Alberto Cant˘’s booklet essay for the Dynamic release of Umberto Giordano’s rare one-act opera Marcella quotes a review from the day after the 1907 premiere, which indicates that the premiere’s audience’s expectations of “greater originality of melodic invention” went unmet.
Category: Reviews
The Tales of Hoffmann at Covent Garden
The opening performance of the ROH’s seventh revival of John Schlesinger’s 1980 production of The Tales of Hoffmann was
dedicated to the memory of Richard Hickox.
Debussy’s PellÈas – a fine swansong for Independent Opera in London
PellÈas et MÈlisande in a 200 seat theatre, with just 35 musicians and no pit?
Boris Godunov at ENO
There are two things which, in recent history, English National Opera has consistently done extremely well.
Lulu-Palooza in the Windy City
Marlis Petersen, the much lauded “Lulu-du-jour,” brought her well-traveled portrayal of Berg’s complex heroine to Chicago Lyric Opera and she alone was almost worth the price of admission.
Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Opera House Z¸rich
This 2001 Z¸rich performance of Rossini’s masterpiece Il Barbiere di Siviglia boasts one of the final performances of the great bass Nicolai Ghiaurov, who passed away in 2004.
MAYR: L’amor coniugale
Naxos, in conjunction with SWR, has been releasing recordings from the Rossini in Wildbad Festival, which focuses not just on the titular composer but also on his contemporaries.
Matilde di Shabran at Covent Garden
The rare Rossini opera which brought Juan Diego FlÛrez to international attention in Pesaro in 1996 was thrown together by the composer at the last minute to meet a deadline in February 1821, with a plot from one source and characters from another, and bits of the score filled in by Pacini.
Doctor Atomic and Arjuna’s Dilemma
As Tom Stoppard put it, “There is an art to the building up of suspense.”