For most opera connoisseurs west of Kaliningrad, the name Anton Rubinstein is unlikely to ring many glockenspiels. This acclaimed composer and pianist, considered the virtuosic equal of Liszt, actually wrote twice as many operas as Puccini but outside Russia, his music is virtually unknown. Productions in the west of his most successful opera “Demon” are as rare as a real Romanov. {…}
In most cities, different musical organizations persist in such aggressive rivalry it makes the Montagues and Capulets look like kissing cousins. Not so in Barcelona where the three major performing venues, namely the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Palau de a Música Catalana and the L’Auditori have come together under a coordinating entity called Barcelona Obertura to make music in the {…}
There is something of Halley’s comet about Umberto Giordano’s most famous opera “Andrea Chénier.” It reappears every so often (happily not so infrequently as every 75 years) excites and dazzles, leaves verismo fanatics in paroxysms of delight, then vanishes back into the operatic firmament. With the recent notable exception at La Scala, productions of “Andrea Chénier” have invariably been connected to {…}
Piotr Beczala takes on the role of Massenet’s “Werther” on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2017, kick starting the Gran Teatre del Liceu’s run of the famed opera. Beczala took on the challenging role in Salzburg in August 2015 before reprising it at the Opéra National de Paris exactly one year ago. His return to the role on Sunday will be the {…}