On March 31, 2019, the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions were brought to a thrilling conclusion with their grand finals concert. Hosted by countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, nine young finalists took to the Metropolitan’s stage for the first time to share their artistic gifts with the audience. Opening the afternoon’s concert was soprano Meghan Kasanders, singing “Dich, teure Halle’ from {…}
Mozart’s “La Clemenza di Tito” has only had 45 performances to date at the Metropolitan Opera. Compared to other major works by the iconic composer, that number is rather low. The opera actually had its Met premiere on Oct. 18, 1984. It’s history with the company has been marked by a wide range of major stars in the three main {…}
The Handel and Haydn Society will conclude its 2018-19 season with a performance of Mozart’s final masterpiece, “Requiem.” The program is also set to include Mozart’s intensely emotional “Masonic Funeral Music,” Allegri’s “Miserere mei, Deus,” which “captures the profound sadness, weight and power of the Passion story,” and Bach’s motet “Singet dem Herrn.” Featured vocalists will include soprano Joelle Harvey, {…}
Mozart’s operas are among the most complex, but few have quite the reputation as “Così Fan Tutte,” which is often placed under a very critical lens for its rather questionable treatment of women (which is underlined by its very title). But Skylark Opera Theatre Artistic Director Robert Neu doesn’t feel that the opera warrants such a reputation. In fact, he’s {…}
“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 will take a look {…}
Even before the curtain rose on this Los Angeles Opera production of Mozart’s “La Clemenza di Tito” which I saw on March 7th, 2019, I was excited by what I had read in the program booklet. LA Opera Music Director James Conlon’s article, “Clemency, Forgiveness and Love” with its emphasis on Titus’s closing message that “I know everything, absolve everyone {…}
Kiri Te Kanawa is arguably the most renowned artist to come out of New Zealand in the opera world. Born on March 6, 1944, the soprano was born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron but was adopted as an infant by Thomas Te Kanawa and his wife Nell. In her teens and early 20s, she worked as a pop star and entertainer {…}
When I interviewed Josh Shaw, Founding Artistic Director of Pacific Opera Project, back in December, I observed that Los Angeles’s Pacific Opera Theater or POP for short, is kind of “guerilla theater.” By that I didn’t mean that POP is experimental in its choice of repertoire but that it takes opera anywhere and – theoretically – everywhere by any means. {…}
Orchestra of St. Luke’s second performance of the 2018-19 Carnegie Hall Series was led by Principal Conductor Bernard Labadie which featured Jonathan Biss as a guest artist performing Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 19” and soprano Ying Fang also as a guest artist, performing Mozart’s aria “Non temer, amato bene, K.490” from “Idomeneo.” The evening began {…}
For the third year in a row, the gardens of the Palazzo Corsini in Florence, Italy, will be home to a late summer celebration like no other – The New Generation Festival. Its co-founders Maximilian Fane, Roger Granville, and Frankie Parham, describes the festival’s purpose as “to kindle the infinite potential of the human spirit, championing emerging talent across artistic {…}
Like a prank fallen flat, Jan Philipp Gloger’s 2016 production of “Così fan tutte” is loaded with unfunny clichés the audience always sees coming. Boasting cardboard imitations of forests, a doctor’s costume making its Despina look like Jesus Christ, huge placards with classic fonts spelling out the Italian words “fedeltà,” “amore” and others, some parts are embarrassing to watch. With {…}
