The Pacific Opera Project opened its 2019 season on March 2 with an ingenious production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” set in classic video games from the 1980s. The fairy-tale story that premiered in Vienna in 1791 has lent itself over time to innumerable adaptations, and is often used as a way to attract children to the opera hall. With {…}
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. {…}
Opera Memphis has announced its 2019 Midtown Opera Festival. The event kicks off in April with “The Falling and the Rising,” an opera that follows the imagined journey of a soldier suspended inside a coma after a roadside attack. The work was composed by Zach Redler with a libretto by Jerre Dyne. Performance Dates: April 6, 12, 13, 2019 The {…}
After the holidays, it is unsurprising that few opera companies will be in action. Yet there are still a few that are willing to bet on audiences wanting opera right away after the break. Metropolitan Opera The company that never sleeps, literally never stopped performing throughout the holidays, continuing its offerings the night and day after Christmas and showcasing its {…}
On December 19, 2018, The Metropolitan Opera premiered this season’s run of Mozart’s musical drama “The Magic Flute.” This production by Julie Taymor is notable for its English translation, abridged running time, and opulent presentation; these features concentrated the drama and allegorical meaning which would unfold in the hands of the company’s cast of artists. Squaring the Circle Taymor’s production {…}
Coloratura Soprano Kathryn Lewek never set out to be opera’s reigning Queen of the Night, Mozart’s show-stealing villainess of “Die Zauberflöte” (“The Magic Flute”). But fate had other ideas. In this case, fate was personified by a casting director. Refusing the Call During a competition for the Opera Foundation in New York, the Deutsche Oper’s Casting Director, Christoph Seuferle asked {…}
It’s the holiday season and that means that the Metropolitan Opera is putting on Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” in its English iteration. This season’s revival will feature a number of veterans in this production, as well as some new faces. Erin Morley will headline as Pamina. She debuted at the Met in 2008 and has amassed 87 performances to date {…}
Opera Vision will start streaming Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” from the Garsington Opera starting on Sept. 14, 2018. The Mozart masterpiece will feature Louise Alder as Pamina with Benjamin Hulett as her lover Tamino. Other cast members include Jonathan McGovern, James Creswell, and Sen Guo. The work will be sung in its original German in a production by Netia Jones. {…}
Barrie Kosky’s production of “The Magic Flute” is set to be performed at the 2019 Perth festival. The production, which showcases “The Magic Flute” alongside a silent film, will highlight the festival. Director Barrie Kosky’s interpretation of the famous opera has become a popular production at Komische Oper Berlin, UK theatre group 1927 and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Kosky’s production will {…}
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 {…}
This review is for the performance on July 13, 2018. At the Prague Summer Nights Festival, a festival featuring young artists, the first few weeks saw a number of splendid concerts, workshops, and competitions all hosted in a city famous for its musical history. As the festival readied to draw to a close, it would do so by staging some {…}