Harrison Birtwistle’s new full-scale opera, commissioned by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, is a study of isolation and imprisonment.
Category: Reviews
BELLINI: Norma
This production offers a different view of Norma. As Stage Director Guy Joosten explains in the introduction on the first of a 2-disc set, he wanted to give the audience ìmoreî of what he believes the modern audience expects.
(Mostly) Pretty Poison
What to make of “Lucrezia Borgia”? I have always felt that, some lovely arias notwithstanding, this Donizetti work never really gets going until the slam-bang soprano-baritone duet in Act II.
KUMMER: Cello Duets
If Friedrich August Kummer is not a household word in your home, no reason for concern ó he is one of the prolific Kleinmeistern of the post-Beethoven generation, a generation for which the cost of printing had dropped so much that it was financially possible for a composer to produce hundreds of published opuses.
Frankurt Opera ó The Rape of Lucretia
Plainly put, Frankfurt Operaís ìThe Rape of Lucretiaî could be offered as a textbook example of just how great a performance can be when everything goes right.
Barenboim and Berlin ó beauty and brilliance
BERLIN ó Which car-rental agency was it that was once No. 2 and ìtrying harder?î
ANNA BOLENA ñ English Touring Opera
In a climate in which bel canto opera seems to be enjoying a steady and welcome revival, ETO opened their current season with a welcome production of Donizetti’s historically dubious…
Berlinís ìotherî opera often stellar
It is, you might say, the little opera that can. True, if itís size of the budget, the price of tickets and the number of seats that concerns you, the Komische Oper is clearly the third of Berlinís opera houses.