Poulenc’s racy little 1947 confection took stage within Kurt Weill’s peculiar little 1927 singspiel Mahagonny all framed within the current California drought and doomsday predictions of impending global aridity.
Month: April 2014
A Coffin in Egypt: A Tour-de-Force for von Stade
Librettist Leonard Foglia based his elegant and literate text on the late Horton Foote’s play, A Coffin in Egypt, and the opera has the original play’s dramatic punch.
Songlives: Henri Duparc
The latest recital in the Songlives series at the Wigmore Hall turned the spotlight on a figure whose short compositional career and small oeuvre might have been expected to confine him to the margins of musical history, but whose name has in fact become almost synonymous with a whole genre of song: mÈlodie.
La BohËme, Manitoba
Manitoba Opera’s first production in nine years of Giacomo Puccini’s La BohËme still stirs the heart and inspires tears with its tragic tale of bohemian artists living — and loving — in 1840s Paris.
Arizona Opera Presents Don Pasquale in Tucson
On April 12, 2014, Arizona Opera opened its series of performances of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale in Tucson. Chuck Hudson’s production of this opera combined Commedia dell’arte with Hollywood movie history.
Will Don Quichotte Be the Last Production at San Diego Opera?
This quotation from Cervantes was displayed before the opening of the opera’s final scene:
“The greatest madness a man can commit in this life is to let himself die, just like that, without anybody killing him or any other hands ending his life except those of melancholy.”
Gound Faust – Calleja and Terfel, Royal Opera House London
Gounod’s Faust makes a much welcomed return to the Royal Opera House. With each new cast, the dynamic changes as the balance between singers shifts and brings out new insights. In that sense, every revival is an opportunity to revisit from new perspectives. This time Bryn Terfel sang MÈphistophÈlËs, with Joseph Calleja as Faust – stars whose allure certainly helped fill the hall to capacity. And the audience enjoyed a very good show.
Syracuse Opera’s Porgy and Bess
Got Plenty O’ Plenty
The company ends its 2013-14 season on a high note with a staged performance of Gershwin’s theatrical masterpiece
A New Rusalka in Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago’s new production of Antonin Dvorak’s Rusalka is visually impressive and fulfills all possible expectations musically with unquestioned excitement.
Karlsruhe’s Mixed Blessing Ballo
The reliable Badisches Staatstheater has assembled plenty of talent for its new Un Ballo in Maschera.