For many years, the shadow of Peter Pears hovered at the shoulder of any tenor who dared to offer their own reading of Britten’s equivocal fisherman. But, as the aural memories of Pears’ visionary dreamer soften — in the opera house, at least, if not on recordings — modern singers are increasingly released from the ghostly echoes of the past.
Month: January 2014
Puccini’s La bohËme at Arizona Opera
On January 25, 2014, Arizona Opera presented Candace Evans production of Puccini’s La bohËme with exciting young artists Zach Borichevsky and Corinne Winters as a romantic Rodolfo and his charming but not-so-innocent MimÏ.
Francesco Bartolomeo Conti: L’Issipile
Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (1681-1732) isn’t a name that trips off opera-goers’ tongues; similarly neglected is Conti’s last opera L’Issipile, despite the fact that composer (who was also a theorbo player at the Viennese Imperial Court) was the first of several opera composers to set Metastasio’s libretto.
Christoph PrÈgardien, Wigmore Hall
Christoph PrÈgardien has always been a master of creative, exciting ways with Lieder.
Parsifal, Chicago
The dimly lit stage becomes gradually suffused with spare light during the prelude to Richard Wagner’s Parsifal in its new production at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
La traviata, Chicago
In a staging shared with Houston Grand Opera and the Canadian Opera Company, Lyric Opera of Chicago presented recently a new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata.
Gluck: Orpheus and Eurydice
If you’re the sort of audience member who, when watching a performance of a play or opera, often experiences the urge to abandon your seat and join in with action, then the English Pocket Opera Company’s 2014 collaborative project will be just the thing for you.
Gerald Finley: Winterreise
Tenor or baritone? Everyone will have their own individual preference about the voice type best suited to Schubert’s Winterreise — and about the manner in which the songs should be performed (narrated, or acted?).
Jules Massenet: Manon, ROH
Tart with a heart, pleasure-loving ingÈnue, exploited naÔf, or femme fatale?
Songlives: Johannes Brahms
This recital, part of an inventive series overseen by pianist Malcolm
Martineau, did exactly what it said on the tin: it journeyed the length of
Brahms’ creative life as a composer of songs, from his earliest adolescent
essays, through the early years of expansion and experiment, to the period of
maturity and confidence as the composer established himself in Vienna,
concluding with the moving, nuanced testaments of Brahms’ final years.