Arcifanfo is the recently rediscovered collaboration between two 18th century Venetians, Baldassare Galuppi and Carlo Goldoni, whose work on many operas together was seminal in the development of opera buffa.…
Author: Curtis Rogers
Pier Luigi Pizzi offers a dark, tense vision for La Fenice’s first Anna Bolena in more than a century and a half
Donizetti’s Anna Bolena regained a place on the operatic stage since at least the rediscovery of bel canto repertoire after the Second World War, through the advocacy of singers such…
Chelsea Opera Group thrillingly reveal the wonderful score of Lalo’s Le roi d’Ys
For all that Lalo’s Le roi d’Ys (premiered in 1888) has scarcely maintained any foothold in the operatic repertoire in modern times, it packs quite a punch, both for its…
Musical liveliness transcends some obscurities in the Royal Academy’s hospital-based Magic Flute
Jamie Manton’s production of The Magic Flute for the Royal Academy of Music takes its cue from Tamino’s predicament at the opera’s opening – wounded and in mortal danger. Accordingly,…
On Haydn’s desert island at the Paris Opera
L’isola disabitata (The Uninhabited Island) is a comparatively late opera by Haydn, or rather an azione teatrale, which calls for only four soloists and an intimate setting. Indeed, it may…
An unconventional, satirical take on Weber’s Der Freischütz for Opera Ballet Vlaanderen at Antwerp
Weber’s Der Freischütz is well-known – and variously admired or deplored – as one of the seminal works of German musical Romanticism. Despite its fame and influence, it isn’t now…
A simple, effective staging of a Thea Musgrave’s politically intricate opera Mary, Queen of Scots
Given the obsession with the Tudors – particularly as TV, stage or literary drama, as well as historical documentary – it makes for a welcome variation on this subject that…
La battaglia di Legnano at Parma’s Verdi Festival gives cause to reflect on the human and animal cost of war
La battaglia di Legnano represents the climax of Verdi’s nationalist, Risorgimento era operas: composed during the period of widespread revolutionary fervour across Italy (and Europe) in 1848, it was premiered…
La Fenice’s Turandot emphasises the opera’s mythical element
The rich, vivid score, and dramatic – even sensational and violent – scenario of Puccini’s last opera (not quite complete at his death exactly one hundred years ago, in 1924)…
La Fenice’s double bill of short operas by father-in-law and son-in-law
By happy coincidence 2024 is an anniversary year for both Arnold Schoenberg (born 1874) and his son-in-law Luigi Nono (born 1924). Judging from the lack of works by either composer…