The Bayerische Staatsoper, based in three spectacular houses where Mozart, Wagner and many other composers premiered their works, presents over 300 annual performances to a discerning public.
Category: Reviews
VillazÛn on Deutsche Grammophon
The opera world, always ravenous for talented, charismatic tenors, felt desperate hunger pains last summer, when Rolando VillazÛn canceled dates with an explanation that a health crisis necessitated a sabbatical from singing.
Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera x2
With a composer as widely beloved as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, for an opera to be all but forgotten suggests the work has problems beyond redemption.
Der Rosenkavalier highlights on Classics for Pleasure
For the opera of average length, a decent highlights disc can feature as much as half the score.
Die Soldaten
Bernd Alois Zimmermann was a sensitive, none too healthy 21-year-old music prodigy in 1939, when he was drafted into the German army.
Troilus triumphant in Saint Louis Ö..
For Sir William Walton, the protracted genesis of Troilus and Cressida must have seemed more akin to the agonies of Sisyphus than to the composition of an opera.
CANDIDE ñ English National Opera, London Coliseum
Originating at the Ch‚telet, where the narration was given in French, Robert Carsen’s staging of Bernstein’s unique satire worked rather well in its television broadcast from the Parisian house late in 2006.
A Brescian Butterfly and a bewildering Hoffman at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
The disastrous 1904 La Scala premiere of Giacomo Pucciniís Madame Butterfly is one of those famous annals of opera which tend to leave todayís audiences perplexed about all the uproar.
Rossini Opera Festival on Dynamic
At the Rossini Festival held in Pesaro, Italy, Dynamic recorded two Rossini rarities in August 2006.
Grant Park Music Festival: ì20th-Century Masters.î
The concert ì20th-Century Masters,î presented by the Grant Park Music Festival, Chicago on 27 and 28 June 2008 featured several pieces performed for the first time under the auspices of the Festival.