Q & A: Bass-Baritone Alex Esposito On Singing Verdi, Interpretative Honesty, & The ‘Monster’ Inside

(Photo: Victor Santiago) Italian Bass-Baritone Alex Esposito has an established and successful career, particularly in roles from Mozart and Rossini operas, although he is certainly not to restricted to this repertoire. He has appeared in many of Europe’s premier theatres, including La Scala, Covent Garden, Berlin’s Staatsoper, Vienna’s Staatsoper and many more, and worked alongside many of the world’s leading {…}

Mar 18, 2019

5 Exciting Productions From Bayerische Staatsoper 2019-20 Season

The Bayerische Staatsoper revealed its 2019-20 season, which unsurprising features dozens of operas. Almost every single one is impeccably cast, but few standout as the must-see showcases of the season. 7 Deaths of Maria Callas Maria Callas is more than an operatic icon at this point – she’s a legend and this work seems intent on exploring that very nature {…}

Mar 11, 2019

Opera Profile: ‘Don Carlo,’ A Verdi Masterpiece With Numerous Versions

For many operagoers, “Don Carlo” is Verdi’s most Shakepearean work, pitting a wide-range of powerful characters against one another in an equally complex backdrop of European affairs. The opera had its world premiere on March 11, 1867 in Paris. However, it was an extremely long opera and was never performed in its entirety during that initial run. Verdi would then {…}

Jan 19, 2019

Opera Quiz: This Opera Aria Reflects Your Mood

Feeling gloomy today? Or perhaps on the ultimate high? It’s all very operatic. The world of this famed art form is full of intense emotions with major characters taking painstaking time to delineate what they are feeling and how intensely. These powerful solo are amazing ways to connect with each of us on a truly immersive and visceral level, allowing {…}

Dec 21, 2018

Best of 2018: OperaWire Staff Picks Most Memorable Opera Performances Of the Year

Yes, it’s that time of the year where we wax poetic about transformative experiences we have had over the course of the last 300 or so days. Sometimes we curate these experiences as rankings to fuel some individual emotions, and at other moments we simply do what we are doing with this piece – let a few different people chip {…}

Oct 13, 2018

Los Angeles Opera 2018-19 Review: Don Carlo

I arrived at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Thursday night, Oct. 11, 2018, just in time to catch some of conductor James Conlon’s pre-performance talk to several hundred audience-members attending that evening’s Los Angeles Opera production of Verdi’s “Don Carlo.” Yes, Conlon regularly delivers these incredibly insightful introductions to the evening’s opera even as he’s about to go out and {…}

Oct 9, 2018

Composer Profile: Giuseppe Verdi, Italy’s Greatest Composer

Giuseppe Verdi is Italy’s composer. Few composers have ever attained the legendary status of the man from Busetto, who created a plethora of operas throughout his career that remain fixtures of the standard repertoire today. Born on Oct. 9 (or was it 10?), 1813, Verdi would become the textbook example of how to achieve everlasting greatness when you put in {…}

Sep 22, 2018

Q & A: Tenor Ramón Vargas On ‘Don Carlo,’ Working With Plácido Domingo & Why Verdi Was a Genius

Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas is no stranger to Verdi’s “Don Carlo.” The Mexican tenor, who takes on the role at the Los Angeles Opera for the first time this season on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2018, has performed the role all around the world. He has appeared as the Spanish prince in Vienna, in Munich, and in Zurich, among other cities. {…}

Aug 18, 2018

Q & A: Leonardo Capalbo Talks ‘Rigoletto,’ ‘La Rondine & His Role Debut As ‘Don Carlo’

Over the past years Italian-American tenor Leonardo Capalbo has garnered international acclaim for performing in some of the leading theaters such as The Royal Opera Covent Garden, Teatro Real Madrid, La Monnaie, Berlin State Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, L’Opéra de Lyon, Teatro Regio di Torino, the Canadian Opera Company, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, {…}

May 16, 2018

Artist Profile: King Phillip Himself, Ferruccio Furlanetto

Ferruccio Furlanetto is one of opera’s great Verdi basses, though his repertoire has vastly evolved throughout his successful career. Born on May 16, 1949, Furlanetto made his professional debut at age 25 in Lonigo. Five years later he was at La Scala in Verdi’s “Macbeth.” His Met debut came in 1981, where he has been a fixture throughout his career. {…}

Apr 11, 2018

Opéra de Lyon 2017-18 Review – Don Carlos: Even With An Auto-Da-Fé, Christophe Honoré’s Production Never Catches Fire

“Don Carlos” or “Don Carlo?” In French or Italian? Four acts or five? Three hours or four? Paris, Naples, Milan or Modena version? Pas de deux or pas de nul? Verdi’s longest opera is so full of revisions, rewrites, authorized or impious corrections, it is impossible to nominate a definitive score. The master music dramatist tinkered with this opera for 20 {…}

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