(Photo: Amati Bacciardi / ROF 2025) Soirées musicales After the triumph of his last opera, “Guillaume Tell,” Gioachino Rossini decided to abandon theatrical composition and retire to his home in Paris to recover from nervous exhaustion. Even so, he never stopped writing music: he composed for himself, for Olympe Pélissier–whom he married in 1846 after the death of Isabella Colbran–and {…}
The Rossini Opera Festival has announced its 2025 season. The 46th edition of the event will take place from August 10 to 22, 2025. Operas The festival will open with a new production of “Zelmira,” conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti. The production will be directed by Spanish director Calixto Bieito, making his debut in Pesaro. Pretty Yende stars in the title {…}
(Photo: Patricio Cassinoni) At his best, Donizetti is a master of the comic opera, with works such as “Don Pasquale” and “L’Elisir d’Amore” still playing to packed houses almost 200 years after their premieres. Others, however, are less well-known; his 1831 one-act farce, “Le Convenienze ed Inconvenienze Teatrali,” being a case in point. Few people will have heard of it, {…}
(Photo: Amati Bacciardi) As the orchestra begins the overture of Rossini’s 1817 opera “Adelaide di Borgogna,” the curtain rises to reveal a busy stage with the stagehands running about, moving scenery and props. The singers are scattered about the stage. Some are preparing themselves for a rehearsal, while others are getting a drink from the vending machine or chatting among {…}
(Photo: Francesco Dalla Pozza) Vicenza in Lirica opened last season’s program with a successful performance of Vivaldi’s oratorio “Juditha Triumphans,” a story from the book of Judith contained in the Apocrypha. The city of Bethulia is surrounded by its Assyrian enemies, and its leaders are too frightened to react. Judith, therefore, takes matters into her own hands. She sneaks into {…}
Italy’s Teatro Municipale di Piacenza has announced the fall 2021 season. Here is a look at the operatic and vocal concerts. Opera The season opens with Bellini’s “Norma” starring Angela Meade, Stefano La Colla, Michele Pertusi, and Paola Gardina. Performance Dates: Oct. 20-24, 2021 Donizetti’s “Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali” will star Giuliana Gianfaldoni, Nicolò Donini, Marco Filippo Romano, Paola Leoci, Silvia Beltrami, Matteo Desole, Andrea Vincenzo Bonsignore, Stefano {…}
(Credit: Monika Rittershaus) OperaVision has announced streams for the first month of 2021. The first opera to be streamed starting on Jan. 3, 2021 will be Barrie Kosky’s production of Handel’s operatic masterpiece “Semele” from the Komische Oper Berlin. The opera features Eric Jurenas as Athamas, Prince of Bœotia; Allan Clayton in the role of Jupiter, King of the Gods; {…}
The mass movement of people that is taking place, from poor countries to the wealthier countries of the West, is causing social upheaval and human suffering on scale which has not been seen since the end of the Second World War. Millions of lives have been affected by this mass migratory flow, some positively, some negatively. Earlier this year, in {…}
