This is where Puccini composed many of his operas until the lake got so polluted he had to move to nearby Viareggio.
Category: Reviews
Ariadne auf Naxos, Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble
Today’s general public labors under the unfortunate misconception that in order to enjoy opera, one needs to be educated and at ease with mobility in social circles largely consisting of decrepit old rich people.
Opera at Grant Park Music Festival
For its seventh program of the Summer 2011 season the Grant Park Music Festival presented concert ensembles performed by members of the Ryan Opera Center of Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Wolf Trap
For opera lovers who are serious enough to even think of a performing career, the path is an arduous one.
Prom 32: Brahms and Mahler
Brahms’s Violin Concerto and Mahler’s Das klagende Lied
did not seem to be the most obvious bedfellows — there has been some
rather peculiar programming at this year’s Proms — and even after
further consideration, the only real connection I could muster was that they
were written at the same time: the concerto in 1878, the cantata between 1878
and 1880.
Julia Lezhneva sings Rossini
It seems very appropriate that a record company called NaÔve should elect to release a solo recital for a soprano in her very early 20s.
Starry-Crossed Lovers in Bavaria
In the waning days of the annual summer festival, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera fielded enough star power to fire up a minor galaxy with its wholly absorbing production of I Capuleti e i Montecchi.
Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Aleksis Kivi
Great characters are at the center of all operatic masterpieces, yet opera almost never treads into “operatic biography” territory.
Saint-SaÎns’s Samson et Dalila in Antwerp
Bonus features on opera DVDs usually get generic names, such as “Interview” or “Backstage with…”