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DVD and CD Releases

CD Review: Renée Fleming’s ‘Broadway’

https://operawire.com/cd-review-renee-flemings-broadway/

I’ve been listening to Renée Fleming and thinking about the recently deceased Montserrat Caballé.  To my ears, Fleming is the only active soprano whose voice can match the ravishing beauty of the Spanish diva’s. Neither singer is beyond criticism, but if voices were tactile, these are the kinds that would be behind thick glass in museums. Fleming, though, is unique {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

San Francisco Opera 2018-19 Review: Plácido Domingo in Concert

https://operawire.com/san-francisco-opera-2018-19-review-placido-domingo-in-concert/

The last time I saw Plácido Domingo up close was the first time: “Andrea Chénier,” San Francisco, 1975.  He was a dashing superstar and a tenor. On Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018, he was General Director of the Los Angeles Opera, overseer of Operalia, The World Opera Competition, which he founded in 1993, conductor, divo, and baritone. What also changed was {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Lyric Opera of Kansas City 2018-19 Review: West Side Story

https://operawire.com/lyric-opera-of-kansas-city-2018-19-review-west-side-story/

Leonard Bernstein feared he would only be remembered for “West Side Story.”  As theaters around the world celebrate the centenary of his birth, a range of his works have come back to the spotlight, but opera theaters have confirmed Bernstein’s fears.  His only “true” operatic masterpiece, “A Quiet Place,” has received relatively scant attention. This is a shame, in part {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Royal Opera House 2017-18 Review: Don Giovanni

https://operawire.com/royal-opera-house-2017-2018-review-don-giovanni-while-ildebrando-darcangelo-shines-the-audience-doesnt-make-don-giovannis-conquest-list/

So much is Don Juan’s tale the stuff of legend that it lends itself as easily to various interpretations as Greek myths. For every legendary story that encounters many incarnations – be it Tristan and Isolde’s love, Medea’s filicide or Romeo and Juliet – there comes a time when it is not only acceptable, but fascinating to encounter the familiar {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Deutsche Oper Berlin 2017-18 Review – La Traviata: Kristina Mkhitaryan’s Outstanding Violetta Gains the Russian Soprano “Prima Donna Assoluta” Status

https://operawire.com/deutsche-oper-berlin-2017-18-review-la-traviata-kristina-mkhitaryans-outstanding-violetta-gains-the-russian-soprano-prima-donna-assoluta-status/

The Deutsche Oper Berlin has long been a mecca for iconoclast regie theater directors ranging from Hans Neuenfels and Claus Guth to Ole Anders Tandberg, whose recent staging of “Carmen” had more viscera on the stage than verismo. Curiously, the extant production of “La Traviata” by the former Deutsche Oper Intendant Götz Friedrich, dating back to 1999, is surprisingly uncontroversial. In his {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Vienna State Opera 2017-18 Review – Capriccio: A Win for the Words When Music Misses The Mark

https://operawire.com/vienna-state-opera-2017-18-review-capriccio-a-win-for-the-words-when-music-misses-the-mark/

Of Richard Strauss’ 15 completed operas, his last opus “Capriccio” is arguably the most abstruse. For a start, it isn’t even called an opera but a “Conversation Piece for Music.” Many Strauss scholars are baffled by this highly cerebral, seemingly escapist bagatelle composed in the midst of the mayhem of World War II. It was as if Strauss and librettist {…}

News

Mendocino Music Festival To Perform ‘Il Matrimonio Segreto’

https://operawire.com/mendocino-music-festival-to-perform-il-matrimonio-segreto/

The Mendocino Music Festival has announced its 32nd annual event featuring an assortment of music from Classical, Jazz to Opera, Bluegrass and Irish Step dance. For this season announcement we will concentrate on the vocal highlights the festival will offer. 2018 Mendocino Music Festival Schedule “Il Matrimonio Segreto” will be presented with Angela Cadolago, Tonia D’Amelia, Sylvie Jensen, Michael Desnoyers, Bojan Knezevic, and {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Philadelphia Orchestra 2017-18 Review – Tosca: Yannick Nézet-Séguin Ends Season With Rousing Symphonic Take on Puccini Classic

https://operawire.com/philadelphia-orchestra-2017-18-review-tosca-yannick-nezet-seguin-end-season-with-symphonic-take-on-puccini-classic/

“The crown! The crest! It’s the Attavanti’s!” Exclaimed the tempestuous diva Floria Tosca, as she paced about in a frenzied fit of jealousy after being led to believe by the scheming and lascivious Barron Scarpia that her lover, the painter and maverick Mario Cavaradossi, had been dallying with a Marchesa in the chapel. In fact, no such dalliance occurred, as {…}