Among the available DVDs of Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck, the recent release of the production Rolf Liebermann made into a film i the late 1960s stands out for various reasons.
Category: Reviews
The Dream of Gerontius Opens Elora Summer Festival
Written in 1900, Elgarís Gerontius expresses the universal and existentialist struggle of death and rebirth. The allegorical significance of the piece touches on a need for faith, self-discovery, and acceptance of the world around us.
Faustina Bordoni: Faces of a prima donna
Opera singers today have become almost as famous and publicly worshipped as movie-stars; yet this has always been the case in operatic history.
Menottiís ìSaintî wears a dim halo
CENTRAL CITY, Colo. ó A year ago, when the Central City Opera announced plans to conclude its 2007 75th anniversary season with Gian Carlo Menottiís ìSaint of Bleecker Street,î the composer was aged but alive.
New opera from China crosses national boundaries
Itís clear today that Chinaís Cultural Revolution has led to a cultural revolution that ó in music at least ó has made the countryís artists frontrunners on the international scene.
JAN¡?EK: Jen?fa
In an evening brimming with sublime performances, Anja Siljja took grasp of her dramatic prowess and left us breathless, yearning for more. At the most sacred opera house in Italy, and perhaps the world, Jan·?ekís opera was thrillingly presented and is an example of our beloved genre at its finest.
Carlos Cogul: Introduction
Carlos Cogul is a London vocal coach and an appreciated baritone giving many a recital ÖÖin the London Tube while commuters hastily pass by to catch their trains. Judging from the photo on this CD he is not a young man any more.
ROSSINI: Bianca e Falliero
The choice between this recording made at the Pesaro Festival in August 2005 and the Opera Rara recording of 2000 will partly be made for non-musical reasons.
Jan Neckers on Recently Reissued Historicals
Almost thirty years ago a century old tradition ended with the last performance of I Maestri Cantatori.
Glimmerglass Opera 2007 ó An Overview
Glimmerglass Opera is in a watershed year. With the departure of Paul Kellogg, who had considerable success developing that annual festival, General and Artistic Director Michael Macleod has chosen to begin his tenure with a variation on the usual four-opera-season, namely a thematic collection
of pieces based on the “Orpheus” legend. “Don’t look
back” is the marketing catch phrase.