Calixto Bieito is always news, Carmen with a good cast is always news. So here is the news.
Author: Michael Milenski
Oedipe at Covent Garden
George Enescu’s Oedipe was premiered in Paris 1936 but it has taken 80 years for the opera to reach the stage of Covent Garden. This production by ¿lex OllÈ (a member of the Catalan theatrical group, La Fura Dels Baus) and Valentina Carrasco, which arrives in London via La Monnaie where it was presented in 2011, was eagerly awaited and did not disappoint.
The Lighthouse at San Francisco’s Opera ParallËle
What more fitting memorial for composer Peter Maxwell Davies (d. 03/14/2016) than a splendid performance of The Lighthouse, the third of his eight works for the stage.
RomÈo et Juliette: Dutch National Opera and Ballet seal merger with leaden Berlioz
Choral symphony, oratorio, symphonic poem — Berlioz’s RomÈo et Juliette does not fit into any mould. It has the potential to work as an opera-ballet, but incoherent storytelling and uninspired conducting undermined this production.
Five Reviews of Regina at Maryland Opera Studio
These are five very different reviews by students at the University of Maryland on its Opera Studio production of Regina — an interesting, informative and entertaining read . . .
Andriessen’s De Materie at the Park Avenue Armory
“The large measure of formalism which forms the basis of De Materie does not in itself offer any guarantee that the work will be beautiful,” says Dutch composer Louis Andriessen of his four-movement opera.
Svadba in San Francisco
The brand new SF Opera Lab opened last month with artist William Kentridge’s staged Schubert Winterreise. Its second production just now, Svadba-Wedding — an a cappella opera for six female voices — unabashedly exposes the space in a different, non-theatrical configuration.
Benvenuto Cellini in Rome
One may think of Tosca as the most Roman of all operas, after all it has been performed at the Teatro Costanzi (Rome’s opera house) well over a thousand times since 1900. Though equally, maybe even more Roman is Hector Berlioz’ Benvenuto Cellini that has had only a dozen or so performances in Rome since 1838.
Roberto Devereux in Genova
Radvanovsky in New York, Devia in Genoa — Donizetti queens are indeed in the news! Just now in Genoa Mariella Devia was the Elizabeth I for her beloved Roberto Devereux in a new trilogy of Donizetti queens (Maria Stuarda and Anne Bolena) directed by baritone Alfonso Antoniozzi.