Right to the musical ‘score’ board: Zurich Opera stared down the mighty challenge posed by Rossini’s Otello ossia il moro di Venezia, and knocked it out of the ballpark.
Category: Redbox
Erwin Schrott’s Don Giovanni, ROH
Erwin Schrott triumphed as Don Giovanni in the Mozart/da Ponte series at the Royal Opera House, overcoming the limitations of the staging.
Otello in Z¸rich
War and destruction is everywhere these days, not least in Pesaro where Graham Vick staged a lethal MosÈ in Egitto last August, nor less so in San Francisco where baritone Thomas Hampson perished as Rick Rescorla in Heart of a Soldier last September.
Vivica Genaux — An Interview
I spoke with Vivica Genaux in December 2011, when she stopped in New York at
the end of one of her concert tours.
Operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau, an organist and music theoretician, was active for much of his life in musical centers distant from the cultural juggernaut of Paris.
Amsterdam’s Adventurous Idomeneo
Straight to the point: Netherlands Opera has mounted as luminous and emotionally engaging an Idomeneo as is imaginable.
Faust, Metropolitan Opera
At one point in The Met’s history, Faust was performed so frequently that one critic in mocking reference to Wagner’s opera house at Bayreuth coined the theater Faustophilhaus.
Xerxes in San Francisco
No cuts, not a single one, nearly four hours of non-stop arias, and its only hit tune happens within the first five minutes.
Eugene Onegin, ENO
Deborah Warner’s new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is an evocative and lyrical depiction of elegiac passion.
An Aria of Lincoln Center — The Metropolitan Opera
To the dismay of New York opera fans, the original Metropolitan Opera House,
located at Broadway and 39th Street, was to be torn down and replaced by a new hall
a mere 30 blocks away.