Opera Critic & Historian Fred Plotkin to Host Virtual Talk: ‘A Gay Romp Through Four Centuries of Opera’

(Photo credit: Frances Marshall) What’s opera about? Passion? Drama? Politics? Sex? All the above, of course, and it’s been that way since 1597, even in the face of censorship. Yet, the prohibitions around taboo topics such as politics and sex caused composers and librettists to get creative when including such material in their operas. Opera critic, author, and historian par {…}

‘Death in Venice’ (in San Francisco) – One of OperaWire’s Writers Remembers Britten Opera Production From a Unique Perspective

San Francisco’s spring opera production of “Death in Venice” in 1975 was the real deal—the ingenious novella of German writer, Thomas Mann, turned into a haunting and exquisite opera by the English composer Benjamin Britten, libretto by Mfanwy Piper. The production was created by the remarkable Gerald Freedman, a well-known  American theater and opera director, assistant not only to New {…}