William Byrdís affinity for the Latin motet found various outlets.
Category: Reviews
HANSON: Merry Mount
A frequent complaint about contemporary operas — or most any after Puccini’s Turandot — is the lack of that memorable lyricism found in the standard repertory.
Verdi: La Forza del Destino
From a relatively obscure label — Osteria — comes this 1962 live recording of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, featuring a relatively obscure soprano, GrÈ Brouwenstijn.
Classics for Pleasure opera highlights: Puccini
With single CD versions of full-length operas, isn’t the term “highlights” presumptuous?
Lalo’s Fiesque — University College Opera
UC Opera’s reputation for showcasing rare large-scale works has been boosted this year with the UK premiere of this 1846 opera by Edouard Lalo after a Schiller play.
Frankfurt’s Ship of Fools
As Anna Russell might say: “The three operas of Puccini’s ‘Il Trittico’ take place on a luxury cruise liner. . . . . On it.”
Heggie’s “Last Acts”
Let me say up front that I like Jake Heggie’s work. I feel he has a true gift for soaring and meaningful melody, a great ear for orchestral effects, a talent for picking good source material, and a knack for crafting affecting melodrama (in the best sense of that word) that can move an audience to tears.
Heggie faces family dilemma in new work
Do dysfunctional families outnumber the ones that move through life untroubled, or is it — to paraphrase Tolstoy — that every dysfunctional family is dysfunctional in its own way and thus of greater interest to writers and composers?
Handel’s Riccardo primo, Re díInghilterra (HWV 23) and Tolomeo, Re díEgitto (HWV 25) from B‰renreiter
Published in 2007, Riccardo primo, Re díInghilterra (HWV 23) and Tolomeo, Re díEgitto (HWV 25) mark two of the latest installments of vocal-score editions of Handelís operas based upon B‰renreiterís Urtext editions.