Rodelinda is about as serious an opera as any that Handel wrote: attempted regicide and infanticide, violent death, betrayal and a marriage sorely tried.
Year: 2011
Rigoletto, Opera Holland Park
It’s always a good idea to ferret away a sure-fire winner amongst the rarities, and Opera Holland Park’s Rigoletto certainly meets, and in some aspects surpasses, expectations.
Boston Midsummer Opera’s Italian Girl in Algiers
This year’s venture for the annual Boston Midsummer Opera is an elegant reading of Rossini’s fizzy masterpiece of 1813, l’Italiana in Algeri.
Rigoletto, Miami Lyric Opera
There’s hell to pay for profligate publicity; Giuseppe Verdi and Francisco Maria Piave knew this to be true.
Verdi’s Requiem, BBC Proms
Not only did Verdi’s Requiem make its debut, rather remarkably, in the church of San Marco in Milan but the performance was as a liturgical one; Verdi’s intentions were quite firmly to provide a memorial mass for the Italian patriot, Manzoni.
Placido Domingo announces Operalia winners in Moscow
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/07/placido-domingo-announces-operalia-winners-in-moscow.html
Strauss Joins Sibelius’s Vacation
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/arts/music/richard-strauss-is-surprise-guest-at-bard-summerscape.html
The Sopranos — Dissecting opera’s fervent fans
I was feeling cowed by Herr Engels. The four of us had retired from the Stravinsky performance to a Billy Wilder-themed bar in Berlin, the least horrible late-night option in the high end mediocrity of Potsdamer Platz.
Mignon and Saul at Buxton Opera Festival
Buxton, like Wexford, makes a point of offering its clientele the opportunity to sample works that are unjustly neglected by the major houses, and for his final festival as director, Andrew Greenwood served up a typical feast of operatic rarities reflecting the increasingly ambitious approach which has characterised his musical stewardship.