At this point in his career David Gockley has no need to prove himself. He did that with awesome success as general director of Houston Grand Opera for 33 years, during which he made that company a front runner both on the American and international opera scenes.
Category: Reviews
GIORDANO: Fedora
Mirella Freni’s 1993 triumph in the lead of Umberto Giordani’s Fedora at La Scala has made it to DVD. In his booklet essay, Werner Pfister (translated by Stewart Spencer) admits the opera “does not enjoy the best of reputations.”
ìDein ist mein ganzes Herzî
Okay, okay, I freely admit this up front: I am not inordinately fond of operetta. Just thought you should know. All the more remarkable then that I found myself listening to this new recording several times over.
STRAUSS : Elektra
Whatever you do, don’t give this DVD as a gift to people you don’t want to alienate.
Philip Glass celebrates 70th with compelling new opera
SAN FRANCISCO ó ìMy subject is war and the pity of war, and the poetry is in the pity.î
Handelís ìRadamistoî revisited with mixed results in Hamburg
A remarkably quick turnaround from only last May when the first run of Handelís ìRadamistoî was blessed with a consistently high level of vocal performance may have been the reason for sparser houses this time round at the Hamburg Staatsoper (October 6th).
The Metís New Lucia
Of Donizettiís fifty or so ìseriousî operas, Lucia di Lammermoor was the only one to survive his heyday almost unscathed by change of fashion; today, when a dozen of his other worthy works have been restored to the repertory, Lucia easily hangs on.
I Hear American Singing
Recorded in August 2001 at the Salzburg Festival, less than a month before the tragic events of 11 September, the presentation of songs and readings of music by American composers and texts by American authors seems aimed at a different world. Without venturing into political or social dimensions of the event, the concept of America in August 2001 suggested at times a sense of being impermeable, if not invincible.
Thomas Stoltzer. Psalm Motets.
Thomas Stoltzer represents German composition in the wake of the Reformation yet still immersed in the contrapuntal richness of the Josquin tradition.
MAHLER: Symphony no. 6 / Piano Quartet
With its fine engineering, the rich score of Mahlerís Sixth Symphony and the superb playing of the Philadelpha Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach emerge well in this recently released recording.