Rossini never composed a more famous opera than “Il Barbiere di Siviglia.” In fact, the work, which world premiered on Feb. 20, 1816 at the Teatro Argentina in Rome, is arguably the world’s most famous opera comedy, full stop. It’s popularity is proven simply by the fact that the work has never left the repertory since its debut over 200 {…}
The Vienna State Opera will be live streaming its presentation of Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. The performance features Isabel Leonard in the title role. But the superstar will also be joined by the likes of Luca Pisaroni, Alessio Ardiuni, Maxim Mironov, and Paolo Rumetz. Jean-Christophe Spinosi will conduct with Sven-Eric Bechtolf as director. The stream kicks {…}
Lawrence Brownlee is one of the great bel canto tenors of this generation, singing the works of Donizetti, Rossini, and Bellini, among others, to tremendous critical success around the globe. He is currently in the midst of a run in one of his signature roles as Arturo in Bellini’s “I Puritani” at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and prepping for {…}
Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” has always been the gold standard for Italian opera buffa as it is based on the Figaro plays of 18th-century French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais. It seems that the buffa-style laughs and gags endemic to this masterpiece were not enough for Spanish director Joan Font, whose version is currently running at Houston Grand Opera. What {…}
It’s week of rarities with two rarely performed works getting new recordings. Here is a look! Margherita d’Anjou Meyerbeer’s little-known work gets a DVD by Dynamic from last year’s Festival della Valle d’Itria. The production was conducted by Fabio Luisi stars Giulia de Blasis and Arcangelo Carbotti. When OperaWire reviewed the show last year it said: “Certainly, it was a well-performed {…}
Rossini’s comedic operas are undeniably the ones for which he is best recognized, but there are a number of Opera Seria that tend to get overlooked when they shouldn’t. One of those is “Semiramide,” an opera long considered one of the composer’s finest and growing in reputation in recent years. In a recent interview with OperaWire, conductor José Miguel Pérez-Sierra {…}
Aside from “Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” there is perhaps no more popular opera by Rossini than his interpretation of the immortal Cinderella tale. “Cenerentola” premiered on Jan. 25, 1817, and while it became popular in its early life, it fell out of favor until a Rossini renaissance took place in the second half of the 20th century. Short Plot Summary {…}
We all know about Verdi, Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini, Puccini, Giordano, and the great Italian composers of the 19th century. We often attribute opera’s greatest gems to them, remembering every gorgeous melody and the potent emotions that they create for us. But they don’t deserve all the credit. In fact, without the text, most of these composers don’t write their music. {…}
Juan Diego Flórez is one of the greatest tenors in the world. Of that there can be no doubt. Born on Jan. 13, the tenor has gone on to establish himself at every major opera house in the world in an ever-evolving repertoire that ranges from Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini all the way to the great French composers such as {…}
June Anderson, born on December 30, 1952, authored one of the unique opera careers of the 20th century. The lyric soprano seemed destined for the path often taken, but wound up moving in diverse directions with regards to repertoire. This very aspect was revealed in her becoming the first non-Italian to ever win the prestigious Bellini d’Oro Prize. She sang {…}
When he was to name what would be his great dramatic masterpiece “Otello,” Verdi struggled with the name. He was afraid not of his work being compared to Shakespeare’s immortal play but of having to suffer the consequences of doing battle with Rossini’s original opera on the subject. The master of Pesaro, an idol for the young Verdi, had created {…}
