German tenor thrills Met audience in solo recital
Updated: 2011-11-08 10:45:27
http://articles.boston.com/2011-10-31/ae/30342753_1_mein-ganzes-german-tenor-recital
http://articles.boston.com/2011-10-31/ae/30342753_1_mein-ganzes-german-tenor-recital
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.
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://astore.amazon.com/operatoday-20/detail/B004NY3TAM
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
There are some literary texts which, by dint of their intense compression of
incident, their creators’firm control of structure, and the precision of
linguistic nuance, do not naturally seem to lend themselves to operatic
treatment.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/independent-podcast--eno-operatalks-david-pountney-2362895.html
http://astore.amazon.com/operatoday-20/detail/B005LY46J6
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
http://astore.amazon.com/operatoday-20/detail/B000XH2BI4
How is one to write a Romantic opera?
Bellini’ La sonnambula does not have the most gripping or
convincing of opera plots: a young girl sleepwalks into a stranger’ room, where she is discovered by her fiancé; disbelieving her pleas of innocence, he jilts her and plans to wed another; but, she is vindicated when she is spied on a nocturnal wander, and the lovers are reconciled.
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?
Bartók’ only opera, a masterpiece to rank with other sole works in
the genre such as Fidelio and Pelléas et Mélisande, was
chosen for the climax of the Philharmonia’ year-long series,
‘nfernal Dance: Inside the World of Béla Bartók’
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
http://astore.amazon.com/operatoday-20/detail/B00575MDQC
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.
http://astore.amazon.com/operatoday-20/detail/B004LYWH02
In 2006 classical music lost one of its great singers — American mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, taken at the height of her career.
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.
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.
It’s very unusual for the Met these days—or any major opera house, in any era—to present a glossy new production with two different stars in the leading role.
“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
http://astore.amazon.com/operatoday-20/detail/B004P1YX4E
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/arts/controversy-over-pocahontas-woman-two-worlds-duluth-festival-opera
To wrap up National Opera Week, we'd like to wish a late happy birthday to opera composer Vicenzo Bellini, who was born November 3, 1801.
Bellini was a musical prodigy, and it is claimed that he could sing an aria by 18 months, was studying music theory at age two, and ...
It’s National Opera Week! We have guest blogs this week from members of the Utah Opera family, explaining their love and relationship with opera. Are you also touched by the opera bug? Tell us about it on our Facebook page, or comment on any ...
In observance of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Gian-Carlo Menotti and as Opera Idaho’s first-ever offering for National Opera Week, a free concert will take place Friday, Nov. 4, 7:30 p.m., at the Opera Idaho Studio, 513 S. 8th Street. The concert will feature Opera Idaho Resident Company members performing music by [...]
You know how this goes, just add a comment to this blog post with where Beethoven is, and be entered to win a pair of tickets to Beethoven's Seventh this weekend!
In honor of Halloween, Beethoven is exploring one of the quirkier landmarks in Salt Lake.
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) [...]