La Fanciulla del West: Opera in three acts.
Month: November 2008
Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Opera House Z¸rich
This 2001 Z¸rich performance of Rossini’s masterpiece Il Barbiere di Siviglia boasts one of the final performances of the great bass Nicolai Ghiaurov, who passed away in 2004.
MAYR: L’amor coniugale
Naxos, in conjunction with SWR, has been releasing recordings from the Rossini in Wildbad Festival, which focuses not just on the titular composer but also on his contemporaries.
Matilde di Shabran at Covent Garden
The rare Rossini opera which brought Juan Diego FlÛrez to international attention in Pesaro in 1996 was thrown together by the composer at the last minute to meet a deadline in February 1821, with a plot from one source and characters from another, and bits of the score filled in by Pacini.
H‰nsel und Gretel at the Royal Academy of Music
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/opera/article5181316.ece
Hˆlderin, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d50dca80-b579-11dd-ab71-0000779fd18c.html
Revisiting Rossini’s ‘L’italiana in Algeri’
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20081118_Revisiting_Rossini_s__L_italiana_in_Algeri_.html
Doctor Atomic and Arjuna’s Dilemma
As Tom Stoppard put it, “There is an art to the building up of suspense.”
La Damnation de Faust at the MET
The Met has not staged La Damnation de Faust in a hundred years, since 1906, when it clocked a mere five performances.
Opera in Germany
Following a recent visit to Germany, Wes Blomster surveys the vibrant opera scene in Berlin and Magdeburg.