Der fliegende Holländer, Royal Opera
Updated: 2011-10-31 15:34:53
Wagner’ Flying Dutchman returns to the Royal Opera House, London.
Wagner’ Flying Dutchman returns to the Royal Opera House, London.
‘rotic oratorio’is the odd-sounding definition devised by modern scholars, such as Howard E. Smither, for those pious music dramas employing sex-laden plots from the Bible, the Apocrypha or the lives of Saints in order to give the audience moral instruction in a quasi-operatic, if generally unstaged, form.
In this appealing lunchtime recital programme, Croatian soprano Renata Pokupić demonstrated a rich, varied tonal palette and strong communicative skills as she spanned one hundred years of European song.
There are two ways to sing the role of Carmen: as a “grand opera” heroine and as a character from opéra-comique.
Lawrence Zazzo’ last visit to the Wigmore Hall, in April earlier this year, saw him present an intriguing sequence of American song from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/e086f992-e8e6-11e0-ac9c-00144feab49a.html#axzz1ZCvC3xiw
Frederick Delius counts among those many composers whose reputations rely on their orchestral efforts, but who dearly wanted to make a lasting contribution to the opera repertory.
Bad news travels fast. Though you are about to read another version of how American diva Renée Fleming failed to bring Lucrezia Borgia alive, let us begin by discussing a few other things you already know.
As long as one keeps in mind that historical value is not the same as aesthetic quality, this DVD of early 1960’s live German TV performances of two short Gian Carlo Menotti operas makes for fascinating viewing.
The Los Angeles Opera Company’ charmingly understated new production
of Così fan tutte will please your eyes and delight your ears, but its story might grieve your romantic soul.
Kudos to the Los Angeles Opera Company for expanding its heretofore limited
Russian repertoire and opening its 26th season with Tchaikovsky’
Eugene Onegin. The romantic work based on the novel in verse of the
same name by Alexander Pushkin, is likely everyone’ favorite
Tchaikovsky opera.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/27a154c0-fe28-11e0-bac4-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1c0MJ4NlZ
The haughty beauties that are the ancient colleges of Cambridge were definitely feeling the heat this past weekend, and not even the cooling streams of the Cam and its tributaries could assuage the heat of an Indian summer in the Fens of Eastern England.
Without young artists, no art form will thrive or grow. The Royal Opera House’ Jette Parker Young Artists scheme nurtures the best from its young artists that their performances attract thoughtful audiences.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/arts/music/mariusz-kwiecien-in-don-giovanni-at-the-met-review.html?ref=music
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/independent-podcast--eno-operatalks-david-pountney-2362895.html
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/f8bc389c-e9c2-11e0-bb3e-00144feab49a.html#axzz1ZHEnUjra
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2011/oct/06/english-national-opera-marriage-figaro-video?newsfeed=true
How is one to write a Romantic opera?
Ossia Maestro Watching in Fog City. Ten years ago it was German provincialism, now it is the Italian sort wanting to take root in the War Memorial Opera House.
Some opera masterworks are admirable more than lovable — a distinction usually best revealed by the number of performances the work gets.
Should I wait until the end of this review to tell you how much fun, how much of a theatrical whoopee cushion Robert Wilson’ production of Die Dreigroschenoper has been at BAM last week?
http://blog.dallasopera.org/2011/09/28/the-dallas-opera-announces-meeting-of-key-milestones-in-the-planned-turnaround-of-the-company%E2%80%99s-finances/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/gallery/2011/oct/20/opera-north-queen-of-spades-in-pictures
Luciano Pavarotti died in September 2007, just short of his 72nd birthday and only a few years after his last performance at the Metropolitan Opera, in Tosca.
Exactly what makes this entertaining, handsome video of Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Renée Fleming in concert an “odyssey”?
Love and Death is the name of one of Woody Allen’s earlier films, one built around parodies of Tolstoy and other Russian 19th century literary giants.
Among recent recordings of Britten’s opera Billy Budd, the recent
release conducted by Daniel Harding has much to offer in terms of performance
quality, interpretation, and also the quality of recording.
According to legend, when composing Don Giovanni, Mozart completed
the overture last. It was written the night before the opera’s premiere, while his wife Constanze, a fervent taskmaster, plied him with food and drink to make sure he stayed awake.
As one of the most successful Italian opera composers of the late-eighteenth
century, Domenico Cimarosa’ reputation lasted well into the following
century during which his operas were staple repertoire in all the major
European opera houses.
Los Angeles has been good to Turandot. The gritty 1984 Andre Serban production inaugurated an opera company in Los Angeles where a mere eight years later L.A. Opera bestowed the splendid Luciano Berio ending upon the world in an uber-pompous Gian-Carlo del Monaco production.
“Historically Informed Performance” sure has a nice ring — not only does the acronym capture the trendiness of the movement (“HIP”), but one has to admire the subtle put-down the term encapsulates.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/09/27/arts/music/100000001076456/excerpt-anna-bolena-at-the-met.html?ref=music
Whether or not one agrees with Joseph Kerman’ immortal definition of
Tosca as a “shabby little shocker,” Puccini’
melodramma, the inaugural production of the Washington National
Opera’ 2011-12 season, is intense, “blood-and-guts” kind of
entertainment.
In a program of Italian and French arias and duets Lyric Opera gave to
Chicago audiences a preview of the first operas in its forthcoming season and
an opportunity to hear familiar voices as well as those soon destined to grace
the operatic stages of the world.
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/arts/controversy-over-pocahontas-woman-two-worlds-duluth-festival-opera
So Many Operas, Why These? Join us this Saturday, October 16 at 10:15am for an insightful talk about the Operas featured on the 2011-12 Season of The Met: Live in HD performances. Followed by The Met live broadcast of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena at 10:55am. Edwards Boise Stadium 22 7701 Overland Rd Boise, ID 83709 (208) [...]
This year we've had an ongoing joke running here at Utah Symphony | Utah Opera. We're performing all of Beethoven's Symphonies AND Operas! (ba-dum-dum-CHING!.....)
That's right, Beethoven only wrote one opera, Fidelio. It's an incredibly moving mythic statement about the power of love and proves that freedom always conquers over tyranny. ...
Director Lynn Allison Speaks on Pirates The world of pirates can be quite a mystical, fantastical and bizarre world. Lynn tells us just how strange the world of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance is! Click here to watch!