Gergiev conducts Wagner’s Parsifal
Updated: 2011-08-31 16:32:21
A handsome black steed bows its head, eyes open, peering into the darkness around it.
A handsome black steed bows its head, eyes open, peering into the darkness around it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/arts/music/last-savage-and-wozzeck-at-santa-fe-opera-review.html?ref=music
It seems very appropriate that a record company called Naïve should elect to release a solo recital for a soprano in her very early 20s.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/b0a27de6-c44c-11e0-ad9a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1V2l4nwtt
This year’s venture for the annual Boston Midsummer Opera is an elegant reading of Rossini’s fizzy masterpiece of 1813, l’Italiana in Algeri.
Great characters are at the center of all operatic masterpieces, yet opera almost never treads into “operatic biography” territory.
From the bombastic sweeps of Richard Strauss’ Don Juan, to the
blissful rhapsodies of Walton’s Violin Concerto, and through the rhythmic
surges of Prokofiev’s choral manifesto of socialist realism, conductor Andris
Nelsons fizzed — indeed, almost exploded with energy and zest — and
inspired clarity, control and freshness from the City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra, on this their only visit to the Proms this season.
Brahms’ Violin Concerto and Mahler’ Das klagende Lied
did not seem to be the most obvious bedfellows — there has been some
rather peculiar programming at this year’ Proms — and even after
further consideration, the only real connection I could muster was that they
were written at the same time: the concerto in 1878, the cantata between 1878
and 1880.
For its seventh program of the Summer 2011 season the Grant Park Music Festival presented concert ensembles performed by members of the Ryan Opera Center of Lyric Opera of Chicago.
There’s hell to pay for profligate publicity; Giuseppe Verdi and Francisco Maria Piave knew this to be true.
Rodelinda is about as serious an opera as any that Handel wrote: attempted regicide and infanticide, violent death, betrayal and a marriage sorely tried.
An appreciation of La traviata plus La clemenza di Tito and Le Nez/The Nose at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
For opera lovers who are serious enough to even think of a performing career, the path is an arduous one.
Today’ general public labors under the unfortunate misconception that in order to enjoy opera, one needs to be educated and at ease with mobility in social circles largely consisting of decrepit old rich people.
Not only did Verdi’s Requiem make its debut, rather remarkably, in the church of San Marco in Milan but the performance was as a liturgical one; Verdi’s intentions were quite firmly to provide a memorial mass for the Italian patriot, Manzoni.
In the modern operatic world, respect for the oeuvre of any given composer, as well as his stylistic development and placement in operatic history, is sacrosanct.
http://www.operatoday.com/documents/OperaOnTap.pdf
The back cover of soprano Nino Machiadze’s debut solo recital from Sony Classical quotes her as describing the disc’s selection of arias as “my world, my successes to date and my hopes for the future.”
This concert of three substantial choral and orchestral works by Benjamin Britten recreated the ‘0th birthday’Promenade concert which Britten himself conducted on 12 September 1963.
When discussing the evolution of opera as a genre, the towering figure of Richard Wagner cannot be ignored.
Zaira, Tragedia lirica in two acts.
This is where Puccini composed many of his operas until the lake got so polluted he had to move to nearby Viareggio.
It’ becoming rather a fashion to set operas in English public schools.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/arts/music/porgy-and-bess-at-tanglewood-festival-review.html?_r=1&ref=music
Film biographies of great musicians notoriously exhibit a preference for talking heads nattering on over any music passages.
The New York Festival of Song, created and run by Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, dedicates itself to what one might call “American lieder” — art songs by top American composers, classic Broadway, and operatic numbers.
“The number of recordings testify to the continuing popularity of
Donizetti’s melodrama in two acts [L’lisir d’more], which rivals Don Pasquale among his comic operas and is often rated the better on account of its superior libretto by Felice Romani.”
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/39feb346-c742-11e0-a9ef-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1Vb3cv1nT
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/78bcc222-d222-11e0-9137-00144feab49a.html#axzz1WXzEXs00
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/f60bfc6e-c694-11e0-bb50-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1V2l4nwtt
In keeping with the festival nature of the piece, the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus, along with guest soloists and a guest chorus director, gave two performances of Franz Schmidt’ Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln on recent weekend evenings.
In 2008, the late Richard Hickox, founder and then music director of the City of London Sinfonia, commissioned a work from composer Colin Matthews to celebrate the orchestra’ 40th anniversary, which takes place this year.
Gaetano Donizetti is arguably the established opera composer with the highest ratio of failures to successes.
http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/movies/mozarts-sister-from-rene-feret-review.html?nl=movies&emc=mua3
As this is written, the third week of August, the Santa Fe music season is winding down.
Free vocal sheet music "Ah, perdona al primo affeto" is a little-known duet for high voices by Mozart. This is very pretty, and has all the charm we expect from Mozart.
Happy late Birthday (Monday) to German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007). Stockhausen was a very influential, but also very controversial composer of the 20th and 21st centuries. He did a lot of experimentation and work with electronic music. He also wrote a great many articles on composers and composition techniques.
His experiments ...
In case you haven't heard, we've got a lot of Beethoven happening this year. All nine of his symphonies, and his opera, Fidelio. We'll be having contests for each of the performances where you can win a pair of tickets to the show. Here's how it works:
A week or two ...
Opera Idaho Children’s Choruses audition dates: August 31 – September 3 • 4:30pm – 6:30pm September 4 • 10:00am – 12 noon Resident Company audition dates: September 7 & 8, 4pm-7pm September 9, 4pm-6pm This is a great opportunity to showcase your talent and share your voice with the community. All are welcome [...]