Is Berio’s Sinfonia a masterpiece, or a work of its time that today seems outdated? Written in 1968 during a time of revolution it is not in itself a work…
Year: 2025
Blenda by Per August Ölander
Interested in operas that have rarely if ever traveled beyond their linguistic or ethnic homeland? You may well be delighted to get to know this Romantic-era work by the Swedish…
Heinrich Marschner’s Once-Famous Hans Heiling Gets a Fine New Recording
Heinrich Marschner (1795-1861) was one of many nineteenth-century composers in the German-speaking lands who tried to create a tradition of serious German opera, distinct from tradition of Singspiel (mostly light…
Das Rheingold and Die Walküre in Bayreuth
The first two of this fourth edition of the 2022 Bayreuth Ring des Nibelungen, staged by Valentin Schwarz, with the understanding that the Bayreuth Festival mounts a new Ring every…
Canto Virginia Delights Audiences of All Ages with Outreach Performance Who’s Afraid of Opera?
Outreach performances are often viewed as a rite of passage for young aspiring opera singers, in many cases involving travel to schools for 8 A.M. assembly performances. The advantage Canto…
French Culture Professor Gives Lecture on Women in French Opera for Canto Vocal Programs
Last week, Canto Vocal Programs treated Loudoun County to a lecture on French opera with some musical surprises. Maurice Lugassy, professor of French culture, was invited by the faculty to…
Back to the Future: Verdi’s Macbeth at Teatro Nuovo
Big American opera companies in America today resemble Broadway companies. They strive to fill gargantuan theaters by serving up a mix of warhorses and crossover repertoire, staged by celebrity directors,…
Berlin Staatsoper’s poignant re-interpretation of Strauss’s comedy Die schweigsame Frau
Die schweigsame Frau (1935) was Strauss’s only collaboration with Stefan Zweig – a writer as prominent and satisfactory for the composer to work with as Hugo von Hofmannsthal had been…
Glyndebourne brings Falstaff to Metroland
In Richard Jones’s production of Verdi’s last opera, first seen in 2009, big, bold sets evoke mid-1940s Windsor, just after the end of the War. The mock Tudor facades of…
Canto Vocal Programs Hosts A Romantic Evening With “The Love Concert”
Mere hours after the wonderful morning outreach performance last Saturday, the singers of Canto Virginia 2025 performed a larger, more formal concert with the theme of love. Canto Vocal Programs…