For opera lovers who are serious enough to even think of a performing career, the path is an arduous one.
Month: August 2011
Prom 32: Brahms and Mahler
Brahms’s Violin Concerto and Mahler’s Das klagende Lied
did not seem to be the most obvious bedfellows — there has been some
rather peculiar programming at this year’s Proms — and even after
further consideration, the only real connection I could muster was that they
were written at the same time: the concerto in 1878, the cantata between 1878
and 1880.
Julia Lezhneva sings Rossini
It seems very appropriate that a record company called NaÔve should elect to release a solo recital for a soprano in her very early 20s.
Starry-Crossed Lovers in Bavaria
In the waning days of the annual summer festival, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera fielded enough star power to fire up a minor galaxy with its wholly absorbing production of I Capuleti e i Montecchi.
Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Aleksis Kivi
Great characters are at the center of all operatic masterpieces, yet opera almost never treads into “operatic biography” territory.
The Makropulos Case, Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/b0a27de6-c44c-11e0-ad9a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1V2l4nwtt
Saint-SaÎns’s Samson et Dalila in Antwerp
Bonus features on opera DVDs usually get generic names, such as “Interview” or “Backstage with…”
Gergiev conducts Wagner’s Parsifal
A handsome black steed bows its head, eyes open, peering into the darkness around it.
Risorgimento 150 years after
How the saga of Italian unification in 1861 is being (half-heartedly) celebrated by opera composers.