The December opening of the La Scala season requires a notable production, and in 2001 a gorgeous new production of Verdi’s Otello fit the bill.
Author: James Sohre
Achim Freyer’s production of Wagner’s Siegfried at Los Angeles Opera
Saturday October 17th found the Los Angeles Dodgers out of town for the weekend, but traffic still clogged the freeways leading to their stadium.
Czech Opera Treasures on Supraphon
A note on the inside back cover of the booklets for these two releases announces that they are part of a new Supraphon series dedicated to “archive recordings of complete operas not yet available on CD.”
Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda at the Sferisterio Festival
A number of performances from the Sferisterio Opera Festival have been released in recent months.
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von N¸rnberg
Videos from the Bayreuth Festspiele typically feature the highest quality audio and video of any live performance documents.
Toscanini: In His Own Words
The back cover description of this Medici Arts DVD can fairly be called misleading, though not dishonest.
Giordano: Marcella
Although this DVD comes on the Naxos label, an earlier CD version of the same performance went under the Dynamic label, specialists in rare repertory.
Johann Strauss: Das Spitzentuch der Kˆnigin
Dear non-German speaking Opera Today reader — what’s your first guess as to the meaning of the biggest word in the title of this obscure Johann Strauss operetta?
Siegfried Wagner: Der Schmeid von Marienburg
Will the 22nd century still see the opera-loving world as fascinated by the ongoing saga of the Wagner family as the 20th did and the 21st does?
John Gay: The Beggar’s Opera
The only thing truly operatic in this work is the use of the word “opera” in the title.