A career of the highest stature earns the professional the right to do as she or he pleases, after decades of dedicated achievement.
Author: James Sohre
Wagner: Wesendonck-Lieder, Preludes and Overtures
A great vintage Mercury album of Antal Dorati conducting Wagner overtures and preludes featured as a cover a close-up of a medieval chalice, undoubtedly meant to reference the Parsifal excerpt on the enclosed disc.
The Metropolitan Opera Gala 1991
The 50th anniversary of the Metropolitan Opera at the Lincoln Center is just a few years away, so, with something less than dispatch, a DVD of the 25th anniversary Gala appears.
Il Postino at Los Angeles Opera
An American opera house premieres a new work by a Mexico-born composer, to his own libretto in Spanish based on a film in Italian by an English director about an unlikely friendship the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda found when in exile on a small Italian island.
Rossini’s Otello at Rossini in Wildbad Festival, 2008
As good a performance of Rossini’s opera as this disc provides, for some equal entertainment value may potentially arise from the booklet essay by one Bernd-R¸diger Kern (as translated into English by David Stevens).
The Rake’s Progress at ThÈ‚tre Royal de la Monnaie
At some point it became a matter of honor for elite composers to have at least one go at a full length opera.
Puccini’s Edgar at the Teatro Regio Torino
A world premiere of a new opera holds the promise of an exciting new addition to the fairly calcified collection of masterpieces that comprise the standard repertory.
Un ballo in maschera at the Teatro Real
The greatest dramatic tenor and soprano roles have proven irresistible to Marcelo Alvarez, who started primarily as a lyric tenor, and Violeta Urmana, whose first career success came as a mezzo.
Marco Polo at Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam
Does this Tan Dun opera prove or disprove that for East and West, the twain shall never meet?
The Adventures of Pinocchio
The operas of British composer Jonathan Dove enjoy a fairly high level of both critical and popular support in the U.K., where his best known work, Flight, premiered at the prestigious Glyndebourne Festival.