying operatic experience. On one hand will be composer Mason Bates, known for a wide-range of symphonic works. He will be showcasing his electronic orchestral colors in his very first opera. On {…}
One of the greatest achievements of general manager Peter Gelb’s tenure is his Live in HD series, which has enabled audiences from around the world to experience opera in movie theaters. That undertaking has generated a tremendous following that has resulted in home video releases and encore performances, which are slated to take over coming weeks around the world. With {…}
Verdi’s “La Traviata.” Puccini’s “Tosca.” Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro.” What’s wrong with that picture? For most opera lovers, nothing whatsoever. And yet the underlying truth that everyone overlooks is that those works don’t exist without the other major figures attached to the respective works. It should really be Verdi and Piave’s “La Traviata,” for example as the former would {…}
What do you do after you’ve taught, formed a young artist program and had a legendary career as a singer and conductor? The answer? Direct opera. That is exactly what famed baritone Sherrill Milnes has embarked on alongside his wife, Maria Zouves. In collaboration with the Prague Summer Nights, presented by Classical Movements, the duo has already directed two Mozart {…}
Is it still reasonable to establish an opera festival in the midst of the summer in the U.S.? It’s not a simple question to answer but for opera lovers and audiences thirsting for the art form during the hot and humid days of July and August, Jonathon Loy, General Director of the Berkshire Opera, has the answer. In just its second {…}
It is rare to see a production company put on a combination of opera, operetta, and musical theater. While most viewers recognize the relationship between the three, they often struggle to assimilate them in the same breath, much less the same stage. But the three can be viewed on the same stage. And when given the opportunity, they can even {…}
Wagner in Miami. It has an interesting ring to it, mainly because you wouldn’t necessarily associate the intense heat of the ever-playful and carefree Floridian city with the philosophical and hyper-romantic German master of opera. But it’s 2017 and the Miami Music Festival (MMF), which is featuring a number of repertory classics, is hosting its second-ever Wagner Institute, a program {…}
It was backstage at the Washington National Opera Gala after a star-studded evening. The stars standing outside their dressing rooms receiving backstage guests as they started to accumulate at the bottom of the stairs in their evening wear. That’s where we caught WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, who had, as she is known to do, watched the entire show from {…}
