The Eurasia Festival’s Opera Studio is set to shift their focus on scenes and ensembles from Mozart and Da Ponte’s “Don Giovanni” throughout February and March. The Eurasia Festival, which is led by Aza Sydykov and Marc Verzatt at the Eurasia Cultural Center in Manhattan, will take place on Feb. 29, March 7, 14, and 21, culminating in a performance {…}
“Opera Meets Film” is a feature dedicated to exploring the way that opera has been employed in cinema. We will select a section or a film in its entirety, highlighting the impact that utilizing the operatic form or sections from an opera can alter our perception of a film that we are viewing. This week’s installment features Tom Hooper’s Academy {…}
Another Mozart quiz? To this point, we have created a plethora of Mozart quizzes based around his career as an opera composer, his characters, and even his opera’s performance histories. Here is another quiz, made to celebrate his birthday on Jan. 27 (or 26 depending on who you ask) to push your knowledge of the famed composer’s operas even further. {…}
(Photo Credit: © Semperoper Dresden/Matthias Creutziger) Soprano Christiane Hossfeld will not be appearing in the role of Papagena in the upcoming presentation of Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” scheduled for January 24, 2020, according to the official statement on the company’s website. As a result, soprano Jeannette Oswald will perform in her stead. Oswald will join a cast that includes Tilmann Rönnebeck {…}
“Opera Meets Film” is a feature dedicated to exploring the way that opera has been employed in cinema. We will select a section or a film in its entirety, highlighting the impact that utilizing the operatic form or sections from an opera can alter our perception of a film that we are viewing. This week’s installment “The Shawshank Redemption.” You {…}
Young Thomas Conlin was very exciting about his first contact with the classical music. His parents bought a piano for him, and he wasn’t able to resist the temptation. “When I was five-years-old my father won a piano in a contest,” Conlin reminisced in a recent interview with OperaWire. “From the day the piano was delivered I couldn’t keep my {…}
Mozart Week 2020 will be taking place in Salzburg, from January 23 to February 2, 2020. The festival will showcase several important works by the famed composer with “Der Messias” coming into spotlight. Robert Wilson will stage the “Messiah,” one of the four Händel oratorios which Mozart subtly reworked. The great composer translated the text into German, re-ordered the work, {…}
(This review will focus on the Jan. 4 performance, though with mentions of the Jan. 3 performance as well.) There is a moment near the end of Davide Livermore’s “Die Zauberflöte” at Muscat’s Royal Opera House of Musical Arts in which Tamino and Pamino must face the trials by fire and water with the magic flute in tow. But Livermore {…}
On December 21, 2019, the Eurasia Festival presented the second concert of its Park Avenue Concert Series. Held at the organization’s new location of the Eurasia Cultural Center, this series gives performance opportunities to students of the “Azatt Sessions,” a series of classes taught by director Mark Verzatt and Eurasia Festival President and pianist, Aza Sydykov. A Tenor Opens Opening {…}
The Handel + Haydn Society is set to showcase “Mozart + Haydn” on Jan. 24 and 26, 2020 at Symphony Hall Boston. The performance will showcase the Lord Nelson Mass under the musical direction of Harry Christopher. The mass has been called Haydn’s single most essential composition. “Lord Nelson Mass captures the swirling turmoil and drama of Napoleon’s wartime invasions that {…}
On Dec. 15, 2019, The Metropolitan Opera raised the curtain on this season’s run of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” Julie Taymor’s family-friendly production continues to be a visual and musical delight that, while abridged, makes for a strong concentration of the work. Under the baton of Lothar Koenigs, Sunday’s cast of artists was comprised of a fine mix of new {…}