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…

Lamento with Magdalena Ko

The imposing figure of Johann Sebastian Bach has loomed large for Magdalena Ko�ená throughout her career. It was her first disc of Bach arias on Deutsche Grammophon’s Archiv label that brought the golden-voiced mezzo to the attention of the music world as early as 1997. Word then quickly went round that Magdalena was the perfect choice for Bach recordings. ”This disc that started my international career also was my introduction to the great Baroque conductors, including the wonderful scholar and musician Reinhard Goebel, with whom I’ve worked on my new disc, Lamento.”
Although the title may suggest wailing and gnashing of teeth, this is a sublime and eclectic mixture of music by J. S. Bach, his relations and contemporaries. ”There’s a very optimistic feeling to this CD,” says Ko�ená. ”Although all these pieces are about how horrible it is on this earth, they are really celebrating how great it will be afterwards. There’s a message of hope throughout.”

Tsar’s Bride at the Mariinsky

ST. PETERSBURG, December 29 (RIA Novosti) – The city’s Mariinka (Kirov) theater is to open its next season here today with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Tsar’s Bride” opera.
Talking to RIA Novosti, people at the Mariinka theater’s press center noted that this was a joint production involving the theater and Holland’s Diaghilev Festival Foundation. The new stage version of this opera was first performed December 10 in Groningen, Holland.

Gramophone Reviews Le Comte Ory

Colour, wit and life abound with a star turn from the Rossini tenor of the moment Comte Ory Le Comte Ory is the first great French-language comic opera. A late…

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…

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,…

Moskva, Cheryomushki at Lyon

Moskva, Cheryomushki, Opéra de Lyon, France By Francis Carlin Published: December 29 2004 02:00 | Last updated: December 29 2004 02:00 Wanted: a warm-up guy for chronically frigid audience. The…

Salieri Redux

For Mozart’s Archrival, an Italian Renaissance By JASON HOROWITZ MILAN – For more than 200 years, Antonio Salieri’s obscure opera “Europa Riconosciuta” (“Europa Revealed”) was forgotten. Before its return to…

Le Monde Reviews Verdi’s Falstaff from Andante

Deux “Falstaff”, à vingt ans d’écart LE MONDE | 27.12.04 | 14h05 Les amateurs d’opéra ont, généralement, un fort penchant pour l’écoute comparée des interprétations. L’éditeur Andante les comblera. Dans…

Egypt and Opera at the Museum

De l’Isis de Lully, en 1677, à l’Akhnaten de Philip Glass, en 1984, en passant par l’inoubliable Aïda de Verdi, pas moins de deux cents créations lyriques – cantates, oratorios, opéras et ballets – ont eu pour thème l’Egypte, dont la moitié exclusivement consacrées à Cléopâtre. C’est dire l’attirance que ce pays et ses mystères, réels ou supposées, ont exercée sur les compositeurs et les librettistes, toujours à la recherche d’un nouvel exotisme ou d’un romantisme déchirant.
«Avec la deuxième collection d’égyptologie après celle du Musée Guimet de Lyon, dit Brigitte Bouret, conservateur du musée et commissaire de l’exposition «L’Egypte et l’Opéra», il était légitime que nous nous intéressions à ce thème d’une grande richesse d’autant que j’ai pu travailler avec un égyptologue de renom, Michel Dewachter.»