In generations past, an important singer’s first recording of Italian arias would almost invariably have included the music of Verdi.†
Month: August 2013
Prom 47: Brahms — A German Requiem
In the first of her two visits to the Royal Albert Hall this summer, Marin Alsop led the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and its associated Choir through three nineteenth-century works which are united by their romantic intensity and progression from darkness to light.
Grand Duchess of Gerolstein at Santa Fe
On Wednesday August 7, Santa Fe Opera presented an energetic, fun-loving production of Jacques Offenbach, Henri Meilhac and Ludovic HalÈvy’s The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein.
Santa Fe Opera Revives The Marriage of Figaro
On Thursday, August 8, Santa Fe Opera revived the Bruce Donnell production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.
Weill’s Musical Theater: Stages of Reform
Commonly viewed as a ‘second-rate’ composer — a European radical persecuted by the Nazis whose trans-Atlantic emigration represented a sell-out to an inferior American popular culture —
Prom 45: Tiippett’s The Midsummer Marriage
Sir Michael Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage has a lot of things against it, it requires a large cast including dancers and a large chorus and orchestra, the plot with its elements of Jungian analysis is confusing, the composer’s libretto with its colloquial elements now sounds rather dated and frankly a bit embarrassing.
La Donna del Lago at Santa Fe
Based on Sir Walter Scott’s narrative poem “The Lady of the Lake,” the opera by Rossini and librettist Andrea Leone Tottola was first seen in 1819 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.
Billy Budd at Glyndebourne
In their magnificent Glyndebourne production of Billy Budd, first seen in 2010 and revived here to mark Britten’s centenary anniversary, director Michael Grandage (revival director, Ian Rutherford) and designer Christopher Oram immerse us, quite literally, in the harsh realities of life aboard a late-eighteen-century man-’o-war: the uncompromisingly, and perhaps optimistically, named Indomitable.
Oscar: A Viable New Opera
Oscar Wilde wrote: “We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.” On July 27, 2013, Theodore Morrison’s opera Oscar had its world premiere at Santa Fe.
Dolora Zajick on New Opera Written for Her
On September 18, 2013, San Francisco Opera will present the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s opera, Dolores Claiborne, which has a libretto by J. D. McClatchy based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name.