This is a review for the Oct. 20 performance. I would like to begin this review at the end, since the final impressions, sensations and overall reaction of the audience is the barometer which measures the overall impact of the performance. In the case of this “Norma,” the final curtain was greeted with a massive explosion of applause in the {…}
Another operatic weekend. Another set of opening performances around North America. The big one on the radar is “Samson et Dalila” at the Dallas Opera, which is set to star Olga Borodina. The opera opens on Friday with another performance set for Sunday. Houston Grand Opera opens its production of “La Traviata” on Saturday. Additionally, the Florentine Opera opens its {…}
Occasionally music history has strange coincidences where a famous composer is unable to finish his final work. This is particularly strange when the final work has something to do with death. Consider Mozart who died writing a requiem. Likewise, Giacomo Puccini succumbed to lung cancer before completing “Turandot.” The last piece he wrote was the funeral march for the slave {…}
Over the last two years the Metropolitan Opera Guild has attempted something that few, if any, other companies have given a look at – podcasts. The increasingly popular form of media has seen tremendous growth over the last few years, becoming the go-to source for information and entertainment for busy morning commuters. Unlike videos or other forms of media, podcasts {…}
The Metropolitan Opera Guild will hold a luncheon to honor superstar soprano Renée Fleming on Dec. 7, 2017. The event will feature a massive list of superstars in attendance, including Martina Arroyo, Jamie Barton, Harry Bicket, Harolyn Blackwell, Stephanie Blythe, Wolfgang Brendel, Joseph Calleja, Kristin Chenoweth, Glenn Close, Philip Cokorinos, James Conlon, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Dwayne Croft, Loretta Di Franco, Rosalind Elias, {…}
It was a tumultuous week on social media with Fake News influencing the interaction between opera stars and their fans. The Metropolitan Opera made sure to celebrate the birthday of iconic composer Giuseppe Verdi. 🎈🎉🎂Happy birthday, Giuseppe Verdi! The Italian composer, born on this day in 1813, is one of the most prolific and influential composers in the operatic canon. What’s {…}
Leona Mitchell had a tremendous opera career. For years, the soprano, born on Oct. 13, 1949, was a leading singer at the Metropolitan Opera, dominating in such operas as “La Bohème,” “Carmen,” “Don Carlo,” “Die Zauberflöte,” and “La Forza del Destino,” among others. Her first-ever “Madama Butterfly” at the Met was proclaimed “a wedding of her beautiful, lyric voice to {…}
As we get deeper and deeper into the fall season, opera lovers are finding themselves with more and more options around the United States. Here is a look at the offerings for this second weekend of the month. First off, let’s kick off with the major openings. On Saturday, Los Angeles Opera opens its production of “Nabucco (the company also {…}
One had to wonder, in the near full-house at a Columbus Day performance of the Metropolitan Opera’s venerable “La Bohème,” how many in the audience didn’t get to Paris this summer. Or perhaps ever? And how perfect to see this “La Bohème” on an unseasonably warm, humid night — that indeed cried out for a café table outside, to watch {…}
Anna Netrebko is set to star in three new co-productions at the Metroplitan Opera and the Bolshoi. In their first co-production collaboration ever, the Bolshoi and the Met have announced plans to create new productions of “Aida,” “Salome” and “Lohengrin,” with performances to set to take place in New York and Moscow between 2019 and 2022. The two companies will {…}
Puccini’s “Turandot” is an operatic fixture and one would expect that the work, so popular at the Metropolitan Opera thanks to Franco Zeffirelli’s famed production, would have been around the house for as long as one can remember. And yet the opera experienced a long hiatus of 30 years before regaining its foothold at the Met. Along the way, some {…}