Puccini: La Rondine

Throughout his relatively long and decidedly successful career, Giacomo Puccini returned to those operas of his that had not, immediately or eventually, secured an important place in the standard repertory.

Brilliant Schubert programme: Matthias Goerne, Wigmore Hall

This second of two recitals of Schubert songs by Matthias Goerne and Helmut Deutsch at the Wigmore Hall, London was superb, the programme created with exceptional intelligence and insight into the inner dynamics of Schubert’s music.

Tamerlano: Handel at the Royal Opera House, London

Handel’s Tamerlano, in the production by Graham Vick, is well
known, but its run at the Royal Opera House is unusual because many of the cast
are creating the roles for the first time. It isn’t a live reprise of the DVD,
but more challenging.

Tamerlano, Royal Opera House, London

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b8c74a02-2a0a-11df-b940-00144feabdc0.html

Karlsruhe: Rare Verdi, Well Done

The Baden State Theatre’s new mounting of I Masnadieri may not completely be the production of one’s dreams.

Matthias Goerne at Wigmore Hall, London

In this, the first of two recitals with pianist Helmut Deutsch, baritone Matthias Goerne continued his very personal journey through the landscape of Schubert’s lieder, a passage which is currently being preserved on an outstanding series of discs by Harmonia Mundi.

Ariadne auf Naxos, New York

As the first familiar themes of Ariadne came from the pit, I felt
myself sinking — sinking from a tense, dreary, daily world into a sort of
ecstatic fantasy — a place where all was happy, funny, romantic, inane,
fateful and surprising all at once — Sarah Connolly superb, Kathleen Kim
charming, Nina Stemme full-throated,

Z¸rich mal Zwei

Z¸rich Opera’s poster for their new production of Idomeneo is a knockout.

Emilie, OpÈra de Lyon

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b083157c-261f-11df-aff3-00144feabdc0.html

Sophia Serghi — An Interview

Composer Sophia Serghi is presently professor of music at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where she has taught since 1998, with two years away in 2000-2002.