(Photo: Alexandra Polina) Freiburg Theater’s current production of John Adams’ “Doctor Atomic” is a must-see event! Even opera-goers who find contemporary works difficult or off-putting would struggle to deny the brilliance of this presentation. It succeeds on every level: musically, dramatically, visually and intellectually. And in doing so, confirmed the opera’s reputation as an early 21st century masterpiece. The opera {…}
One of the legacies of Pierre Audi’s tenure as director of the Aix-en-Provence Festival is the festival’s commitment to a continuous challenging of what opera can mean. His provocations extended from calling filmic versions of Stravinsky’s ballets operas, to a rendition of Mahler’s Symphony No.2 directed by Romeo Castellucci, or even, last season, a musical of William Kentridge’s “The Great {…}
(Photo: Vincent Pontent) Few operas have a more melancholic plot than this one: two brothers, twins with different fathers– one must die so the other can live. The twist? The brother destined to die happens to be immortal. In the end, they are forever united in the sky. Rameau’s “Castor et Pollux” is one of history’s great musical triumphs, and {…}
Composer John Adams’ and librettist Peter Sellars’ opera, “El Niño,” debuted at Metropolitan Opera earlier this year, making this their fourth work to be produced at the Met, including “Doctor Atomic” (2008), “Nixon in China” (2011), and “The Death of Klinghoffer” (2014). OperaWire reviewed the production in addition to attending and documenting Guggenheim Museum’s “Works & Process” presentation by the {…}
On July 11, a renowned composer John Adams posted on X (ex-Twitter): This @deutsche_oper production: painful to even think about. “Nixon in China” is so often mistreated or misunderstood. In 35 years I’ve only seen 2 productions that got it right. This one? Clearly a disgrace. But we composers can only babysit our creations for so long. What do we {…}
(Photo: Evan Zimmerman / Met Opera) Metropolitan Opera debuted John Adams’s “El Niño,” with libretto based on original sources by Peter Sellars and John Adams, to a sold out house of past, present, and future opera goers on Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024. “El Niño” is unlike anything John Adams has done before and the historical timing of this debut is {…}
(Credit: Ruth Walz) IN Series has announced that it will honor director Peter Sellars during its 2024 Gala. The famed opera director will receive the first-ever June Jordan Award on May 2. The Award recognizes “living creative voices whose body of work reflects the poetic principles exuding the many writings, workings, wonderings of luminary poet and activist June Jordan.” Sellars {…}
(Photo: Franck Ferville) Unfortunately, I could not attend the opening night of Paris Opera’s premiere of “Beatrice di Tenda.” I even tried to emulate the experience of an opening night: I avoided, as much as I could, reading the reviews. But, before I could stop them, a few friends had stressed how negative most reviews were. After watching the opera, {…}
Photo credit: © SF/Marco Borrell It might be unfair to name Purcell as the composer of “The Indian Queen.” The opera, left unfinished, has been restored from the composer’s fragments mostly through the efforts of Teodor Currentzis and Peter Sellars. They managed to give some theatrical shape to the arias and added music from elsewhere in Purcell’s corpus that made {…}
Every Friday, Polina Lyapustina delivers a short essay on some of the most sensitive topics in the industry with the intent of establishing a dialogue about the opera world and its future. “Real music is right in the heart of what we struggle. Our task is not to be a leisure activity, but to go the places where no political {…}
October 25 marks World Opera Day 2020, and in celebrating the impact the art-form has had worldwide, Opera Europa has partnered with several international organizations to bring opera to audiences across the globe. The theme for their 2020 edition pays tribute to Beethoven on the 250th year since his birth. To that end, online platform OperaVision will stream three different {…}
