CENTRAL CITY — No matter how much verismo you heap onto Madama
Butterfly, the opera — the favorite of American companies —
remains a threadbare — if tragic — tale of a love that failed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/arts/music/23annie.html?_r=1&ref=music
Don Giovanni isn't new and most of the cast at Glyndebourne (led by Gerald Finley) are familiar. http://www.sfexaminer.com/lifestyle/Mansouri-looms-larger-than-life-in-autobiography-98207924.htmlThe current theme is operas based on French literature. The first offering is Oberst Chabert by Hermann Wolfgang von Waltershausen to a libretto adapted by the composer from La Comtesse à deux maris by Honoré de Balzac....
Ring fever rages on. San Francisco has just unveiled its Walküre the completed cycle to take place next June. Gratefully the price of the SFO effort has not become a topic of conversation, as has the cost of the just completed L.A. Ring This Glyndebourne production is, as far as I know, the first recording of any semi-opera that manages to impart a strong sense of what this peculiar, and peculiarly British, genre is like. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/bdf13708-95a9-11df-b5ad-00144feab49a.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/arts/music/08phil.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/arts/music/07siepi.html?src=me
David McVicar’s production of Salome received its first revival at Covent Garden, though McVicar left its revival in the capable hands of Justin Way. Poulenc’ only full-length opera is widely admired and not infrequently performed, but its claustral nature makes it tricky to stage.
The Aix Festival was known not so very long ago for pretentious productions. Perhaps now it will become known for good productions.http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/02/entertainment/la-et-ring-ends-20100702
Bellini’ Norma was composed in 1831 and, in the era of such
singing actresses as Giuditta Pasta, Maria Malibran, Giuseppina Strepponi,
Giulia Grisi and Thérèse Tietjens (famous Normas all), soon came to be known as
the bel canto vehicle par excellence, the summit of vocal achievement. 
Despite its length and pretentions to being serious opera, Jacques Offenbach’ The Tales of Hoffmann, dating from the 1880s, remains a leaky vessel adrift on a sea of self-fulfilling prophesies of doom.
The Parisian press was plastered with photos of Daniele de Niese. The
glamorous 31-year old Sri Lankan-Australian mega-star is everywhere these days:
a new TV series (“Diva Diaries”), a Decca greatest hits CD
(“Diva”), and, with her marriage to Guy Christie of the
Glyndebourne ruling clan, a secure position as the first lady of English opera.The BBC Proms brought the Welsh National Opera’ hit Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg to the Royal Albert Hall and to the world, via international broadcast.http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/3328e2b0-884d-11df-aade-00144feabdc0.html
This was my first Verdi performance in the theatre for thirteen years or so I must have been the least jaded of critics for the opening night of the revival of Sir Richard Eyre’ La Traviata. 
There was a time when the likes of Luc Bondy and Francesca Zambello staged operas for the Chorégies d’Orange in its famed Théâtre Antique. The operas of British composer Jonathan Dove enjoy a fairly high level of both critical and popular support in the U.K., where his best known work, Flight, premiered at the prestigious Glyndebourne Festival. http://www.musicalamerica.com/news/newsstory.cfm?hl=1&n=||&t=&a=&p=&k=vivaldi&archived=0&storyID=23128&categoryID=2http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/087b4056-906a-11df-ad26-00144feab49a.htmlProms audiences have a tendency to be overly enthusiastic in showing their
appreciation, with an arsenal of rituals and traditions at the ready to show
their praise and adulation for their idols. 
At the beginning of every summer, an oasis of music and theater appears like
magic in the suburbs of St. Louis. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jul/15/conductor-charles-mackerras-dies/printhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/24/AR2010062406932.html
Something rather extraordinary happened to opera seria in 1738. The
acknowledged master of that time, London’ George Frideric Handel,
presented two new operas at the King’ Theatre: Faramondo and
Serse. 
Plácido Domingo isn’t a tenor, a baritone or even a singer. He’s a phenomenon. Dozens stood by the stage door at the Royal Opera House to greet him with bouquets. http://www.santafenewmexican.com/LocalNews/Paul-Groves-shines-in-dizzying-take-on--Tales-http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/arts/music/22porta.htmlOriginally published in German as Herrin des Hügels, das Leben der Cosima Wagner (Siedler, 2007), this new book by Oliver Hilmes is an engaging portrait of one of the most important women in music during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/993bf4b0-8b78-11df-ab4d-00144feab49a.htmlIn 1881 Wagner and his wife were discussing the myth of Eros and Anteros,
and Wagner remarked, “Anteros is Parsifal.” Wagner considered
Parsifal a figure opposed to sexual love, Eros’ opposite. 
Can you guess what this is?
Dresses! Sixty of them, to be precise. All lined up for fittings and finishing.
These pretty dresses were made by the Utah Opera Costume Shop, for the Utah Symphony Chorus.
And now there's just waiting for members of the chorus to come in for final fittings. Look ...
Something beautiful to start your week off right!
Musetta's Dresses
These are two of Musetta's dresses from Utah Opera's upcoming production of La Bohème, which is set in 1940's Paris.