On a good night an opera performance can come across with visceral excitement without a classy production, top-name singers, or the benefit of being of one of the more familiar titles.
Month: August 2009
Mozart and Gluck — Mixed Results at Santa Fe
It is never easy to revive a success. Audiences will remember the first run of a show and consciously or not, compare a revival with earlier favorable impressions.
Verdi: Falstaff
Those opera lovers prone to rage at the perceived dominance of the director in their beloved art form today may collapse in apoplexy at this first release from the company called SignumVision.
And If The Song Be Worth A Smile — Songs by American Composers
The word “living” would be a fitting addition to the subtitle of this collection of “Songs by American Composers.”
Sir Harrison Birtwistle: Mask of Orpheus at the Proms
What drives Harrison Birtwistle to Greek myth? Orpheus is a primal archetype. When he played his lyre he tamed wild beasts and made mountains move. But he suffered. He journeyed into Hades but could not bring Eurydice, his beloved, back to life. In some versions of the myth, his talent enraged the jealous who tore him apart. Yet even then, his head remained intact, still singing. He symbolizes the power of music, and the fate of an artist.
Bellini: Norma
“An all-American Norma,” Roger Pines calls this release in his entertaining booklet essay.
Opera being composed on Twitter
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8193917.stm
Monteverdi: L’incoronozione di Poppea
This excellent production of Monteverdi’s final (premiered in 1643) and most problematic opera features first-rate singing and a very effective (and restrained) staging.
Semiramide at Caramoor
You need three or, ideally, four top-flight bel canto specialists to do anything like justice to Rossini’s Semiramide, his last and grandest Italian score. Otherwise why go to the expense?
Seattle to mount new “Tristan” in 2010
SEATTLE – Underscoring its role as America’s leader in the world of Wagner, the Seattle Opera will stage an entirely new production of Tristan und Isolde in 2010.