A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, around 1777, the Empress Maria
Theresa used to visit Prince Esterhazy’s summer palace at Esterh‡za,
where there was an opera house fully equipped with stage machinery, leading
singers, an orchestra, and a guy named Joseph Haydn to compose on cue.
Category: Reviews
Il Mondo della Luna (The World on the Moon)
Respighi — Works for solo voice and orchestra
While Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) is best known to modern audiences for his colorful programmatic works associated with Italian locations, his vocal music is also engaging.
Operatic Italian
Robert Stuart Thomson’s Italian language learning text, Operatic Italian, promises to become an invaluable textbook for aspiring operatic singers, voice teachers, coaches and conductors.
Stiffelio at the MET
Stiffelio was composed just after Luisa Miller — an opera that has had little trouble holding its own in the repertory — and just before the magic trio of Rigoletto, Trovatore and Traviata, the first Verdi operas to take their immediate place on the stages of the world and hold them without a break from that day to this.
Phaedra at the Barbican
Most musical of mourners, weep anew!
Not all to that bright station dared to climb
And happier they their happiness who knew
Whose tapers yet burn through that night of time
Elektra at the Barbican
Concert performances of operas are often problematic in that the work tends to be cut or otherwise played around with, or the venue is inappropriate – after all, these were meant to be staged pieces.
Carmen at the MET
Elina Garanča conceals her gleaming gold tresses beneath a curly black wig to sing Carmen.
La Fille du RÈgiment in Montpellier
The OpÈra National de Montpellier sometimes rises to artistic heights, and even when it fails its attempts are often interesting.
Quality opera just round the corner
Well into the 1960s, ‘provincial theaters’ were the backbone of Italy’s operatic culture.