Opera Today

La Cenerentola a Torino

Una piccola ma scelta rappresentanza di questo esimio consesso ha assistito ieri sera alla terzultima rappresentazione de La Cenerentola al Regio di Torino. In una sala strapiena di un pubblico festoso, reattivo e soprattutto devastato dalla bronchite (propongo per il futuro di posizionare nel foyer del teatro tinozze di caramelle alla codeina) e' stata rappresentata la nota produzione Ronconi/Palli, nata a Pesaro qualche anno fa. Quella della cicogna, per intenderci.

Salto a pie' pari le considerazioni sulla parte visiva, di cui parlero' a parte.

Appena entrati in teatro, ancora in coda al guardaroba, abbiamo avuto da fonte sicura la ferale notizia che Sonia Ganassi aveva la febbre ma era intenzionata a cantare. In sala, infatti, e' stato dato l'annuncio in forma ufficiale. Che dire? La Sonia stava male e si sentiva. La voce si arrochiva di frequente, in basso tendeva a parire, la coloratura era problematica. Succedeva poi una cosa strana, che non so fino a che punto sia da attribuire all'influenza. Alcuni passi di agilita', tutti quelli con passaggi o scale ascendenti, mettevano la Ganassi in evidente difficolta', ed erano eseguiti quasi a denti stretti e producendo un suono per nulla gradevole. Non so se fosse un tentativo per superare un problema vocale dovuto al malessere, mi piacerebbe sapere da chi ha visto le recite precedenti se ha notato una cosa del genere. Comunque, la Ganassi e' arrivata in fondo da seria professionista qual e' ed e' venuta a capo onorevolmente anche del rondo', seppure utilizzando per le variazioni finali una specie di falsetto che sapeva di forzato ripiego. Per la cronaca, il rondo' ha avuto comunque una discreta e affettuosa ovazione accompagnata da alcuni fischi francamente inopportuni, visto l'evidente stato di malessere in cui si trovava la cantante, che piu' di una volta durante l'opera ha girato la testa per tossire.

Ramiro era Antonio Siragusa, che ha fatto tutto bene e anche benissimo ma ha infilato nella grande aria del secondo atto una serie di acuti decisamente tirati. Lo so, da quando Florez e' sceso fra noi abbiamo avuto la prova evidente della perfezione vocale tenorile. Siragusa e' un ottimo cantante che non si merita un ingiusto paragone con Florez. Diciamo che, dimenticando Juan Diego, il suo e' probabilmente il miglior Ramiro in circolazione oggi.

Esecrabile il Dandini del sempre piu' insopportabile Roberto De Candia, trasandato vocalmente e scenicamente pieno delle solite mossette che rendono i suoi personaggi uno la fotocopia dell'altro. Non mi ha entusiasmato il Magnifico di Andrea Concetti, che ha grande presenza scenica e ottimo impatto nei recitativi, ma da un punto di vista puramente vocale e' un po' insipido. L'aria di entrata e' scivolata via quasi senza un applauso. Bravissimo invece Marco Vinco come Alidoro e, come dire?, simpatiche le due sorelle, di cui non ricordo i nomi. Vocalmente la soprano era a suo modo gradevole (anche se molto stile sopranino/cucu'), ed ha avuto anche l'aria prima del finale reintegrata. L'altra sorella era francamente problematica da ascoltare, ma nell'insieme il duo era molto divertente.

La direzione di Enrique Mazzola mi e' parsa piu' che buona, varia nei tempi e non troppo incline a certi manierismi che ormai sono entrati nella tradizione, come la stucchevole enfasi sulle erre nel concertato del nodo rintrecciato.

Riccardo Domenichini

[This review originally appeared at Opera Seria, a Yahoo group. It is reprinted with the permission of the author.]

Lamento with Magdalena Ko

A HAPPY AND FORMIDABLE PARTNERSHIP

Magdalena Ko

Le Comte Ory is the first great French-language comic opera. A late work (Paris, 1828), sensuous, witty and exquisitely crafted, it has always been something of a connoisseur's piece, Rossini's Falstaff, you might say. Vittorio Gui's celebrated Glyndebourne account (EMI, 7/57 - nla) ought by rights to have had a place in EMI's Great Recordings of the Century series. Perhaps Naxos will scoop it up when the copyright lapses.

Classic sets can obscure the view. John Eliot Gardiner's fine 1988 Lyon Opéra recording rather languished in Glyndebourne's shadow and the new set, recorded live at last year's Pesaro Festival, could well have suffered the same fate. Not that it is aimed at dyed-in-the-wool collectors. The selling point is the Ory, Juan Diego Flórez, and very striking he is, too. He begins rather severely, more Almaviva than Ory. Would one miss the sly charm and vocal allure of Juan Oncina on the Gui set? Not entirely. Flórez has terrific presence, a well-nigh flawless technique, and a keen sense of the French vocal style. He comfortably outplays Gardiner's John Aler.

Not that Aler was much helped by his production team. Ory may be the master of the subversive running commentary but that is no excuse for placing him to the rear of the stage picture. DG's engineers make no such mistake.

[Click here for complete review.]

Bullfrog Films' Don Giovanni: Leporello’s Revenge

Don Giovanni: Leporello's Revenge
Mozart's opera presented from the point of view of Don Giovanni's servant, Leporello.

55 minutes
Color / Stereo
Copyright Date: 2000
ISBN: 1-56029-885-5

Mozart's Don Giovanni is arguably one of his most complex, politically controversial, and forward-thinking operas. It's no wonder that many music students and opera buffs place such a heavy emphasis on this opera as they grasp the genre. Yet, rather than faithfully presenting this operatic masterwork, Bullfrog Films has produced a new twist, Don Giovanni: Leporello's Revenge with the imaginative artistic vision of director Barbara Willis Sweete.

Leporello begins in a 1930's Hollywood screening room declaring before the opera cast his wish to be a gentleman and no longer a servant, singing the opening lines of "Notte E Giorno Faticar." Leporello gets his wish, appearing as the star, Don Giovanni, in his black and white film playing on the screen behind him. As Giovanni, he plays the first scenes masked, concealing his true identity to the cast watching the film. Yet in the famous scene where the couples find Leporello in the garden disguised as Giovanni, the truth is known that Giovanni is Leporello! His fate of truly becoming his master is realized when the unrepentant Giovanni falls into the fiery pits of hell, and Leporello is pulled down with him.

Sweete's vision "...alludes to the notion that the Don and his servant are alter-egos, opposite sides of the same person". Using the film medium, she is able to fuse both roles of Don Giovanni and Leporello into a single performance, which is impossible live given the difficulties for singer and director.

Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky takes on the almost unattainable quest to meld the characters of Giovanni and Leporello, supported by Richard Bradshaw, general director of the Canadian Opera Company, and a Canadian cast consisting of Dominique Labelle (Donna Anna), Gary Relyea (Commendatore), Liesel Fedkenheuer (Donna Elvira), Michael Colvin (Ottavio), Krisztina Szabo (Zerlina), and Alain Coulombe (Masetto).

Leporello's Revenge is a provocative take on an operatic masterpiece, infusing unprecedented intrigue and suspense into a time-honored classic. Whether you're an opera buff or an uninitiated student, brush up on your opera history, sit back and get ready for an adventure!

Sarah Hoffman

An Overview of Opera at Spoleto Festival USA

Spoleto Festival USA has announced the production of three operas for 2005. These are:

Die Vögel (The Birds)

Lost when Braunfels was blacklisted by the Nazis in the late 1930s, the work has never received a fully staged performance in the US; this production will affirm Die Vögel's rightful place among major operas of the 20th century.

Der Besuch der alten Dame (The Old Lady's Visit)

Premièring 14 January, TheaterLübeck will present Der Besuch der alten Dame, a schauspiel written in 1956 by the Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990) under the original title Komödie der Hochkonjunktur (Comedy of Business Prosperity), with music by Dietmar Staskowiak. Der Besuch der alten Dame received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best foreign play of 1958-59. The following is a synopsis of Der Besuch der alten Dame:

Money rules the world. But, unfortunately for the city of Güllen, it is bankrupt with little potential for improvement. A sponsor must be found. So, all hope is placed on the return of Claire Zachanassian, who is known throughout the world for her charity. She had earlier left Güllen without possessions and with an illegitimate child. Now a multi-billionaire, the old lady is ready to give her home town one billion. There is one condition — her faithless lover must be killed and placed at her feet. Initially, the people of Güllen are morally indignant; however, their greed is greater. In view of the ailing financial situation of numerous communities within Germany, the work is timely by presenting the question to what extent the alleged welfare of the community justifies the sacrifice of an individual.

Zelmira belongs to Rossini's string of dramatic efforts composed for Naples, perhaps the best known of which today are La donna del lago and Ermione, the latter having recently enjoyed a remarkable run at New York City Opera. While many of Rossini's comedies maintain a firm grip in the repertory, these dramatic efforts have suffered relative neglect. Before too many reasons are proposed, a look at the performing history of Zelmira, contained in the CD booklet and supplied by the estimable Tom Kaufman, suggests that it is not only the modern era that slighted these operas. Zelmira premiered in 1822; it enjoyed performances in many top opera houses for about ten years. Lisbon saw it in 1839, and after that, Zelmira fell into a long slumber, not to reawake until 1965. This live set is not from a staged production, but rather from a concert performance at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2003.

Why the neglect? Here the essay by Jeremy Commons really earns our thanks, for it is not only wonderfully informative but also clear and honest in its perspective. Right from its debut, the opera earned fine notices for Rossini's score and derisive comment for the libretto, especially the contrived story. Commons refers to the plot's "inverosimilitudes," and they are aplenty. Our finest directors would really be put to the test by a scene such as the one where our put-upon heroine, going to see her estranged husband, interrupts a murder attempt, pulls the knife out of the assassin's hand, only to have the villain tell the freshly-awakened king that she (still holding the knife, of course) was about to commit the crime.

But such unlikely scenes occur throughout many a well-regarded opera. The difference here is in the superficial characterization. Zelmira is the dutiful daughter and faithful wife, despite every tribulation thrown her way. Her husband Ilo is the loving husband in sorrow for the seeming duplicity of his wife, which he believes due to the efforts of the dastardly Antenore and his malevolent lieutenant Leucippo. None of these characters undergoes change or reveals any depth. Zelmira pretty much proceeds like an old silent serial, with various cliff-hangar situations until the literally incredible end, where just as the villains close in to finish off our saintly heroes, the good guys break through a wall and send the baddies off to meet their just desserts.

And what a great time a classy cast has with all this malarkey. Bruce Ford and Marco Palazzi, tenor and baritone, make a wonderfully evil pair. Palazzi's handsome voice should go on to more prepossing roles. Elizabeth Futral's soprano aches with femininity and pain without allowing the heroine's outlandish trials to become too exasperating. A nice counterpart to Ford's high-flying tenor villain is Ilo, an even more high-flying tenor role for the good but confused prince/husband, sung by Antonio Siragusa with admirable control and resourcefulness, if not the last word in elegance.

Rossini's tremendous scoring, often calling to mind great moments in later, more esteemed operas (particularly those of early/middle Verdi) gets a tremendous performance by the Scottish Chamber orchestra, led by Maurizio Benini. The ensemble's chorus also makes a wonderful contribution, especially in a chorus by priests near the end of act one.

This set represents the best Opera Rara has to offer - featuring some wonderful music that would otherwise go unheard, offering talented performers the opportunity for some real vocal display, and providing an important historical service to those who want to know more about the origins of this art form. Zelmira, despite the "inverosimilitudes," is a veritable winner.

Chris Mullins

Carmen at De Vlaamse Opera

Wonderful Carmen at De Vlaamse Opera (and indeed, Calixto Bieito was the nominal director)

Carmen: Nora Gubisch and Brandon Jovanovich
Photo © Annemie Augustijns

The sigh of relief was almost audible during the short love duet after "La fleur que tu m'avais jetée". Carmen started to strip down, fumbled a little bit with José's pants and both started their love making. So after all, Bieito's signature tune was being played. In reality apart from the many lewd gestures, both singers remained firmly and fully clothed. The only full nude was a male dancer during the prelude to the third act and even he was lighted in clair-obscur. Another Bieito-feature, horrible violence, was also somewhat muted. Granted, José gutted Carmen in the finale of the opera in plain sight and in the well-known way Islamists treat those poor people they can lay their hands on and therefore it was a bloody affair but still everybody knows "this is theatre". No, the literally blood-chilling moment came during the third act when the smugglers arrived with six used Mercedes-cars ( For a moment I thought they were smuggling Mercedes'). Enter Escamillo and the fight between him and José with tenor and baritone jumping on and off all those cars, meanwhile singing their lines and succeeding without breaking their necks and finishing a promising career (for the tenor anyway; the baritone wouldn't be a great loss). It made for a formidable theatrical effect but still one wonders if artists should take such a horrendous personal risk.

Now some Bieito-exegetes would say that the somewhat muted stress on sex (for Bieito anyway; I don't think Volpe would allow it at the Met) and violence is due to the director's youth and inexperience as this production is a reworking of a production of 4 years ago. Well, maybe it is but it has to be judged on its own merits and not on the director's obsessions a few years later. And the final word is: it works and succeeds in revitalizing this tired old warhorse. Yes, I don't like the opera anymore. I have known it for 50 years, have played it over and over again and the overexposure and the many productions have led to boredom which can only be redeemed by a fine theatrical experience or formidable music-making and preferably both. The last Carmen I fondly remember was a traditional Verona-production with Franco Corelli, Grace Bumbry, Piero Cappuccilli etc. but since those times it was downhill. And then a director and a fine cast prove that there is quite a lot of life left in the horse. Bieito updated it somewhat to modern Sevilla and immediately changed the traditional perspective. Micaela is not the star-struck virgin but someone who has her eyes firmly set on José and by their behaviour they prove that their affair is a long running one. Carmen and co are not some nice country girls in colourful clothes but hard working factory girls in drab uniforms. For Bieito Carmen's gypsy background is just something that maybe explains a little bit of temperament but traditional gypsies don't work in a factory and therefore Carmen is far more a working class girl in poor surroundings in an individualistic society. This lady reminded me far more of some of those harsh assertive hard working-class New York girls than of romantic Spain of the 19th century where there weren't many Carmens to be found. This Carmen is a fully self-centred woman, wanting her pleasures and wanting them now and definitely not above provoking José: in short nearer to Merimée's Carmen and to Bizet's as well than Carmen as a victim or the somewhat aristocratic Carmen of Béatrice Uria-Monzon who monopolizes the role in France. In this action packed thriller the greatest compliment came from my wife whom I had not warned beforehand. "It looks like a good movie" she said and that was exactly what De Vlaamse Opera had in mind with the production. Still, there are a few things Bieito should take care off. Action and movement is fine but a few moments (like in the terrible last act) of quiet, of immobility may make a deeper impression than the permanent running hither and thither. And one grows somewhat tired with the constant sexual gestures: less can sometimes be more.

Bieito was more than helped by a wonderful cast. French mezzo Nora Gubisch was a revelation. Apart from perfect pronunciation, she brings with her a big booming and finely coloured voice; somewhat better in the low than in the higher regions where the top starts to thin out. Her Mediterranean looks (short, a little bit plump, hawkish nose) are more typical for most Andalusian women than the classical North-European beauty. She was a wonderful performer who radiated strength and determination.

Brendan Jovanovich was the José who delivers good looks, an ability to smoke a lot of cigarettes without bad results for his singing and the athletic features I have already mentioned. And then there is the voice: not a sound every one likes at first hearing, not a thing of traditional beauty and maybe better not heard in the great Italian roles; too little morbidezza. But the voice is smooth, big and in a small house like Antwerp it makes a tremendous impression while it has a gleaming edge of steel in it. In short this is what the French call "un vrai demi-caractère", the French equivalent of the Italian lirico-spinto and if Mr. Jovanovich continues to sing as impressive he should be the rare bird: a real successor in the great line of Franz, Granal, Vezzani, Poncet. Even now I think he is superior to Ben Heppner. And mind you he knows the difference between strength and just shouting: his high B in La fleur was a beautiful pianissimo.

The Latvian soprano Rosita Kekyte is chosen for "le fysique du role" one is tempted to think: a youthful blonde beauty and then she opens her mouth and out comes a fine Italianate lirico. She is now at the Karlsruhe Opera but with her assets she should go far in the French and Italian repertory.

The (little) fly in the ointment was Polish baritone Wojtek Drabowicz: a throaty baritone with a weak top and a badly focused sound. The Antwerp people often try to prove that they are not provincial but cosmopolitan but I cannot believe there is no young baritone in the country who cannot sing better this short role and gain some valuable experience as well. Xenia Konsek and Corinne Romijn (Frasquita and Mercédès) are well-known and beloved comprimarie who as always combine fine acting and fine singing.

Music director Ivan Törzs started out somewhat tentatively but soon got his hands on the score, helped by the very good orchestra and there never was a single hiatus in relationship between pit and singers (On principle I never attend the premiere but always prefer a fourth or fifth performance and every artist I know says that a production always improves after a few evenings). A special word should go to the chorus which sang and acted its heart out. In the last act they just faced the auditorium, pretending they were watching the procession of picadors, toreadors etc and they did it so lustily and convincingly that they earned a well-deserved ovation.

Jan Neckers

[Note: For additional production details, click here.]

Suggested recordings:

Karajan, Price, Corelli, Freni, Merrill

Solti, Troyanos, Domingo, Van Dam, Te Kanawa

Cluytens, Michel, Jobin, Angelici, Dens

Pelletier, Swarthout, Kullman, Albanese, Warren

Michael Tilson Thomas Turns 60

The ageless baton

By Allan Ulrich
Published: December 20 2004 13:44 | Last updated: December 20 2004 13:44

The conductor Michael Tilson Thomas turns 60 this week and, despite a few streaks of silver in his hair, his is a career that does not know the meaning of diminuendo. The erstwhile young firebrand is in hailing distance of becoming a Grand Old Man of American music. He mutters that "60 is the new 40", as he escorts the visitor to the third floor of his San Francisco home. Here, the mementos of a life in the arts - a framed postcard from Igor Stravinsky; a drawing by the California composer Lou Harrison; photographs of Yiddish theatre idols of an earlier generation - compete with the glorious view of San Francisco Bay.

Tilson Thomas has always seemed a contrarian, confronting prevailing myths about the business of music in an uncaring age. The dithyrambs of economic woe emanating from American orchestral circles are not heard in the corridors of the San Francisco Symphony's Davies Hall, where MTT (as he is universally known) is marking his tenth season as music director. He presides over an orchestra budgeted at $50m per annum, one that basks in more enthusiasm from the players and the 32,000 subscribers than when he bowed in the post in 1995.

[Click here for remainder of article (subscription to Financial Times online required)].

Kata Kabanova at the Met

Janacek's Kata Kabanova began this year's run at the Met on Friday night with a very new cast including two important and highly successful debuts.

This is Janacek late in his career, writing on a Russian subject by the playwright Ostrovsky. His admiration for Russian culture and literature may also have led him to follow Anton Chekhov's example — Kata moves swiftly with the sense that any extraneous word or note has been rigorously pruned away — it is an opera that speaks directly and powerfully to its audience. Last night's audience — the Met was at least 90% full — reacted with enthusiasm that bordered on delirium when the final curtain rose again for beloved Finnish soprano Karita Mattila's pride-of-place first solo bow.

Ms. Mattila is not perfect. Let's get out of the way the fact that the lower voice is rather dry and not the most interesting register she possesses. Beyond that, her Kata moved from strength to strength as she created a wholly convincing character and sang the role with blazing conviction, beauty of tone and a glorious upper register. Particularly in act 3 her talents as an actress were astonishing — her physicality in expressing Kata's self revulsion, then the poignancy and aching need for some kind of physical contact from the feckless Boris, then the radiant calm with which she sang that birds would fly over her grave and bring their young with them. Then she turned and instead of an actressy leap into the Volga, she simply dropped off the riverbank and let herself be absorbed in the ever-flowing river's history. The woman next to me gasped; when it was all over the crowd went crazy.

Judith Forst provided a scary Kabanicha, ramrod straight, seethingly intolerant, demanding, manipulative, ultimately unbearable and so wonderfully tempting to hate. Along the revival's director Paula Williams and the rock-solid bass Vladimir Ognovenko as Dikoj, Forst has reimagined the bizarre little scene for Kababicha and Dikoj in act 2. Formerly played as a scene where the drunk and slobbering Dikoj disgusts her, she is now visibly aroused and the scene ends with Dikoj on his knees clutching her hips and buttocks with his face buried in her bodice. The curtain quickly falls on what will certainly be a monstrous and morally hypocritical coupling in contrast to the healthier mating of Varvara (the luminous Magda Kozena) and Vana Kudrias (Ramond Very is a superbly detailed and sympathetic performance) or the tragic one of Kata and Boris.

Tenor Jorma Silvasti displayed warm and shimmering tone as Boris and Chris Merritt presented the spineless, trapped but well-meaning Tichon to the life. In his Met debut, conductor Jiri Belohlavek let a taut, propulsive and very beautiful reading of the score, seconded by the Met orchestra in top form. The cast was strongly applauded but it all paled next to the reception for Ms. Mattila. This was a star performance totally at service to the role and the work, sung and acted by a star performer at the height of her art.

William Fregosi
Technical Coordinator for Theater Arts
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Das Rheingold at Covent Garden

Opera: Das Rheingold

Robert Thicknesse at Covent Garden

THE slightly unsettling fervour of Wagner adepts as they look forward to the start of another Ring cycle is matched by a religious hush as we sit in the dark waiting -- for a good 30 seconds -- for the thing to begin. And then it does, soft, impossibly deep rumblings emerging from the void to become the longest E flat chord in history, and a single light lost in the blackness of the stage. You think: this better be good.

Unfortunately, it isn't particularly. Not bad, exactly, but deflating given the expectations that any Covent Garden Ring excites. Sure, there's a long way to go, but after 2

Miah Persson Replaces Natalie Dessay in Mahler's Fourth

Miah Persson remplace Natalie Dessay
[Paris] Moment d'apesanteur
Genre : Scène / Concert / Festival Rédacteur : Maxime Kaprielian
pour ResMusica.com le 18/12/2004
Retour au format d'origine

Paris. Théâtre des Champs-élysées. 17-XII-2004. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) : Symphonie n* 29 en la majeur K. 201. Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) : Symphonie n*4 en sol majeur. Miah Persson, soprano. Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, direction : Myung Whun Chung.

Fi de Natalie Dessay et des Brentano-Lieder de Strauss (dont le dernier, Amor, donne le titre de son dernier album, chroniqué sur ResMusica). Qu'importe, le public s'est pressé ce soir là, comme à chacun des concerts de cette intégrale Mahler (lire le compte rendu de la symphonie n*3 et de ce meme concert, deux jours plus tot, à Dijon). Composée lors de son dernier séjour en Italie la symphonie n*29 d'un Mozart d'à peine 18 ans est créée en 1774 à Salzbourg, qui connaît depuis deux ans le règne du Prince-Archeveque Colloredo. Myung Whun Chung a choisi de réduire son orchestre en " formation Mannheim " (moins de trente cordes) pour servir cette œuvre avec la légèreté et la fluidité nécessaire. L'ensemble est très énergique et homogène, et accentue le coté brillant de cette symphonie par le parti pris de tempi plutot allant, malgré quelques fluctuations dans les départs de mouvements.

[Click here for remainder of article.]

Recommended recording:

Soul & Landscape - Scandinavian Songs

[Note: Miah Persson appears next month as La Fortuna in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea at the Opéra National de Paris. Click here for details.]

Once More, With Feeling

Shulgold: 'Virtual orchestra' breeds real rage from musicians

December 18, 2004

Recorded music has benefited from the digital revolution, with lifelike reproduction possible in a variety of formats.

That's not always a good thing, because professional musicians find themselves competing for work with a device known as Sinfonia.

The introduction of this "virtual orchestra" into opera and Broadway pits has stirred resentment, lawsuits and countersuits. Even the definition of what it is has generated heated debate.

Operated by a player who can control tempos and dynamics as a performance unfolds, Sinfonia is equipped with both musical and computer keyboards, samplers, state-of-the-art computers, monitor screens - oh yes, and a place to rest an old-fashioned music score.

It produces sounds amazingly similar to orchestral voices. But is it an instrument or merely a fancy mechanical substitute? Musicians who claim to be put out of work by the thing sneeringly call it a machine. That reaction is upsetting to Sinfonia's inventors, Realtime Music Solutions (RMS). Jeff Lazarus, CEO of the New York-based company, insists it's a musical instrument.

"You could say that a flute is a machine, because it is a device that must be operated by a person in order to do its job," he reasoned. "But we call flutes - and violins and trombones - musical instruments. It's the same with Sinfonia."

Realtime created it in 1999, along with a smaller device called OrchExtra - and in so doing, created a windstorm of controversy.

"The reality is, they're displacing musicians," said Pete Vriesenga, president of the Denver Musicians Association.

Lazarus counters that Sinfonia is "an enhancement for a pit orchestra," noting that the instrument is operated in real time and in conjunction with a gathering of musicians, led by a conductor.

"We've never claimed that this is the same, as good as or better than an orchestra," he said, responding to resentment to its use by the Opera Company of Brooklyn. "Humans are capable of making an infinite variety of sounds. We're always trying to make Sinfonia better, but we can never replace a live orchestra."

[Click here for remainder of article.]

A Day in the Life of an Opera Student

At Juilliard, Students Learn That Opera Is Both Craft and Commodity

By BLAIR TINDALL

The Juilliard School in New York City has trained some of the world's most prominent singers since opening its opera department in 1930, including Leontyne Price, Simon Estes, Renée Fleming and Audra McDonald. The school continues to attract undergraduate and graduate students pursuing specialized music educations.

"By high school I had decided to go into music instead of taking the easy way out, like becoming a dentist or accountant," said tenor Ross Chitwood, 20, who grew up on a dairy farm in Sulphur, Okla. "When I walked into the lobby of Juilliard, I knew it was the right place for me."

A typical day for Mr. Chitwood begins at 9:30 a.m. with ear-training class, one of the musical subjects the singers study alongside classmates who are instrumentalists. Other courses include musical dictation, theory, conducting, music history, piano proficiency, and electives that cover specific composers and genres. Vocal arts students must also sign up for two foreign languages.

After lunch, the singers concentrate on theatrical skills in the Juilliard Opera Studies program. Here, they learn acting, movement, improvisation, stagecraft and stage makeup application. They also receive individual coaching for voice and diction to refine their vocal technique. "In drama workshop, we work with masks to create a character without using our faces," said Rebecca Saslow, a 21-year-old mezzo-soprano from Boston, who praised the training as crucial to her education.

[Click here for remainder of article (free registration required).]

The Oxford History of Western Music

A History of Western Music? Well, It's a Long Story

By JAMES R. OESTREICH

OXFORD HISTORY OF WESTERN MUSIC By Richard Taruskin
Illustrated. 4,272 pages. Oxford University Press. $500 until Dec. 31; then $699.

The Oxford History of Western Music

MOST of the news in classical music takes place on stage or on disc. But at the moment, one of the biggest stories (in more ways than one) is taking place on the printed page. Actually, 4,272 pages.

The new six-volume "Oxford History of Western Music" was 13 years in the making. Despite its bulk, it may seem to pale in comparison with, say, the 29-volume second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, of 2001, but that represented the work of more than 2,500 writers. This is the work of one, Richard Taruskin, a music historian at the University of California at Berkeley, who has been an occasional contributor to Arts & Leisure and other publications.

As historian, sometime journalist and blockbuster author, Mr. Taruskin emulates his mentor at Columbia University, Paul Henry Lang, the author of "Music in Western Civilization" (1,107 pages in its 1997 edition) and a music critic of The New York Herald Tribune. On a recent return to the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Mr. Taruskin spoke with James R. Oestreich about the making of the new book.

[Click here for remainder of article.]

E' morta Renata Tebaldi

E' morta Renata Tebaldi
Era la "rivale" di Maria Callas

SAN MARINO - Renata Tebaldi è morta alle 03.30 nella sua casa di San Marino. La grande cantante lirica, nata a Pesaro, avrebbe compiuto 83 anni nel febbraio prossimo. La notizia del decesso è stata data da Niksa Simetovic, il suo medico di fiducia di origine croata ma da 30 anni residente nella piccola repubblica.

Renata Tebaldi, malata da tempo, da un anno e mezzo si era stabilmente trasferita a San Marino dove da circa 20 anni trascorreva periodi di vacanza e dove fino all'ultimo è stata assistita dagli amici. Nell'ultimo mese le sue condizioni si erano aggravate.

Al suo fianco nell'ultima notte anche la signora Tina, assistente della cantante per molti anni. "E' morta tante volte sui palcoscenici di tutto il mondo, ma questa volta è morta davvero", ha detto Tina.

Anche se si era ritirata nel '76, dopo 32 anni di carriera, Renata Tebaldi è sempre stata idolatrata dagli appassionati della lirica. "Ho sempre considerato la mia voce come un regalo della natura. Fu per amore e rispetto di quel dono prodigioso che decisi di smettere - ha detto due anni fa in un'intervista, rilasciata nell'occasione del suo ottantesimo compleanno - Per non vivere la mortificante stagione del declino".

Tutti i teatri del mondo, e in particolare quelli dei quali era stata regina, dalla Scala al Metropolitan, hanno continuato fino all'ultimo a tributarle omaggi, riconoscimenti. Le case discografiche ripropongono anche adesso con successo inalterato le sue Butterfly, Tosca, Bohème, Norma.

Renata Tebaldi era nata a Pesaro nel 1922. Nel 1946 fu scelta da Arturo Toscanini, che la definì 'voce d'angelo', per partecipare al concerto di riapertura postbellica della Scala, avvenimento che la lancio in campo internazionale. Seguirono il Festival di Edinburgo, il Covent Garden, San Francisco, Parigi.

Ha cantato con oltre 70 direttori d'orchestra. Tra i piu famosi autentici giganti della musica come De Sabata, Giulini, Toscanini, Karajan.

Storica la rivalità con Maria Callas, della quale comunque la Tebaldi non ha mai voluto parlare volentieri: "Mi offendo se qualcuno pensa che abbia cercato un confronto con lei", spiego una volta. E ancora: "La faccenda della Callas era molto montata e, in fondo, rappresento un'enorme pubblicità non pagata".

Ma fu forse anche per sfuggire a questo dualismo, accentuato dai giornali e dai fan, che decise di trasferirsi negli Stati Uniti. "Andai a New York - ha raccontato - e divenni in poco tempo la regina del Metropolitan, interpretando, tra l'altro, 'Otello', 'Gioconda' e 'La Fanciulla del West'".

Negli ultimi mesi era molto malata. Ma nelle ultime interviste, rilasciate in occasione degli 80 anni, ripeteva con orgoglio: "Mi telefonano, numerosissimi, anche i giovani: gente che non mi ha mai visto in scena, e mi conosce solo dai dischi. C'è chi mi ha detto: dalla sua voce capisco che bella persona è lei. Parole che scaldano il cuore".

Italian Opera Diva Renata Tebaldi Dies at 82

Sun Dec 19, 2004 08:17 AM ET

By Rachel Sanderson
ROME (Reuters) - Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi, one of the great post-World War II opera divas who Arturo Toscanini said had the "voice of an angel," has died, a family friend said Sunday. She was 82.

She died in the Republic of San Marino where she had moved several months ago to be close to the sea, said the family friend, who asked not to be named.

Tebaldi had one of the most beautiful Italian voices of the century. Although her rivalry with Maria Callas attracted much attention, it was her singing that captivated her fans.

[Click here for remainder of article.]

Carmen at Semperoper

Und immer wieder "Carmen"
Konstanze Lauterbach inszeniert Bizets Oper in Dresden

Von Georg Friedrich Kühn

Kein Urweib, keine femme fatale - eine "ganzheitliche" Frau mit einem unbändigen Freiheitsdrang soll diese Carmen sein. So stellt sie sich Regisseurin Konstanze Lauterbach laut Programmheft vor. Was man auf der Bühne von Peter Schubert sieht, sind Genreszenen in einem faschistischen Land.

Das Eröffnungsbild schon zeigt einen Marktplatz, auf dem es vor lungernden Soldaten nur so wimmelt. Kinder sitzen in dem lindgrün-ockerfarbenen Geviert auf dem terrakotta-farbenen Steinfussboden für ihren Auftritt bereit. Gruppen von schwarz gekleideten Lorca-Frauen huschen über die Bühne.

An den Wasser-Zapfstellen spülen die Fabrikarbeiterinnen sich den Schweiss von der Stirn. Sie strömen zur Pausenzigarette aus einem in der Mitte angeordneten Pilaster, der sich wie ein Garagentor öffnet. Alle Frauen sind in züchtiges Hellblau gekleidet.

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Man and Boy: Dada

Schwitters Agonistes: Opera Takes on a Radical

By ANNE MIDGETTE

Kurt Schwitters. Merz Picture 32A (The Cherry Picture). 1921. Cloth, wood, metal, fabric, cut-and-pasted papers, cork, gouache, oil, and ink on cardboard, 36 1/8 × 27 3/4" (91.8 × 70.5 cm). Mr. and Mrs. A. Atwater Kent, Jr. Fund. © 2002 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Theaters, museums and opera houses are conservative by definition: they are dedicated to conserving works of art. In modern times, pieces conceived as challenges to the status quo have been inexorably folded into it.

A new place of conservation, the lovely Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University, opened on Oct. 7, and on Wednesday it presented the first American performance of a new opera about Kurt Schwitters, the radical conceptual artist whose collages and publications, associated with the Dada movement, are now part of the fine art canon. The opera, "Man and Boy: Dada," by Michael Nyman and Michael Hastings, had its premiere in Germany in March.

But while Schwitters is its subject, the opera shares none of his radicalism. It's actually a rather conventional little drama posing as something more cutting edge by swathing itself in bolts of Mr. Nyman's quasi-minimalist music. Schwitters is on exhibition here, but behind a pane of glass. Rather than exploring the issues raised by his art, the opera presents them as curiosities that affect his ability to develop relationships until a boy and his widowed mother penetrate his defenses.

[Click here for remainder of article.]

Philip Gossett Receives Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award

Philip Gossett, one of the world's foremost experts on Italian opera, will receive one of four Mellon Distinguished Achievement Awards, an honor that carries with it a $1.5 million prize. Gossett, the Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor in the University of Chicago's Department of Music, is a music historian who specializes in 19th-century Italian opera, specifically the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi. His selection by the Mellon Foundation marks the first time a musicologist has been chosen for the honor.

Although the Distinguished Achievement Award is only four years old, this is the third time a University of Chicago faculty member has won the prize: philosopher Robert Pippin and historian Sheila Fitzpatrick are both previous winners. The grant, which supports research within the winner's university, provides its honorees with $1.5 million over a three-year period in order that they and their institutions can deepen and extend humanistic research. In contrast to other academic award programs that benefit the individual scholar exclusively, the Distinguished Achievement Awards recognize the interdependence of scholars and their institutions and are intended to "underscore the decisive contributions the humanities make to the nation's intellectual life."

Gossett was a natural choice for the honor, said Ellen Harris, a musicologist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "He has been largely responsible for making 19th-century Italian opera what it is today - a major field and a respected field in musicological research." Before Gossett's scholarship, it was considered inappropriate for a student to stray from studying the Renaissance or the great masters like Beethoven and Bach. "The only reason it doesn't seem strange anymore is because of Philip. You can never say that someone has single-handedly done something, but to the extent that you can, he has single-handedly brought 19th century opera into the highest levels of musicological scholarship," Harris said.

Opera News has called Gossett the "top expert in the world" on Donizetti, Verdi and Rossini; The New Yorker said he is the "single leader" in the field of 19th-century Italian opera; and earlier this year, Newsday wrote, "Some encomiasts claim that soprano Maria Callas did as much for Italian opera as Toscanini or Verdi. Musicologist Philip Gossett arguably has done as much for Italian opera as any of those geniuses."

Author of two books on Donizetti and of the forthcoming Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera (Spring 2006, Chicago), Gossett serves as general editor of The Works of Giuseppe Verdi and of The Critical Edition of the Works Gioachino Rossini. Among the operas he himself has edited or co-edited are Rossini's Tancredi, Ermione, and Semiramide. He is currently working on Verdi's La forza del Destino. In 1998 the Italian government awarded him its highest civilian honor, Cavaliere di Gran Croce. Gossett has also served as president of the American Musicological Society and of the Society for Textual Scholarship, as Dean of the Humanities Division at Chicago, and as lecturer and consultant at opera houses and festivals in America and Italy. Gossett, who was once a math and physics major, received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1970, and has been teaching at the University of Chicago since 1968.

Gossett said he plans to begin using the grant in the 2006-07 academic year to advance his more than 20-year-old project of creating new critical editions of both Rossini's and Verdi's works. In conjunction with this project, he will bring other opera scholars to campus to teach and do research. He plans to hold a major interdisciplinary conference examining the intersection of editorial theory, the preparation of critical editions that can be used as the basis for performance (musical or literary), and the use of these editions in the concert hall, on stage, or in other performance venues. He will also fund research trips to as yet unexplored archives in South America and Spain, where there are major theaters that were once Italian opera hubs.

Krassimira Stoyanova: A Biographical Note

The Wiener Staatsoper's 2004-2005 season includes Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, which premiered on 8 December. Krassimira Stoyanova performed the role of "Amelia" to rave reviews. Beginning 3 January 2005, she will appear at the Met's production of Turandot in the role of Liu; and, on 18 January, she will appear in recital with the Opera Orchestra of New York. It seems fitting, then, to provide a biographical note of this exciting soprano.

Krassimira Stoyanova was born in Bulgaria and studied singing and violin at the Plodiv Music Academy and violin at the Conservatory Russe.

Mrs. Stoyanova made her professional debut in 1995 at the Opera National de Sofiya, where she sang a wide range of repertory: Rigoletto (Gilda), Le Nozze di Figaro (Susanna), Il Guarany (Cecilia), and Antonio Carlo Gomes' I Fosca (Delila), La Juive (Rachel), La Clemenza di Tito (Vitellia) and Idomeneo (Ilia).

Her international career developed rapidly and took her to the following opera houses and theaters: Metropolitan Opera: La Traviata (Violetta), Nationaloper Helsinki: Le nozze di Figaro (Gräfin), New Israeli Opera Tel Aviv: La Juive (Rachel) - new production, Don Giovanni (Donna Anna), Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires: I Pagliacci (Nedda) - new production - , Carnegie Hall: Les Huguenots (Valentine), La Battaglia di Lignano (Lida), Hamburgische Staatsoper. La Traviata (Violetta), Royal Opera House Covent Garden: La Bohème (Mimi), Opernhaus Köln: La Juive (Rachel) Gala evening with Neil Shicoff, Ravenna Festival: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony conducted by Riccardo Muti, Opernhaus Zürich: La Traviata (Violetta), Deutsche Oper Berlin: Idomeneo (Elettra), Le Nozze di Figaro (Gräfin), Konzerthaus Berlin: Rossini's Stabat Mater conducted by Maestro Marcus Creed with CD-recording, Rio de Janeiro: Carmen (Micaela), BAYERISCHE STAATSOPER MüNCHEN: Carmen (Micaela), SALZBURGER FESTSPIELE: Les Contes d'Hoffmann (Antonia), Teatro Reggio di Torino: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony conducted by Myung-Whung Chung, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Christoph Eschenbach, etc... .

Since 1998 Krassimira Stoyanova has been engaged at the Wiener Staatsoper - and has sung in the following operas: La Juive - with TV-production (Rachel), Le Nozze di Figaro (Contessa), Carmen (Micaela), Les contes d'Hoffmann (Antonia), Turandot (Liu), I Pagliacci (Nedda), La Bohème (Mimi), etc...

The 2003/2004 season is presenting a new production of Verdi's Falstaff (Alice Ford) at the Wiener Staatsoper, and Le nozze di Figaro (Gräfin), Don Giovanni (Donna Anna), Turandot (Liu), I Pagliacci (Nedda) for Ms. Stoyanova.

Further highlights of the 2003/2004 season include Anna Bolena (title role) at Carnegie Hall with Opera Orchestra of New York, New York, Dvorak: Stabat Mater and Dimitri at the Wiener Konzerthaus, Bruckner: Te Deum at the Wiener Musikverein, and Dvorak: Stabat Mater at the Alte Oper Frankfurt.

During the 2004 to 2006 seasons Mrs. Stoyanova returns to Washington Opera to appear in Il Trovatore (Leonora), Turandot (Liu) at the Metropolitan Opera, Don Giovanni (Donna Anna) in Bilbao - new production - and in Otello (Desdemona) - new production - in Barcelona and Tokio.

Selected Recordings:

Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle / Creed

Rossini: Stabat Mater

Go to Ms. Stoyanova's website for additional information, including audio and video clips from her performances.

AMOR: Richard Strauss — Opera Scenes and Lieder

French soprano Natalie Dessay sings three roles, all quite different in character and personality -- from Zerbinetta in "Ariadne" to Zdenka in "Arabella" and Sophie in "Rosenkavalier."

It is a delicious way to sample the pleasures of this great singer. Fortunately, she is joined by other superb singers such as Austrian mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager as Sophie and British soprano Felecity Lott as Arabella and the Marschallin.

Click here for entire review.

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Andromeda liberata in London

Andromeda liberata, Barbican Hall, London

By Richard Fairman
Published: December 16 2004 02:00 | Last updated: December 16 2004 02:00

In his prolific career Vivaldi wrote about 38 solo cantatas, 20 motets and 45 operas, of which 21 survive more or less, but hardly any of his vocal music gets performed today.

So how did this rather uninteresting piece elbow its way to the head of the queue? Selling Andromeda liberata as a news story about a musical detective trying to uncover the identity of a forgotten masterpiece has brought out the Sherlock Holmes lurking behind every editor's desk. Music magazines and newspapers worldwide have rushed to publish articles. A recording is due soon from a big international record company.

Was it all worth it? Despite the efforts of the sleuth on the case we still do not know who wrote most of this long-forgotten serenata. Vivaldi's name can confidently be ascribed to only one aria, while the rest may be by him or a contemporary, or apasticcio put together by a number of different composers.

[Click here for remainder of article (subscription to Financial Times online required).]

Andromeda Liberata

Major Losses at the Berlin Opera Houses

Berliner Opernhäuser haben Millionenverluste gemacht

19:45 Uhr

Die Staatsoper Unter den Linden

Berlin - Die drei Berliner Opernhäuser haben im ersten Jahr der gemeinsamen Opernstiftung weniger Besucher als erwartet gehabt und damit Millionenverluste gemacht. Insgesamt kamen in diesem Jahr in die Staatsoper Unter den Linden, die Deutsche Oper und in die Komische Oper mit knapp 660 000 Besucher 25 000 zahlende Opernbesucher weniger als geplant.

Auch absolut gingen die Besucherzahlen um mehrere tausend zurück (von 667 000). Damit fehlen der Opernstiftung 2,7 Millionen Euro gegenüber dem Planansatz, wie der kulturpolitische Sprecher der PDS-Fraktion, Wolfgang Brauer, mitteilte.

Auch die Auslastungszahlen lagen meist unter den Erwartungen, bei der Komischen Oper mit rund 54 Prozent "immer noch im roten Bereich", wie Brauer sagte. 2003 waren es knapp 49 Prozent. In der Deutschen Oper lag die Auslastung bei rund 65 Prozent (was allerdings nach eigenen Angaben eine Steigerung um 5 Prozent gegenüber dem Vorjahr bedeutet), in der Staatsoper bei rund 74 Prozent gegenüber 76,4 Prozent 2003 (alle Zahlen beziehen sich auf die bezahlten Plätze).

Damit verzeichneten die Häuser der Opernstiftung, deren Posten als Generaldirektor seit Gründung am 1. Januar 2004 nach einem Jahr noch immer unbesetzt ist, eine Gesamtauslastung von 62,7 Prozent (bei den bezahlten Plätzen). (dpa)

Rodelinda at the Met

Brilliant, Starlit Night

Metropolitan Opera's 'Rodelinda' grants Handel his due

By JAMES JORDEN

The Metropolitan Opera can be a pretty dreary place when presenting an under-cast and under-rehearsed revival. But their new production of Handel's "Rodelinda" on December 6 was of festival quality, brilliantly prepared and boasting a superstar cast that included David Daniels and Renée Fleming.

I keep trying to like Fleming, but her increasingly mannered delivery just grates on me. Yes, the voice retains a lovely, silky quality, and she looks quite fetching onstage. But her micromanagement of Rodelinda's music, inflecting every single word and note, robs her of the ability to sing a true legato, and, ironically, veils the sound to the point that her Italian is almost completely inscrutable.

[Click here for remainder of article.]

Trouble Down Under

Discord rings out as new opera director takes up the baton

By Sharon Verghis
December 16, 2004

Richard Hickox barely had time to adjust to the time difference before he walked into his first industry controversy.

"I'm sorry that I have to spend my first morning in Australia defending the company," the newly appointed music director of Opera Australia said yesterday.

Hickox, who officially begins his tenure at the company when he conducts a gala concert at the Opera House on New Year's Eve, was responding to claims by some of the stars of the critically acclaimed production of the Ring cycle that they will be forced to go overseas because of lack of work here.

The soprano Lisa Gasteen, who shone as Brunnhilde in the recently concluded $15.3 million State Opera of South Australia production, told the Herald last week it was "pretty tragic" that so many top performers were not being heard here. Although they had managed to land engagements in Europe next year, many were bitter and disheartened that they had been overlooked at home, she said. She attributed the creative flight to what she sees as Australia's continuing lack of support and regard for the arts, among other things.

[Click here for remainder of article.]

Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria a Brescia

Una spiaggia di sabbia, due muri ai lati, l'ingresso monumentale alla reggia di Itaca sul fondo. E' incredibile come questa scena fissa semplicissima sia riuscita a reggere per le tre ore e mezza di spettacolo, ma non solo, a renderlo comunque vario e godibilissimo.

Sto parlando della messinscena dell'opera di Monteverdi gia' data a Cremona e anche altrove nel circuito dei teatri lombardi, che io ho visto domenica al teatro Grande di Brescia. E' una produzione proveniente da Aix-en-Provence, con le scene e i costumi di Anthony Ward e la regia di Adrian Noble. Per quanto riguarda la parte musicale, Ottavio Dantone dirigeva l'Accademia Bizantina, il coro Costanzo Porta e l'affollatissimo cast. Ma andiamo con ordine.

Accademia Bizantina, Ottavio Dantone, musical director

Come ho detto la scena era seplicissima. Solo, si aggiungevano a quanto ho descritto alcuni fili luminosi che calavano dall'alto e pochi effetti di fumo per le scene "celesti", qualche botola e praticamente niente altro. Eppure lo spettacolo era movimentatissimo: il regista ha chiesto molto ai cantanti in termini di recitazione e tutti hanno risposto molto bene. Capriole, ruote, arrampicamenti sui muri, salti, voli su semplicissime macchine teatrali. Non pensate che l'opera di Monteverdi sia stata trasformata in un circo: la regia e' stata rispettabilissima del libretto e della vicenda e l'unica liberta' che si e' presa, al di la' della vaga atemporalita' dei costumi, e' stato quello di dare all'insieme una colorazione orientale piu' che greca. Col risultato che i tre Proci sembravano piuttosto i Re Magi, ma era un guaio da poco. Il massimo della richiesta registica penso sia stato quello a Roberto Balconi, che fra le altre cose ha interpretato l'Humana Fragilita' nel prologo e che ha sportivamente accettato di cantare per venti minuti buoni completamente nudo, scioccando un po' le signore della pomeridiana domenicale ma nel complesso con un effetto drammatico notevole.

Che poi Balconi abbia la voce che ha... purtroppo e' un altro discorso. Mi sembra la Kabaiwanska dei controtenori, sembra che la voce gli debba essere estratta a forza dalle tonsille. Il cast era dominato da Furio Zanasi che era Ulisse e soprattutto da Sonia Prina che e' stata una Penelope assolutamente strepitosa. Bravissima, lo so che il suo timbro di voce non piace a tutti ma in questo Monteverdi e' stata esemplare per stile, per dizione (non abbiamo perso una sola sillaba del testo) per gusto negli ornamenti. Dieci con lode. C'erano poi, bravissimi, Sergio Foresti (Antinoo), Luca Dordolo (Telemaco) e Roberta Invernizzi (La Fortuna e Minerva). Gli altri erano accettabili su vari livelli, un po' fioca purtroppo la Melanto di Paola Quagliata.

Lo spettacolo sara' riproposto nei prossimi mesi a Ferrara e a Bari: se potete non perdetevelo.

Riccardo Domenichini

Journal of Musicological Research

The Journal of Musicological Research has announced the release of Volume 23, Issue 3-4. The following is the table of contents from this issue:

Paul Christiansen: "The Meaning of Speech Melody for Leos Janácek"

Nathan Hesselink and Jonathan Christian Petty: "Landscape and Soundscape: Geomantic Spatial Mapping in Korean Traditional Music"

Kathryn Lowerre: "Fallen Woman Redeemed: Eliot, Victorianism, and Opera in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats"

Victoria Adamenko: "Schoenberg and Mythic Conception"

Book Reviews:

Mark Everist, Music Drama at the Paris Odéon 1824-1828: reviewed by Marian Smith

Anthony J. Harper, German Secular Song-Books of the Mid-Seventeenth Century: An Examination of the Texts in Collections of Songs Published in the German-Language Area Between 1624 and 1660: reviewed by Allen Scott

Robin Stowell, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet: reviewed by Marie Sumner Lott

[Click here for subscription information.]

Renée Fleming: Not By Talent Alone

Aiming For Her Very Top Note

Tue Dec 14, 7:00 PM ET

Curt Schleier

Renee Fleming understands that natural talent isn't enough to assure success.

In fact, Fleming said during a recent interview, natural ability can work against you. Take the time she was still a student and scheduled to compete in a national contest sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera Co. of New York City. She decided to skip lengthy practice, figuring she could ride on her talent alone.

Wrong. She failed that audition largely for lack of preparation.

Despite that flop, Fleming refused to give up. She came close on occasion, but her love for singing won out and she kept reaching. It paid off. At just "about the time I decided I was not cut out for this job, doors began to open."

The doors opened for a reason. Fleming made it a point to audition for everything, even if she didn't think she had a shot at making it.

"It was a leave-no-stone-unturned kind of thinking," she said. "I have a lot of natural energy, and of course when drive and ambition are put into the mix, there was no stopping me. Add to that, I was an only child for whom there was always something to pursue."

Today Fleming, 45, is one of the world's most accomplished and renowned sopranos. But even the most exceptional singers need "an enormous amount of practice and experimentation, and you have to be very creative about mastering this instrument," she said.

It's not just a matter of putting in the time; it's a matter of putting in the time correctly, Fleming says. During practice, she focuses on every aspect of singing, from proper breathing techniques to learning the correct phraseology. It was during these practice sessions that she began to develop "my real passion for singing."

"It is a beautiful thing to sing in front of an audience, but singing to myself, alone in a room, breaking down phrases note by note, is even more satisfying somehow," she wrote in her just-published memoir, "The Inner Voice: The Making of a Singer."

[Click here for remainder of article.]

Hercules in Paris

Hard luck trails Hercules

By David Stevens International Herald Tribune
Wednesday, December 15, 2004

From left: Toby Spence, Joyce DiDonato and Malena Ernman in ''Hercules.'' (Eric Mahoudeau)

PARIS Hercules had a lot of bad luck in his turbulent career, although it could be reasonably argued that he brought a lot of it on himself. In a way, much the same could be said of Handel's music drama on the mythical hero, which ran into a string of bad luck that seems to have dogged it ever since.

"Hercules" was written in 1744, in one of the composer's late bursts of creativity, but drama or no drama, it was first performed in oratorio form in 1745 in Handel's disastrous season at the King's Theater. One of the principal singers was unable to fill her role, and on the whole things did not go well.

The story is really that of Hercules's wife, Dejanira, and her mental and emotional breakdown spurred by suspicions - not unjustified - of her mate's extramarital escapades. With the help of Nessus, who has his own complaints with Hercules, she gives the hero a shirt infused with poison but which she thinks is a love charm. End of story, and end of Hercules.

[Click here for remainder of article.]

Recommended recording:

Handel: Hercules / Minkowski, Von Otter, Croft, Et Al

Another View of A Wedding

Bolcom's music humanizes Altman's sardonic 'Wedding'

Movie-turned-opera by U-M composer William Bolcom opens in Chicago.

By Lawrence B. Johnson / Detroit News Music Critic
Image

CHICAGO -- Think of the human condition as images in a funhouse -- where individual moments may be funny, but the collective experience is closer to melancholy, distressing, bitter and bleak -- and you have Robert Altman's 1978 film "A Wedding." Now imagine setting every facet and nuance of that play to evocative, colorful and above all compassionate music and you have William Bolcom's operatic version of Altman's film.

"A Wedding," as music-drama, had its world premiere Saturday night at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the experience left one reeling from the impression of comedy as a sardonic laugh at us all.

Bolcom, the Pulitzer Prize laureate who teaches at the University of Michigan has written an imaginative, stylistic quiltwork of a score, but it is largely subsumed within a play that finds little merit in any character and grows progressively darker and more severe as events wear on.

In his third commission from the Lyric Opera, after "McTeague" (1993) and "A View From the Bridge" (2000), Bolcom displays his typical flair for weaving whole cloth from a stunning array of musical threads -- in this case blues, gospel and the rock 'n' roll that precipitated from those forms, as well as the "classical" disciplines of aria and orchestration that place this work in the legitimate tradition of opera.

[Click here for remainder of review.]

Falstaff at Strasbourg

Falstaff, Opéra du Rhin, Strasbourg

By Francis Carlin
Published: December 14 2004 15:54 | Last updated: December 14 2004 15:54

The posters dotted around Strasbourg showed a figure trussed up in pillows and mattresses, to add more protuberance to waist and buttocks, against a backdrop of titillating see-thru ladies underwear on a line.

It smacked of deconstructionism laced with sauciness but turned out to be much tamer. Giorgio Barberio Corsetti's new production of Verdi's last work wisely sets its sights lower - this is not a work to be tampered with lightly - and still scores a handsome success.

His Falstaff, superbly acted and sung by Alan Opie, is not a 10 ton tubby, with unsightly tufts of hair and bad skin, but a profoundly human figure, the sort of comical, egotistical character that pops up somewhere in every modern family.

To this end, Corsetti has stylishly updated the action to the 1950s. Like all transplants of Falstaff, it doesn't quite work in the final scene: Sir John's terror of witches in Windsor Forest fits awkwardly with the preceding day-glo interiors of a striking cocktail bar and the Ford family's streamlined lounge area.

[Click here for remainder of review (subscription to Financial Times online required).]

Cast information:

Sir John Falstaff — Alan Opie
Bardolfo — Rodolphe Briand
Dr. Cajus — Ricardo Cassinelli
Pistola — Antoine Garcin
Mrs. Meg Page — Isabelle Cals
Mrs. Quickly — Mariana Pentcheva
Nanetta — Laura Giordano
Fenton — Ismael Jordi
Ford — Tommi Hakala

Choeurs de l'Opéra national Du Rhin
Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg

Musical director — Carlo Rizzi
Director — Giorgio Barberio Corsetti

Recommended recording:

Verdi: Falstaff / Abbado, Terfel, Pieczonka, Berlin Po, Etc

Die tote Stadt at the Wiener Staatsoper

Kritik Staatsoper: Sie war doch nur scheintot

VON WILHELM SINKOVICZ

Wie Erich Wolfgang Korngolds einstiger Sensationserfolg "Die tote Stadt" zum Repertoirestück wird.

Wiederbelebungsversuche startet man seit geraumer Zeit mit vie len Werken, die unter der ära des Nationalsozialismus als "entartet" verboten waren und dann nach 1945 den Weg zurück in die Opernhäuser und Konzertsäle nicht mehr schaffen wollten. Erich Wolfgang Korngold war einer jener Komponisten, die besonders darunter zu leiden hatten. Anders als etwa Franz Schreker, der 1934 gestorben war, musste er nach dem Krieg miterleben, wie das Publikum, das einst seinen Kompositionen zugejubelt hatte, plötzlich verständnislos reagierte; schlimmer noch: gleichgültig.

Weil es ihm gelungen war, im amerikanischen Exil in der Filmbranche zu reüssieren und den typischen Hollywood-Sound regelrecht zu erfinden - indem er schlicht seine wienerische Fin-de-siècle-Kunst in die USA transferierte , urteilten die strengen Richter der Moderne im Alten Europa den Heimkehrer als ewiggestrigen Romantiker ab, der nicht einsah, dass nach Schönberg und seiner Schule keine C-Dur, nicht einmal Fis-Dur-Dreiklänge mehr erlaubt sein sollten. Es bedurfte des Befreiungsschlags der so genannten Postmoderne, um den Blick freizumachen auf die Tatsache, dass die Moderne, grob gesprochen, nicht nur aus der Zwölftönerei bestand, sondern ein reicher Humus war, aus dem unterschiedlichste Klangwelten erblühen konnten.

Die schillerndste, weil besonders leuchtkräftig orchestrierte, war sicher jene von Korngold. Die "Tote Stadt" darf überdies als einer der wenigen gelungenen Versuche gelten, die Errungenschaften der eben erfundenen Psychoanalyse aufs künstlerische Parkett zu transferieren.

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Recommended recording:

Korngold: Die Tote Stadt / Leinsdorf, Neblett, Kollo, Et Al

Rossini's La Pietra del Paragone at Opéra de Fribourg

LA PIETRA DEL PARAGONE
(La pierre de touche)

Melodramma giocoso en deux actes
de Gioacchino Rossini

Livret de Luigi Romanelli (1751-1839)

Créé à la Scala de Milan
le 26 septembre 1812

Le comte Asdrubal est entouré de trois femmes qui cherchent à l'épouser, mais il n'est aimé que d'une seule, Clarice. Fatigué de leurs assiduités et de l'empressement d'un journaliste vénal, d'un homme de lettres ridicule et d'un jeune poète, le comte monte un stratagème: il prétend etre ruiné. Et tous de l'abandonner sauf Clarice et le poète Giocondo. Mais Clarice décide à son tour de se jouer de lui. Il est au désespoir jusqu'à ce que Giocondo réconcilie les amants.

Conjuguant les jeux fugaces de l'amour et du hasard à une peinture assez sardonique de la société, La Pierre de touche souleva un tel enthousiasme lors de sa création qu'elle rendit son auteur aussitot célèbre dans toute l'Italie. On ne comprend pas comment une telle œuvre, l'une des plus brillantes partitions de Rossini, si riche de juvénile gaieté, d'inventions mélodiques virtuoses et d'impertinence heureuse, nous est restée si longtemps inconnue...

[Click here for details.]

Recommended recording:

La Pietra Del Paragone

Kurt Weill's One Touch of Venus

One Touch of Venus, Grand Theatre, Leeds

By Richard Fairman [Financial Times]
Published: December 13 2004 02:00 | Last updated: December 13 2004 02:00

It is no surprise that Kurt Weill's One Touch of Venus was one of his bigger successes in the US, running for more than 500 performances. As soon as Marlene Dietrich had rejected the title role as being too "sexy and profane" the queue for tickets must have stretched half the length of Broadway.

These days it is more or less unknown on stage, at least in the UK. Ever the explorer, Opera North has put on its archaeologist's gear again to go excavating for this rarity and proved what a rich haul the many and varied stage works of Weill still afford.

The Venus of the title is an ancient Roman statue, who springs to life and soon settles down enthusiastically to modern suburban life, reducing the ancient ethos of divine love to nothing more mystical than the "triumphant twang of the bed-spring".

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Le Monde Reviews First Encounter

Sélection CD L'osmose de deux timbres rares

LE MONDE | 13.12.04 | 15h33

First Encounter: Angelika Kirchschlager & Barbara Bonney

Classique "Il y a très longtemps, raconte Barbara Bonney, que je fis connaissance avec Angelika Kirchschlager. Ce fut un dimanche matin, alors que je chantais à Salzbourg dans l'église des Franciscains. Angelika n'était alors qu'une petite fille de 12 ans qui chantait dans la chorale." C'est ainsi que la blonde soprano américaine raconte sa première rencontre avec la brune mezzo salzbourgeoise. D'ou le titre de l'album, First Encounter, lui-meme traduit du premier des Lieder de Schumann, Erste Begegnung, qu'elles interprètent ensemble.

Il ne s'agit pas d'un simple duo produit de marketing mais d'une véritable osmose humaine et musicale. Dès les premières notes des Lieder op. 63 de Mendelssohn, on est saisi par l'accord de leur timbre et de leur personnalité. On se souviendrait certainement - elles ne l'ont jamais chanté ensemble - d'un Chevalier à la rose, de Strauss, ou le duo d'amour Barbara Bonney (elle a été la Sophie superlative de l'enregistrement avec Carlos Kleiber en 1984) - Angelika Kirchschlager (qui fut l'Octavian découvert avec bonheur à l'Opéra-Bastille en 2002) aurait donné le blues à la plus endurcie des Maréchale.

[Click here for remainder of review.]

Elektra at the Oper Duisburg

Elektra in der Oper Duisburg: Ein Leben für den Tod

Rheinoper: In Duisburg zeigen Stein Winge und Johannes Schütz Richard Strauss` "Elektra" in einer Welt, die Kopf steht.

Duisburg. Alles ist erfüllt von den Abwesenden. An die Wände hängt Elektra, die von dem Mörderpaar Klytämnestra und Aegisth verstossene Königstochter, die fotokopierten Bildnisse eines Mannes wie Vermisstenanzeigen und Suchbilder. Wird wenigstens der Bruder Orest noch aus dem Krieg heimkehren, wenn schon der Vater heimtückisch ermordet wurde?

Für Elektras Wahrnehmung ist das Unrecht zum normalen Alltag geworden, eine verkehrte Welt, die Kopf steht. Und so sieht es im Bühnenbild von Johannes Schütz der "Elektra" auch aus, die die Düsseldorfer Rheinoper am Samstag in Duisburg herausbrachte. Welch eine grandiose Inszenierung, mit der Schütz und Regisseur Stein Winge uns wieder einmal beschenken!

Denn aller Ablauf ist von bezwingender Stringenz, und John Fiore gelingt mit den erneut brillanten Duisburger Philharmonikern eine vorzüglich differenzierende Interpretation. Das ist so selbstverständlich nicht, ist doch die nach der "Salome" modernste Oper von Richard Strauss mit dem Libretto von Hugo von Hofmannsthal (nach Sophokles), uraufgeführt 1909 am Königlichen Opernhaus Dresden, bis heute von verstörend wuchtiger, düsterer Strenge und zugleich betörend sensibler Schönheit.

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Elektra with Eva Marton:

Troubles at the Münchener Bach-Chor

Riss im Ensemble
Bach-Chor ins Schlingern geraten

Es schien perfekt eingefädelt: ein Konzert zum 50-jährigen Jubiläum, dann sogar mit dem künftigen Chef am Pult. Doch Ralf Otto, der charismatische Wunschkandidat aus Mainz, gab dem Münchener Bach-Chor kurz vor dem Weihnachtsoratorium am kommenden Samstag einen Korb (wir berichteten). Das Konzert leitet er zwar, die Feierlaune ist allerdings Katerstimmung gewichen.

Der Bach-Chor, seit dem Rückzug Hanns-Martin Schneidts 2001 erfolglos auf Chefsuche und von Philipp Amelung als Interimsleiter betreut, steht damit vor einer Grundsatzentscheidung. Mit Hansjörg Albrecht und Michael Gläser bleiben dem renommierten Klangkörper noch zwei Kandidaten. Einem Klangkörper, der durch Gründer Karl Richter einst Weltruhm erlangte, dessen Form indes mit seinem Renommee längst nicht mehr Schritt halten kann.

Der "logische" Chef wäre Michael Gläser. Ende dieser Saison verlässt der gebürtige Chemnitzer den Chor des BR, dem er seit 1990 einen gewaltigen Qualitätssprung bescherte. Gläser, Jahrgang 1957, war früher Mitglied des Leipziger Thomanerchors, kommt also aus der musikalischen Tradition, der sich der Bach-Chor verpflichtet fühlt. Zudem ist er seit 1994 Professor für Chorleitung und evangelische Kirchenmusik an der Münchner Musikhochschule - für den Bach-Chor eine ideale Konstellation.

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Lavinia fuggita at Modena

Lavinia la turca

Lavinia fuggita
Opera da camera in un atto
di Matteo D'Amico
libretto di Sandro Cappelletto, liberamente tratto dall'omonimo racconto di Anna Banti
prima rappresentazione: Modena, Teatro Comunale 12 dicembre 2004

Teatro Comunale
via del Teatro 8
Modena
tel. 059.20 00 20 - fax 059.20 00 21 www.comune.modena.it/teatrocomunale/; teatro@comune.modena.it
13 dicembre 2004

Ancora una nuova opera commissionata dal Teatro Comunale di Modena, da offrire ai giovani delle scuole, sulla scia di una meritoria iniziativa avviata ormai da qualche anno. Questa volta il compositore coinvolto è Matteo D'Amico che, complice il "librettista" Sandro Cappelletto, ha realizzato "Lavinia fuggita", opera da camera in un prologo e sette scene dal racconto di Anna Banti, nel ventesimo anniversario della sua scomparsa. Tanti i punti a favore di questa impresa, dunque: opera nuova, contemporanea, realizzata per l'occasione - dato raro - che ricorda una scrittrice sensibile, colta e, possiamo dire, quasi dimenticata - altro merito - il tutto pensato per i giovani, che si trovano così a confrontarsi, nello stesso momento, con il teatro d'opera e con la musica contemporanea. Alla "prima" di domenica pomeriggio, colpevoli forse le spedizioni per regali natalizi, il teatro non era di certo esaurito, ma il calore del pubblico si è comunque fatto sentire alla fine dell'ora in cui sul palcoscenico è stata raccontata la storia di Lavinia. Orfana dell'Ospedale della Pietà veneziano, la protagonista condivide insofferente la condizione delle sue compagne, fatta di preghiera e canto, vivaldiano naturalemnte. Ma Lavinia ha il sangue che le parla della sua terra lontana, e anela alla libertà, al ritorno, che trova di tanto in tanto nella musica che compone di nascosto, e che Vivaldi - furbastro - fa sua. Un bel giorno, un misterioso marinaio turco che porta con se un piu che simbolico colore rosso, la porta via: Lavinia, così, fugge. I versi di Cappelletto sono ben confezionati, chiari e a tratti anche divertenti, la musica di D'Amico si nutre di palesi riferimenti al Prete Rosso ("Juditha Triumphans", l'"Inverno" delle "Stagioni") drammaturgicamente funzionali, su un impianto stilisticamente variegato, tenuto assieme da un univoco carattere timbrico della partitura. La messa in scena - regia Paola Viano, scene Antonella Conte - è essenziale ma funziona, con belle idee come la discesa dall'altro degli strumenti per il concerto delle "pute". Giovani ma generose d'impegno le interpreti, a partire da Ermonela Jaho nei panni di Lavinia. Aldo Sisillo alla guida dell'Orchestra da camera del Comunale ha seguito con precisione la trama musicale. Come detto, alla fine applausi per tutti.

Alessandro Rigolli

[Source: Il giornale della musica]

Demonstrations of the École de Danse of the Ballet de l’Opéra National de Paris

From ArtsJournal.com
Seeing Things
TOBI TOBIAS on dance et al...

THE FRENCH HAVE A SCHOOL FOR IT

Demonstrations of the école de Danse of the Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris (School of the Paris Opera Ballet) / Opéra National de Paris: Palais Garnier, Paris / December 5, 2004

The Paris Opera Ballet School, founded by Louis XIV in 1713--it's the world's oldest academy for producing classical dancers--is now located in a utilitarian complex specifically built for it in Nanterre, on the bleak outskirts of the City of Light. But for more than a century it was located in the bowels of the lavish Palais Garnier, at the hub of urban elegance. It was there--cocooned in that opera house's imposing Second Empire decorative excesses of varicolored marble offset by gilt and bronze; of statues, bas-reliefs, frescos, and mosaics; of deep red plush and heavy figured and tasseled drapery; of an infinity of mirrors and chandeliers--that I saw the daylong program this extraordinary school, the oldest and arguably the greatest of its kind, modestly calls its "Demonstrations."

The program, nearly six hours long, with a break midway in which valiant spectators went out to revive themselves with shots of strong black coffee, comprised separate mini-classes for boys and girls from Level 6 (ages 12 to 13) up to Level 1 (18 and under). (You work your way up in this system, those who stay the rigorous course graduating into the parent company or a life in dance elsewhere, at the age of 18, though the precocious may join POB earlier.)

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A Wedding in Chicago: Two Reviews

Altman opera a fitting renovation

By Bill Gowen Daily Herald Classical Music Critic
Posted Monday, December 13, 2004

It's rare that a film director has an opportunity for a do-over.

But Robert Altman is no ordinary director, having created several of the most honored films of the past 40 years.

But even he will admit "A Wedding," filmed in Lake Forest in 1977 and released by 20th Century Fox the following year, isn't on the same exalted plane as "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," "Nashville" or "M*A*S*H." So when composer William Bolcom approached him about turning "A Wedding" into an opera, Altman wasn't all that enthusiastic.

But their successful Lyric Opera collaboration with "McTeague" in the 1992-93 season remained fresh in Altman's mind, and after several years' contemplation, the operatic "A Wedding" was born, with Altman the stage director and co-librettist (with Bolcom's longtime librettist, Arnold Weinstein). This creative team has come up with another operatic winner in a comedy of manners that presents a glimpse of a societal clash between two disparate families, one of them uncultured and nouveau riche from Louisville, the other a snobbish, high-society clan from the North Shore. Both are hiding numerous dark secrets from their past.

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Bolcom Musically Weds the Old Money to New

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

CHICAGO, Dec. 12 - Most composers count themselves lucky to secure even one commission from a major opera company. William Bolcom has had three in relatively quick order from one America's leading companies, the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The first resulted in the intense and gothic "McTeague," of 1992. Then came "A View From the Bridge" in 1999, a work Mr. Bolcom described as his journey into "Brooklyn verismo." On Saturday night the Lyric Opera presented the world premiere of "A Wedding," adapted from Robert Altman's 1978 film.

I wish I could report that the Lyric Opera's admirable faith in Mr. Bolcom, a prodigiously skilled composer, has emboldened him. But musically "A Wedding" plays it safe. In some ways it is the least compelling of the three works, each written with Mr. Bolcom's longtime lyricist, Arnold Weinstein, as librettist.

Be assured that you will have a good time attending "A Wedding." Mr. Altman, who collaborated with Mr. Weinstein on the libretto, has directed the striking production, drawing nuanced and vibrant portraits from a splendid cast. The creators have done an ingenious job of adapting the film into an opera that holds the stage effectively. No small feat, since the film's 48 characters had to be reduced to 16 singing parts.

Based on a story by Mr. Altman and John Considine, the film is a bleakly satirical, class-skewering tale of a wedding between Dino, the rakish son of a wealthy family from the posh Chicago suburb of Lake Forest ("old money" people) and "Muffin," the smitten and vacuous daughter of a trucking magnate from Kentucky ("new money" people who haven't yet acquired the snobbish pretensions of the old).

Still, music should come first in opera and Mr. Bolcom takes a frustratingly deferential role, as if he were afraid to impede the stage show or undermine a sight gag. The score is filled with snappy songs and dance numbers, extractable arias, clever ensembles and pleasing bits. But after a while the music seems slight. I wish Mr. Bolcom had tried to entertain his listeners a little less and challenge them a little more.

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What's On Le Figaro's Christmas List?

Notre sélection de DVD pour les fetes

La rituelle ruée sur les cadeaux de Noel passe, cette année encore plus que la précédente, par le déferlement des DVD musicaux : archives, documentaires, retours sur les vieilles gloires ou concerts de cette année remplissent les rayons - et bientot la hotte du père Noel.

Sélection de Françoise Dargent, Bertrand Dicale, Jacques Doucelin, Christian Merlin, Marion Thébaud et Jean-Luc Wachthausen
[10 décembre 2004]

Classique

• HECTOR BERLIOZ : LES TROYENS. Gardiner, Antonacci et Graham redonnent vie au chef-d'oeuvre de Berlioz : événement. (BBC Opus Arte.)

• GUSTAV MAHLER : SYMPHONIE N* 2 "RéSURRECTION". L'acte de naissance de l'orchestre du Festival de Lucerne, avec un Claudio Abbado transfiguré : un sommet musical et spirituel. (TDK.)

• AMBROISE THOMAS : HAMLET. Natalie Dessay et Simon Keenlyside en acteurs shakespeariens : mémorable. (EMI.)

• BENJAMIN BRITTEN : OWEN WINGRAVE.Spécialement conçu pour le petit écran, un opéra de chambre bouleversant par des interprètes de reve.(Arthaus.)

• JOHN ADAMS : LA MORT DE KLINGHOFFER. Réalisation choc pour un opéra au sujet brulant.(Decca.)

• RAMEAU : PLATéE. Quand l'équipe Minkowski-Pelly fait grincer l'humour cruel de Rameau.(TDK.)

• BARTOLI. Deux coffrets complémentaires : la rencontre au sommet entre la Bartoli et Harnoncourt au service de Haydn et Mozart (BBC Opus Arte) et la réunion en trois DVD des vidéos Decca (La Cenerentola, le récital en Italie et un documentaire.)

• REMEMBERING JACQUELINE DU PRé. Des images d'archives font revivre la merveilleuse violoncelliste avant qu'elle ne fut fauchée par la sclérose en plaques : à pleurer. (EMI.)

• EVGUENY MRAVINSKY. Documentaire saisissant sur le plus grand chef russe du XXe siècle : monumental. (EMI.)

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Rossini's La Cenerentola at Dallas

Singer is entrancing in a demanding role

By Wayne Lee Gay

Star-Telegram Classical Music Critic

After a weak start with Bizet's Carmen and a strong comeback with Janacek's Jenufa, Dallas Opera was on track for Rossini's La Cenerentola, or Cinderella, which opened Friday evening at Fair Park Music Hall.

Rossini and his early 19th-century collaborators had a slightly different take on the tale of the servant girl who marries a prince. There's a stupid stepfather instead of a mean stepmother, and there's a blind beggar who is actually an adviser to the prince instead of a fairy godmother. And there's no magic.

Rossini decorated this charming tale with some of his most skillful, appealing and well-crafted music; the only reason this masterpiece isn't done more often is that the title role demands that rarest of operatic birds, the bel canto mezzo-soprano, a female singer who combines a rich, low range with the agility to perform the rapid-fire trills and ornaments.

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[Click here for production details and ticket information.]

Opera Etiquette

Going to the Theater
Miss May
The Epoch Times
Dec 12, 2004

Dear Miss May:

I am very lucky and am able to go to NY soon for a weekend of theater and, well, just enjoying New York. I attended theater events in high school, but New York is really sophisticated, and I'm not. I really don't know how I should act when I go to the theater. Any advice?

Girl from the Midwest

Dear Midwestern Girl:

Audiences at operas and theaters are becoming increasingly less formal. Prior to the second half of the 20th Century, an evening at the opera was a pinnacle cultural event for high members of society. Gentlemen wore black tie attire or the even more formal white tie, while ladies were fully adorned in evening gowns. Today, except for on opening night, which remains as one of the most formal social events in a cosmopolitan city, one might easily go to the opera straight from work. Men wear dark dinner jackets and suits, and women wear suits and evening dresses. So if you bring a nice dress along, you will be very presentable.

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Anna Netrebko on 60 Minutes

Anna Netrebko: A Happy Diva

Singer Does Opera Music Videos

Dec 12, 2004 7:45 pm US/Eastern

Anna Netrebko in St. Petersburg Photograph: © Peter Rigaud

There isn't a musical instrument on earth that can produce sounds as varied, as beautiful, and as heart-rending as the voice of a woman.

That's why we worship our great sopranos, and call them divas. But many of the greatest musical divas are larger than life. And seeing them on stage can be jarring, particularly when, in operas such as "La Boheme" or "La Traviata," they're playing fragile, young beauties dying of consumption.

Correspondent Bob Simon reports on a new prima donna, a young, rising opera star, with a Cinderella story.

Her name is Anna Netrebko, and she's from Russia.

Her recordings are selling very well -- unusually well for classical music. But more than that, Netrebko is doing something never done before: opera music videos.

Call it "MTV meets the Met," or "Opera Lite." But the videos are knocking some stuffiness out of the opera world. In Europe, her DVD soared to No. 1 on the charts ahead of Britney Spears and Beyonce.

Netrebko is a marketer's dream, and her record company is daring to hope that she might just bring young people to opera. When is the last time you saw a soprano who sings at the Metropolitan Opera, and graces the pages of glossy magazines?

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Anna Netrebko in Leipzig

Anna Netrebko: Vom Aschenputtel zur Operndiva

VON Tobias D. Höhn, 10.12.04, 12:30h

Leipzig - Für viele ist sie die zweite Maria Callas. Wenn die russische Opernsängerin Anna Netrebko wie eine Ballerina über die Bühne schwebt, mit einem Lächeln und glockenheller Stimme Mozart oder Verdi, Donizetti oder Puccini intoniert, werden in den Köpfen vieler Konzertbesucher Bilder wach von der 1977 verstorbenen glamourösesten Operndiva aller Zeiten.

Auch in Leipzig, beim Auftakt zu Netrebkos erster umfassender Tournee durch Deutschland und Europa, zogen am Donnerstagabend manche Musikliebhaber voll des Lobes Parallelen. Doch rasch wurde klar: die mit Auszeichnungen überhäufte Künstlerin ist unvergleichlich. Nicht nur, weil ihr mit ihrem zweiten Arien-Recital "Sempre Libera" der bislang einmalige Sprung einer Opernsängerin in die Top Ten der Pop Charts gelang.

In die Wiege gelegt war ihr der Gesang keineswegs. Als Kind eines Geologen und einer Ingenieurin hasste Anna Opern. Sie träumte davon, als Schauspielerin die Leinwände zu erobern und der südrussischen Provinz Lebewohl zu sagen. Doch die Konkurrenz bei den Aufnahmetests war zu gross. Und so entscheidet sich die junge Frau, die spielend drei Oktaven bewältigt, für den Gesang.

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OSBORNE: The Opera Lover's Companion

As a space-saving maneuver, this worked; as a time-saver, the effort proved questionable. All too often, when I want to check a libretto, I find my poor organizational skills make the desired one difficult to locate. If found, I have a tendency to fail to replace it or to toss it on top of the shortest pile, insuring further frustration on my next visit.

This is where a volume such as Charles Osborne's The Opera-Lover's Companion might have great usefulness. Promoted on the front cover as "an informal and indispensable guide to the most frequently performed operas," the book in its essence contains the sort of short essay on the opera's history found in many a libretto, along with the requisite act/scene summary, followed by a brief critique. The only feature of Osborne's book not common to librettos is a single recommendation for the "best available" recording. I can think of many an opera recording where the consumer would appreciate the favor of having a better set suggested in the libretto of the disappointing one purchased; it seems unlikely that the CD companies will adopt the idea. 175 operas receive this treatment, covering operas from Monteverdi and Gluck up to those of Dallapiccola and Tippett.

However, there may not be many other collectors as foolish as I am. If one has a large CD collection and the librettos are easily retrievable, the need for this book becomes doubtful. Osborne's plumbs no analytical depths nor offers any fresh insights. Mozart's Nozze di Figaro earns almost 7 pages; the opera's place in the composer's career gets detailed elaboration. Da Ponte's work is called less complex than Beaumarchais's play but also praised for being "more tightly knit, and less rambling" - an unfortunate redundancy, but not untypical of Osborne's style. Then after almost three pages of plot summary, four paragraphs cover Mozart's music. Here's a typical example of Osborne as analyst: "the duets and ensembles move the plot along confidently, while contriving to present themselves as highly mellifluous musical entities." Those are some brazen, scheming duets and ensembles, offering all that confident contrivance. The recommended set, by the way, is the Erich Kleiber.

Here the contrast with the essays of an adequate libretto becomes clear: with the libretto comes a recording! If one doesn't know the music, one can trace the musical examples to the track listing and hear what Osborne's attempts to describe. Surely a listener familiar with the score does not need to be told that Dove sono is "full of a tender regret." The more passionate listener may, in fact, wonder if "tender regret" comes close to capturing the whole emotional range of the aria.

Since the vast majority of the entries are much briefer than this one for Nozze, it seems fair to conclude that the typical opera fan with even a modest acquaintance with the standard repertory will find Osborne's book of limited value. Without a strong personality, entrancing style, or some other compelling ingredient, reading the book becomes as attractive a proposition as piling one's lap with a 175 CD set of booklets and reading the main essay and summary one after another. If that sounds like a delightful afternoon to anyone, this book will spare one's lap a great deal of discomfort.

Perhaps then, the book is for the less initiated listener. From a personal perspective, I can only say that in my most green years of incoherent exploration of the art form, I never once thought, "I'd like to have the best of CD booklet essays all bound together!" Plot summaries often present an impediment to appreciating the drama of an opera, in my opinion; as a rule they make for unusually dull and confusing reading. The essays can be of greater interest, but a variety of styles and viewpoints has more appeal. The sameness of Osborne's style, with its heavy reliance on superlative synonyms, and his rather anodyne critical judgments make the 604-page book a hard slog; reading a few entries randomly lessens the tedium, but not by much. The helpful volumes in my opera-loving infancy were the then-current Gramophone Good CD Guide and Penguin Guide. With a number of writers offering more detailed responses to a much wider range of recordings, those volumes served me very well. After Osborne has praised the conductor of one of his chosen sets as "stylish" for the umpteenth time, I would no longer know what the term meant and seek more expansive remarks elsewhere.

The selection of the 175 operas raises other questions. First, the issue of the omitted operas that can hardly be called obscure or truly rare: Massenet's Thais has had successful stagings in recent years and a major label CD set featuring Fleming and Hampson. Fleming also brought Bellini's initial success Il Pirata to the Metropolitan not so long ago; it is absent. Puccini's La Rondine? Flying too low for Osborne's radar, I suppose. The upsurge in late classical and early romantic opera might have meant a mention of Spontini's Vestale or Cherubini's Medea — might have, but doesn't. I'm glad that seven of Donizetti's operas rate inclusion, but the absence of La Favorite and Roberto Devereaux still puzzles, as both have had some presence internationally of late.

Of the compelling 20th century operas brought to San Francisco Opera by Pamela Rosenberg, only Busoni's Doctor Faustus gets coverage. No Ligeti Le Grand Macabre, or Messiaen's St. Francis, or Thompson's Mother of Us All. In fact, of American opera, only Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Barber's Vanessa, and Moore's Ballad of Baby Doe rate inclusion by Osborne. None of Floyd's does, and most regrettably, neither Nixon in China nor Death of Klinghoffer from John Adams is present.

British composers, perhaps unsurprisingly, receive a warmer welcome. No major Britten work is excluded. Two of Tippett's appear, and if The Beggar's Opera gets an entry, why can't Bernstein's Candide? Others may question other inclusions, from Hindemith's Cardillac (one of several included operas that have no available recording to recommend) to Verdi's very early Oberto. Verdi gets ample space, as does Rossini, and deservingly so.

Many may find Osborne's selections for recommended recordings fine starters for interesting debate. The Barenboim Ring gets his nod, as does the Malfitano/Terfel/Dohnanyi Salome. I have heard a highlights CD of Marton/Carreras/Maazel's Turandot — that would not be my recommendation. Is the Domingo/Sutherland/Bonynge Tales of Hoffman easily available? Somehow it has escaped my notice. Perhaps Osborne has overlooked the Rattle recording of Szymanowski's King Roger, or he doesn't think it deserves recommendation. A note perhaps might helpfully explain why not.

I would also be very curious as to where I can find the Donna del Lago conducted by Maurizio Pollini! An editing mistake, I suppose. But what a fascinating document that would be: an especially dry and analytical pianist leading Rossini's over-the-top bel canto masterpiece. Other than that accidental slip, not much humor lightens the book¹.

Ultimately, the value of this book as "companion," therefore, depends on one's taste in friends. If a rather dull but reliably informed chum appeals, then Osborne's book will indeed be an amiable partner. For this opera-lover, there can be no single essential companion. If the opera is beloved, I need a range of recordings, and a DVD or two, and programs and ticket stubs as evidence of live encounters. Osborne's book would be one lonely, forgotten acquaintance in my home.

Chris Mullins

¹ A recording of La donna del lago was made under the Sony label in conjunction with performances at the Rossini Opera Festival of 1983. Maurizio Pollini, the pianist, conducted. The recording appears to be out of print at this time.

image=http://www.operatoday.com/content/osborne.jpg
image_description=Charles Osborne: The Opera Lover's Companion

product=yes
product_title=Charles Osborne: The Opera Lover's Companion
product_by=New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004, 604 pp.
product_id=ISBN 0-300-10440-5

Das Weihnachtsoratorium in der Thomaskirche

Alle Jahre wieder - Das Weihnachtsoratorium in der Thomaskirche, mit den Thomaner, dem Gewandhausorchester und Gästen

Weihnachtsoratorien sind auch eine Jahrgangsfrage: Frei von der Diskussion um die Herrlichkeit Bachscher Noten, fixiert auf die individuelle Interpretation. Insofern ist Thomaskantor Georg Christoph Biller um seine Aufgabe nicht zu beneiden, auch wenn er an gestern Abend - mit Fliege und freiem Blick - dezenten Optimismus ausstrahlt. Obwohl vor einer Woche in Berlin ein Kollege der schreibenden Zunft weniger zurückhaltend als kritisch mit der aktuellen WO-Version der Thomaner umgegangen ist. Am Artikelende stand die wahre, aber nicht gerade neue Erkenntnis, dass Tradition kein Argument sei. Nun ja, eher ein Ansatz. Egal, solche Phrasensrescherei sollte Biller nicht kümmern.

Um es gleich vorwegzunehmen: Dieser Jahrgang ist ein guter. Keiner vom anderen Stern. Aber durchaus für jene hohen Ansprüchen gemacht, die diese zentrale Werkaufführung nun mal mit sich bringen. Dass es da nicht in jeder Höhe entrückt klingen kann, ist der schnöden, menschlichen Fehlbarkeit anzukreiden, bleibt verzeihlich. Zumal sich Biller offensichtlich - und das ist gut so - damit abgefunden hat, im Streben nach Authentizität nicht auf jeden vorlauten Historiker zu hören, sondern mit dem zurecht zu kommen, was zur Verfügung steht. Die Rede ist vom Gewandhausorchester, bekanntlich eher in romantischen, denn barocken Strömungen gewachsen.

[Click here for remainder of article.]

Don Carlo a Firenze

Firenze, teatro Comunale. Si rappresenta il Don Carlo nell'edizione in cinque atti, con la ricostruzione dello storico allestimento di Luchino Visconti. A metà del secondo atto il sipario si chiude per il cambio di scena. Mezze luci in sala, Zubin Mehta non abbandona il podio. Il sommesso scambio di chiacchiere in platea e nelle due gallerie si smorza all'improvviso quando un signore con un microfono in mano esce al proscenio e legge un comunicato che grosso modo dice: il teatro fiorentino censura con forza i tagli ai finanziamenti decisi dal governo e, piu in generale, la sempre minor considerazione che ricevono oggi la cultura e soprattutto il teatro d'opera. Ricorda che il teatro stesso è una casa che dà lavoro a centinaia di persone, le quali hanno deciso di rivelarsi al pubblico non con uno sciopero ma mostrando almeno una parte del lavoro che sta "dietro" lo spettacolo che sta andando in scena.

Il sipario si riapre e il cambio avviene a scena aperta. In pochi minuti decine di macchinisti demoliscono la gigantesca tomba di Carlo V nella chiesa di San Giusto e costruiscono al suo posto l'incredibile prospettiva del chiostro, dove Eboli dovrà intrattenere le dame della corte. E mentre giganteschi pilastri gotici si scoprono dipinti su tela e salgono al cielo, mentre calano le arcate del portico e i cipressi che si alzano nel fondo, mentre l'enorme cancellata d'oro che circondava la tomba viene assicurata a funi e fatta letteralmente volar via, scrosciano gli applausi di un pubblico stupefatto e solidale.

Questa imprevista divagazione nella rappresentazione è stata, al di là del suo significato primo e politico, una vera lezione di teatro, un momento che gli spettatori in sala ricorderanno per molto tempo. E, per di piu, incastonato in uno spettacolo straordinario.

Il Comunale di Firenze ha deciso di rappresentare, a giorni alterni e con due cast diversi, la versione in cinque atti e quella in quattro. Come al solito, quando si decide di rappresentare il Don Carlo si finisce sempre per combinare qualche pasticcio col testo utilizzato: evidentemente non basta decidere per una delle diverse versioni disponibili, da quella di Parigi, ovviamente in francese, in cinque atti e col ballo ma con brani eliminati da Verdi dopo la prova generale per accorciare la durata dello spettacolo, a quelle italiane: Bologna 1867, cinque atti col ballo, semplice traduzione in italiano della versione francese; Milano 1884, ridotta a quattro atti; Modena 1886, riportata a cinque atti ma senza ballo. Nel mezzo, altre modifiche apportate in occasione di una ripresa napoletana. Quella rappresentata a Firenze assieme alla versione di Milano (alla quale pero, se ho capito bene, è stata tagliata l'aria del tenore nel primo atto) è stata nella sostanza la versione di Modena ma con l'aggiunta, come si era fatto alla Fenice nel 1973 e alla Scala nel '77, di due dei brani che Verdi aveva tagliato, solo per ragioni pratiche, prima della prima rappresentazione assoluta: il coro di apertura nel bosco di Fointanbleau e il grande concertato in morte di Posa. Brano a cui Verdi teneva evidentemente molto, visto che tolto dal Don Carlos divenne poi il Lacrymosa della Messa di Requiem. Queste contaminazioni fra versioni diverse mi lasciano sempre perplesso. Non sarebbe piu semplice e corretto decidere per una delle possibili versioni autentiche ed eseguirla sic et simpliciter? E, meglio ancora, non sarebbe ora che qualcuno si decidesse a mettere in scena il primo Don Carlos, quello che ando in scena una volta sola alla prova generale dell'opera?

Don Carlo will be broadcast by Radio 3 on 16 December at 1800 GMT. Click here for details.

Bolcom in Chicago

Marriage and manners

By George Loomis [Financial Times]
Published: December 10 2004 02:00 | Last updated: December 10 2004 02:00

The general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, William Mason, likes to put his company's relationship with William Bolcom in historical context. "It's our hope that 100 years from now, just as people speak of Verdi in Venice and Milan, and Rossini in Naples, they will speak of Bolcom in Chicago." Even granting the surge of new operas in the US, Mason's allusion to 19th-century Italy is audacious. Yet one cannot deny that Bolcom's ties to the Lyric, where on Saturday A Wedding becomes his third world premiere for the company and where a fourth opera is in progress, represent something special among the big American opera houses.

It is heartening to find an operatic audience approaching a new work with an earlier age's inkling of what to expect stylistically. Having experienced McTeague (1992) and A View from the Bridge (1999), the Chicago audience can be confident that the new opera will have sure theatrical values, ingratiatingly written vocal lines and music with a broad eclectic underpinning. And just as A View from the Bridge profited from Arthur Miller's personal contribution as his play was turned into an opera, so too Robert Altman has helped shape A Wedding out of his 1978 film; Altman also stages the opera, as he did McTeague.

Unlike its predecessors at the Lyric, A Wedding is a comedy -a chance, perhaps, to write something in the style of Rossini, whose celebrated affability Bolcom himself brings to mind? "Don't I wish!" he said in the apartment of his long-time collaborator Arnold Weinstein in Manhattan's Chelsea Hotel. "I adore Rossini. I wish I could write like that!" His modesty notwithstanding, Bolcom's music has a similar power to captivate, and the "multifarious styles" that his works draw on are deployed in so personal and inventive a manner that he's never accused of writing down to the public.

[Click here for remainder of article (subscription to Financial Times Online required).]

An Invitation to the Opera

A Night At The Opera

Dec. 10, 2004 - That's the title of a very famous Marx Brothers movie--a movie that makes fun of all sorts of opera stereotypes. But you might be surprised to hear that the number of Americans spending a night at the opera has increased steadily over the last 20 years. Tonight, we'll introduce you to some young Americans who are part of that growing interest in opera, and we'll look at the remarkable renovation of the theater that many consider the temple of opera: La Scala. One of our guides is America's own diva, Denyce Graves.

Many people like to think of opera as high art. Well, yes and no. The truth of the matter is, if you are a fan of musicals, you'd probably like opera. If you liked the Broadway musical Rent, you'd probably love La Bohème. I'm sure most people are familiar with the stories of Madame Butterfly and Carmen. I've just named three of the most popular operas performed in the world. Opera's recent resurgence probably has something to do with the fact that people have once again discovered that opera is pure entertainment--love, murder, intrigue, family drama--all in song. For opera performers, they know they've arrived when they perform at La Scala in Milan. This week, La Scala reopened after a three-year renovation that restored the 18th century interiors to their glory, but also built one of the most modern theatrical stages in the world. Our resident music fan Dave Marash reports from Milan, where Nightline got a sneak peak behind the scenes during the last frantic days of renovation, including a look at one stage that moves horizontally, and another that rises from some 60 feet underground.

For the longtime viewers of Nightline, you know that we are no strangers to the world of divas, and tonight you'll meet the grand dame of divas--someone even your kids will enjoy. It's a Nightline moment from our first 25 years.

I hope you'll join us.
Madhulika Sikka & The Nightline Staff
ABC News
Washington Bureau

Copyright © 2004 ABC News Internet Ventures

[Click here for video highlights (subscription to ABCNEWS On Demand required).]

Don Carlo at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

With all of the festivities surrounding the reopening of La Scala, the production of Don Carlo at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino was left in the shadows. The company is producing both the four-act and five-act editions, the latter being in the original French language. The following is a report by Elisabetta Torselli of Il giornale della musica:

Si dà a Firenze un bel Don Carlo che recupera le celebri messinscene di Visconti, qui riprese da Joseph Franconi Lee: spettacolo di affascinante inattualità, oramai fissato e forse irrigidito in una serie di magnifici e foschi quadri spagnoleschi, alcuni dei quali peraltro molto ben resistono all'usura del tempo (e inattesa e ben orchestrata citazione dal viscontiano "Senso" quando il pubblico, parte del quale aveva male accolto la lettura di un comunicato dei lavoratori del Teatro del Maggio, è stato poi sommerso da una pioggia di volantini bianchi, rossi e verdi, Viva Verdi ossia Vogliamo una Economia di Rilancio Delle Istituzioni liriche). Lo si dà in due versioni alternate in cinque e in quattro atti: è sostanzialmente l'edizione di Modena del 1886 che reintegra l'atto di Fontainebleau (ma con altre significative aggiunte dalla versione parigina 1867); per cui l'edizione in quattro atti non è affatto la ben nota versione milanese, bensì Modena senza Fontainebleau. Mehta si gode questa partitura straordinaria in tutti i suoi aspetti, quello disinibitamente Grand-Opéra e quello dei colori crepuscolari, luttuosi (impressionante il preludio del quinto atto), arditissimi, con sonorità come sempre sontuose e calde, talora, come nella scena Filippo-Grande Inquisitore, quasi sublimando in lenta e metafisica delibazione le vibrazioni del dramma. Con i suoi centri rigidi e inamabili Fabio Armiliato è purtroppo un Carlo esposto alle contestazioni del pubblico; Barbara Frittoli è un'Elisabetta nobile e struggente ma di talora insufficiente peso drammatico, al contrario della potente Eboli di Violeta Urmana, trionfatrice della prima; Roberto Scandiuzzi, Carlo Guelfi, Paata Burchuladze e Ayk Martirossian si spendono con partecipazione nei ruoli di Filippo, Rodrigo, del Grande Inquisitore e del Frate. Successo vivissimo.

Cast information:

Filippo II — Roberto Scandiuzzi / René Pape [5, 10, 14, 18]

Don Carlo — Fabio Armiliato / Marcus Haddock [5, 10, 14, 18]

Rodrigo, Marchese di Posa — Carlo Guelfi / Lucio Gallo [5, 10, 14, 18]

l Grande Inquisitore — Paata Burchuladze / Ayk Martirossian [18]

Un frate — Ayk Martirossian / Enrico Turco [10, 14, 18]

Elisabetta di Valois — Barbara Frittoli / Adrianne Pieczonka [5, 10, 14, 18]

La Principessa Eboli — Violeta Urmana / Dolora Zajick [10, 14, 18]

Tebaldo — Gemma Bertagnolli

Il Conte di Lerma — Enrico Cossutta

Un araldo reale — Carlo Bosi

Voce dal cielo — Alessandra Marianelli

Deputati fiamminghi — Franco Boscolo, Alessandro Calamai, Calogero Andolina, Joseph Song Chi, Jin Hwan Hyun, Sungil Kim, Evgeny Stavinskiy

Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Direttore — Zubin Mehta

Regia — Alberto Fassini

Scene e costumi — Luchino Visconti

Shows:

Edition in five acts:
03-12-2004, h 19
07-12-2004, h 19
12-12-2004, h 15.30
16-12-2004, h 19

Edition in four acts:
05-12-2004, h 15.30
10-12-2004, h 19
14-12-2004, h 19
18-12-2004, h 19

Don Carlo will be broadcast by Radio 3 on 16 December at 1800 GMT. Click here for details.

Vita con un idiota at Russkij Festival, Rome

Altro che idiota!

Vita con un idiota
opera in due atti
di Alfred Schinittke
libretto di Viktor Erofeev

Russkij Festival
Auditorium Parco della Musica - Sala Petrassi
Viale Pietro De Coubertin
Roma
0680241281
10 dicembre 2004

Non è solo un idiota ma un malefico demone l'apparentemente mite Vova, che lo scrittore Io è condannato a prendersi in casa da un'autorità misteriosa, in cui si puo riconoscere il suo senso di colpa. Io — interessato solo a se stesso e alla sua arte — e la moglie — estetizzante ammiratrice di Proust — sono travolti da Vova in una spirale di volgarità, violenza, follia, sopraffazione, sesso e sangue. Non c'è uno spiraglio, ma in realtà l'ultima frase lascia intravedere una speranza: "Odo il canto del cigno della mia rivoluzione", dunque quest'inferno sta per finire (l'opera è del 1991), ma forse solo per fare posto a un altro inferno.

[Click here for remainder of article.]

A Month in the Country

We previously reported on the Manhattan School of Music production of Lee Hoiby's A Month in the Country. Here is Anne Midgette's review.

A Russian Play, Reimagined by an American Composer

By ANNE MIDGETTE

"We've lost a few people," said a woman in the audience, surveying a few empty seats after the intermission of Lee Hoiby's opera "A Month in the Country," which opened at the Manhattan School of Music on Wednesday night. "And I don't know why. It's so beautiful."

We have lost a few people. Or rather, we've lost a few operas. Mr. Hoiby was once a rising star over the American opera landscape. But you don't see his work anymore at, say, the New York City Opera, where "A Month in the Country" (originally titled "Natalia Petrovna," and based on the play by Turgenev) had its premiere in 1964. And that's a shame, because "A Month in the Country" is a wonderful opera.

You could perhaps carp that Mr. Hoiby's music is conservative, tonal and breaks little new ground, but I was too busy being engrossed by it, and by the opera's psychological insight and grateful vocal writing, both equally rare. It didn't hurt that the Manhattan School of Music cast it strikingly well and gave it a fine production by Ned Canty (down to Elizabeth Hope Clancy's period costumes).

Every part here had something to offer. The lead role of Natalia, a beautiful, bored aristocrat who falls in love with her niece's tutor, is huge and demanding; JennyRebecca Winans showed a lovely, smooth voice that matched her poise, and if she lost some steam in places, it's hard to think of a singer who wouldn't. As the tutor, Liam Bonner had a big, impressive baritone that was slightly raw and unpolished (perfectly fitting the character); as the niece, Vera, Yoosun Park was a bit challenged by the upper register.

[Click here for remainder of article.]

A Double Bill at Juilliard

Prodigal Son and a Brat, a Whimsical Pairing

By BERNARD HOLLAND

The Juilliard Opera Center's double bill on Wednesday made more nonmusical than musical sense. "L'Enfant Prodigue" by Debussy and "L'Enfant et les Sortilèges" by Ravel fit nicely into an evening. Both are French. Both are about children and parents. Otherwise, they have little to do with each other.

The better-known piece - and with good reason - is the Ravel. It pushes both the positive and the derogatory definitions of the word precious to their limits. This anthropomorphic fantasy of abused objects taking revenge on their young abuser indulges the composer's fascination for instrumental colors, vivid dramatic coups and near-the-edge sentimentality. The last is egged on by Colette's libretto.

French music dreams in a certain way, and when children are involved, whimsy lurks. Your tolerance for whimsy determines your reaction to "L'Enfant et les Sortilèges." Whether it charms or cloys, this little opera is an impressive artifact, the kind for which the French term tour de force was invented.

[Click here for remainder of article.]

Salieri's Europa Riconosciuta A Wise Choice

Salieri promu chantre de l'Europe

[09 décembre 2004]

Le Napolitain Riccardo Muti a fait le bon choix avec cette Europa Riconosciuta de Salieri pour rouvrir le théâtre dont il est directeur musical depuis le départ d'Abbado en 1986. L'ouvrage avait, en effet, été commandé par les Milanais pour l'inauguration de la Scala le 3 aout 1778, en présence de l'impératrice Marie-Thérèse et n'avait plus été rejoué depuis. Occasion revée de conjuguer modernité et passé ! Si la botte autrichienne avait soumis la Lombardie, les Italiens régnaient alors sur presque toutes les scènes viennoises.

Patron de la musique à la cour de Marie-Thérèse, Salieri n'en est pas moins italien comme son ami et néanmoins librettiste de Mozart l'abbé Da Ponte : la culture italienne a ainsi conquis son farouche vainqueur germanique ! Comme Goethe fit le "voyage en Italie", Mozart vint se perfectionner auprès du Padre Martini à Bologne. C'est ce creuset de l'Europe de la culture que Muti a ressuscité avec subtilité. Certes, la reine de Tyr Europe qui se fait reconnaître pour sauver son époux avant de se faire enlever par Jupiter au grand dam de Junon, est assez éloignée de notre Europe des marchands née au lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. C'est elle qui donna tout de meme son nom à notre continent.

[Click here for remainder of article.]

[Click here for production photographs.]

Musicians Unite!

New, Musician-Run FM Station Plans Music Radio Revival

A group led by two nationally known musicians has been awarded a contract to operate the Milwaukee Public Schools' FM station, WYMS-FM (88.9), and is developing a format to support musicians and "restore creativity to music radio."

The non-profit group, Radio For Milwaukee, was founded by Peter Buffett, national recording artist and producer and son of investor Warren Buffett; Grammy Award winner Joe Puerta, founding member of Ambrosia and Bruce Hornsby and the Range; and Todd Broadie, former marketing director of Narada Records.

"Radio generally doesn't support musicians and plays the same artists and songs over and over," Buffett said. "With radio industry people calling good songs 'too good for radio,' you know there's got to be a better way."

The lead consultant for the programming design and re-launch of WYMS is radio veteran Mike Henry, CEO of Colorado-based Paragon Media Strategies. Henry is also a partner in Media Mechanics with Paul Marszalek and Ben Manilla, who are also consulting for the station.

"The opportunity to create a new radio station for Milwaukee is exciting, and the ability to do it without typical radio boundaries and creative handcuffs is unbelievable," Henry said.

"I've been waiting for years for the chance to start a new type of radio station from scratch," Henry said. "We're starting with a blank canvas, so the results will be surprising, colorful and groundbreaking. The new WYMS will not be your father's public radio station."

[Source: Radio Ink]

Handel in Paris: A Review of Hercules

Paris
Palais Garnier
12/04/2004 - et 6, 8, 11, 14, 16, 19, 22, 27 décembre 2004
Georg Friedrich Haendel : Hercules
Joyce DiDonato (Dejanira), William Shimell (Hercules), Malena Ernman (Lichas), Toby Spence (Hyllus), Indela Bohlin (Iole), Simon Kirkbridge (Pretre de Jupiter)
Orchestre et Chœur des Arts Florissants, William Christie (direction)
Luc Bondy (mise en scène)