Mozart was a huge hit throughout his short career and his great success has continued in 2016 in the form of 1.25 million international CD sales of Deutsche Grammophon’s “Mozart 225: The Complete Edition” in a whopping five weeks since its release. The boxset, made up of 200-CD’s and encompassing every single work ever created by the composer, was released {…}
With the holiday season upon us, it is no surprise that the major music publishers have saved some of their most hotly anticipated titles for the last weeks of the year. This week features releases from such superstars as Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, and the late Joan Sutherland. Here is a look at the releases you can expect between December {…}
On Wednesday, Dec. 7, the legendary Teatro all Scala opens its 2016-17 season with Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.” The opera stars rising star Maria Jose Siri, Bryan Hymel and Carlos Alvarez and is led by music director Riccardo Chailly. The opening continues La Scala’s tradition of inaugurating the season on Dec. 7 and continues Chailly’s Puccini cycle, which he began back {…}
When Puccini set out to write his “Manon Lescaut,” the composer drew attention to his “feeling it like an Italian, with a desperate passion.” Though the comment came in the context of his comparing it with Massenet’s own interpretation of the work, that idea of desperation has certainly played into numerous readings of the work. A look at the catalogue {…}
Over the last few years, we have become increasingly impassioned by this wondrous art form called opera. Despite being seen by many as a dying art form, we firmly believe that opera is in fact, not necessarily taking a U-Turn back to a golden age, but making a sharp left turn in a new direction. A direction that like many {…}
