Die tote Stadt is Korngold’s masterpiece in the old sense of the word, when a craftsman would produce a dazzling work to show the world what he could do. This is Korngold’s manifesto, so to speak.
Month: February 2009
The Beggar’s Opera at Covent Garden
Entering the Linbury Studio for this production of The Beggar’s Opera, one might have been forgiven for thinking that one had wandered into the main house by mistake.
Liber Evangeliorum: Verse and Music From the Age of Charlemagne
The emergence of a standardized western liturgy with a uniform chant repertory, while to a significant degree realized, neither completely silenced regional liturgies nor extinguished the additions to liturgical practice that comprise much medieval creativity.
Eugene Onegin at the MET
Pushkin’s poem Eugene Onegin is the first of the great line of Russian novels, passionately loved by all the literate of that most literary nation.
Brussels’ Definitive Death
ThÈ‚tre Royal de la Monnaie / De Munt started 2009 by serving up a real New Year’s treat for the Belgian capital’s opera enthusiasts: a near-perfect staging of Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice.
Partenope in Ferrara
The Greek princes Arsace (alto) and Armindo (alto) are seeking handsome Queen Partenope (soprano), who has just founded the city of Naples, in marriage.