PellÈas et MÈlisande, in t-shirts and jeans, were out riding bicycles. They came upon a fountain. You know what happened.
Year: 2013
Nash Ensemble, Wigmore Hall – Warlock, Britten
Surveying British chamber and instrumental music written between the 1890s and WWII, the Nash Ensemble’s Wigmore Hall residency series, Dreamers of Dreams, has illuminated the creativity and originality of British musical life during this period, revealing the shared and the idiosyncratic preoccupations of composers; the intertwined biographies of musicians; the influence of key individual performers on repertoire, style and idiom; the dialogue between old and new; and the prevailing shadows of war and irreversible change.
San Diego Opera new season 2013
The New Year 2013 is here and San Diego Opera will open its season at the
end of this month. The company will present four well known operas:
Gaetano Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment (La Fille du Regiment),
Camille Saint-SaÎns’ Samson and Delilah, Ildebrando Pizzetti’s Murder in
the Cathedral (Assassinio nella Cathedrale) and Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida
along with a Mariachi opera: Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, (To Cross the
Face of the Moon).
Sir Harrison Birtwistle The Minotaur ROH 2013
If, first time around, in 2008, The Minotaur offered the obvious excitement of the premiere, it was now noteworthy how quickly it had settled into repertory status. Not that it has yet been performed elsewhere than Covent Garden, though it should be as a matter of urgency, but that its 2013 outing proceeded with the apparent ease one might expect of, say, The Magic Flute or Carmen. That is surely testament both to the excellence of the performances we heard as well as to the stature of Birtwistle’s opera itself.
A Noteworthy Chicago Revival of Don Pasquale
In its recent run of Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale Lyric Opera of Chicago has taken the 1973 production from Covent Garden, via Dallas Opera, and revivified it with the efforts of an excellent cast and the local directorial debut of British bass-baritone Sir Thomas Allen.
L’Italienne ‡ Alger in Marseille
Once a mainstay of the repertory L’Italiana in Algeri now usually gives way to Il Turco in Italia when an opera company wants to give Il barbiere di Sivigllia and La cenerentola a rest.
Echoes of Venice
The opening concert of the Wigmore Hall’s spring season exemplified the high standards of intelligent musicianship and imaginative programming so typical of the Hall’s artists. Soprano Carolyn Sampson and theorbo player Matthew Wadsworth presented a thoughtful, inventive programme, ‘Echoes of Venice’, alternating tender and impassioned songs of love with striking instrumental pieces.
Hugo Wolf Songbooks, Wigmore Hall, Kirchschlager, Henschel, Drake
Julius Drake’s latest Hugo Wolf Songbooks recital at the Wigmore Hall featured Angelika Kirchschlager and Dietrich Henschel. These singers have very different voices indeed, so Drake’s programme made the most of the contrast.
In the Shadow of the OpÈra
Graham Johnson chose the title “In the Shadow of the OpÈra” for his recital at the Wigmore Hall, London, with Lucy Crowe and Christopher Maltman. Given the renaisaance in French opera, it’s good that we should be thinking of the nature of French song and its relationship to French opera and culture.