‘All men become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man
does. That is his.’ ‘Is that clever?’ ‘It is perfectly
phrased!’
Month: March 2016
The Importance of Being Earnest: Royal Opera House at the Barbican Theatre
Mahler’s Third, Concertgebouw
Evolving in Mahler’s Third: Dudamel and L.A. Philharmonic’s impressive adaption to the Concertgebouw
La Juive in Lyon
Though all big opera is called grand opera, French grand opera itself is a very specific genre. It is an ephemeral style not at all easy to bring to life. For example . . .
Benjamin, DerniËre Nuit in Lyon
That’s Walter Benjamin of the Frankfort School [philosophers in the interwar period (WW’s I and II) who were at home neither with capitalism, fascism or communism].
Handel’s Berenice, London
1737 was Handel’s annus horribilis. His finances were in
disarray and his opera company was struggling in the face of the challenge
presented by the rival Opera of the Nobility. The strain and over-work led
to a stroke, as the Earl of Shaftesbury reported:
Nocturnal Visions and Reveries at the Barbican
Nocturnal visions and reveries dominated this concert by the BBC
Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Hall, part of a two-day celebration of
the music of George Benjamin which also includes a concert performance of
the composer’s opera Written on Skin.
Ferruccio Furlanetto at San Diego
On March 5, 2016, San Diego Opera presented it’s star bass, Ferruccio Furlanetto, in a concert of arias with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra at the orchestra’s home, Copley Symphony Hall.
Madama Butterfly, LA Opera
On March 12, 2016, Los Angeles Opera presented the local premiere of Lee Blakeley’s staging of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly which had been seen in 2010 at Santa Fe Opera. When Blakeley’s Geisha, played magnificently by Ana Maria Martinez, forsakes her traditional religion and breaks the rules of her culture, she eventually faces a choice between total loss of honor and suicide. Everything that happened on the stage Saturday night pointed toward the tragedy. Puccini’s unforgettable music and exquisite singing by Los Angeles Opera’s top-notch cast kept audience members on the edges of their seats all evening.
Boris Godunov, Covent Garden
‘And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.’ John Donne’s metaphysical meditation might have made a
fitting sub-title for Richard Jones’s new production of Musorgky’s Boris Godunov at the Royal Opera House — the first
performance in the house of the original 1869 score.
Ariodante, London Handel Festival
By the time that he composed Ariodante, which was first performed
in January 1735, Handel had more than three decades of opera-composing
experience behind him. It’s surely one of his greatest music dramas not
least because, adapted from Ludovico Ariosto’s epic poem Orlando
Furioso, it is a very ‘human’ drama, telling of love and lust,
betrayal and healing.