With 27 named roles and a large orchestra (including instruments such as mandolins), Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s 1911 opera, I gioielli della Madonna (The Jewels of the Madonna) might seem a surprising choice for a relatively small opera house like the Slovak National Theatre / SlovenskÈ n·rodnÈ divadlo (SND) in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Month: May 2015
Donizetti: Les Martyrs
As the editor of Opera magazine, John Allison, notes in his editorial in the June issue, Donizetti fans are currently spoilt for choice, enjoying a ‘Donizetti revival’ with productions of several of the composer’s lesser known works cropping up in houses around the world.
Poliuto, Glyndebourne
Donizetti’s Poliuto at Glyndebourne could well become one of of the great Glyndebourne classics.
Jonathan Dove’s Flight, Opera Holland Park
On 6 June, Jonathan Dove’s Flight touches down in Kensington,
west London. Opera Holland Park is to stage the first London production of
Dove’s operatic presentation of the real-life story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri,
the Iranian exile who, lacking residency rights or refugee status, was forced
to live in the departure lounge of Terminal One at Charles de Gaulle Airport
for 18 years.
Pacific Opera Project Presents Ariadne auf Naxos
Pacific Opera Project, a small Los Angeles company, presented a production of Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos at the Ebell Club with an excellent group of young singers at the beginning of what should be good careers.
Jac van Steen in Conversation
Last year’s Strauss anniversary year — 150 years since his birth —
offered, at least in the United Kingdom, a typical number of opportunities and
frustrations.