Joyce DiDonato is no ordinary opera singer. On the one hand, she is a dazzling performer with a remarkable mezzo-soprano voice. On the other, as an executive producer, she is a remarkable leader and spokeswoman for the arts. Both qualities were wonderfully evident in her 23rd performance of “EDEN.” Continuing her “EDEN” tour across Europe and the U.S., on this {…}
(Photo : Vincent PONTET) This review is for the Jan 29, 2023 performance. It seems that the last century is far enough from us that “Peter Grimes” can be performed enthusiastically as “Tosca” and “La Forza del Destino.” And this Paris Opera new production is to die for! First things first: “Peter Grimes” is an opera that has aged better {…}
Gustavo Dudamel’s “Carte Blanche” concerts often problematize the contamination of all music by opera. I use “contaminate” in the best sense, since opera, according to Matthew Aucoin, has the capacity to aggregate and change all the arts involved in its making: theater, music, literature, and visual arts: they will never be the same. The latest “Carte Blanche” concert was sold—auspiciously—as {…}
On Jan. 27, 2023, the Beacon Theater played host to a historic performance of “Maria Callas: Letters and Memoirs.” You could feel the buzz of the energy outside the theater where scores of people lined up on either side of the Beacon to come to the event which starred famed Italian actress Monica Bellucci. There were even people outside peddling {…}
A concert featuring young artists who have just completed a week of masterclasses is always a treat. The energy and enthusiasm of these vocalists as they sing their hearts out in front of a captive audience is inspiring. At the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on January 19, 2023, the Vincerò Academy’s young artists took the stage to perform {…}
(Photo: DNOA, Amare, Renout Bos) The Hague’s state-of-the-art Amare Arts complex recently hosted the Dutch National Opera Academy’s imaginative triple bill performed by its final-year students of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in partnership with the Royal Conservatoire The Hague. The main opera, Hadyn’s “L’Isola Disabitata,” was preceded by two short works: Krenek’s chamber opera “What Price Confidence?“ and “Arianna a Naxos,” {…}
On the 21st of January 2023, the Basel Opera premiered a new production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” directed by the French stage director Vincent Huguet. The result was an abstract, new production with a strong cast and a great conductor, a successful result all around that was recognized by the audience. A Promising Star Vincent Huguet is one of the most {…}
(Photo: INO, Kip Carroll) “Least Like The Other” continues the Royal Opera House’s partnership with Irish National Opera in Covent Garden’s Linbury Theatre, following last year’s “Bajazet.” This new work is centuries away from Vivaldi’s pasticcio and a world apart stylistically, but what binds them both is the unerring pursuit of bracing theatrical intensity. “Least Like The Other, Searching for {…}
(Photo credit: Prudence Upton) The stories on which Puccini based his much-loved opera “La Bohème” (Henri Murger’s “Tales from Bohemian Life”) were set in Paris in the 1830s. Puccini and his librettists distilled from Murger’s diverse and diffuse vignettes of life amid the crowded echelons of poorer Parisian society a throughline of love and dying among four young struggling artist-friends {…}