When opera is the subject, there’s an uneasy embarrassment at Leipzig’s annual 10-day Bach Festival, for opera is a genre that the city’s most famous musical son never embraced.
Category: Reviews
BRITTEN: Death in Venice
Two productions of Death in Venice within a month : one high budget and glamorous at the ENO and the other at Aldeburgh with a much more humble pedigree.
LASSUS: Psalmi Davidis pœnitentiales
Among Lasso’s vast output there are few works more imposing than his collected settings of the seven penitential psalms.
WAXMAN: Joshua
Franz Waxman was working with librettist James Forsyth on an opera, Dr. Jekyll, when the composer’s wife died.
MAHLER: Urlicht
Mahler: Urlicht is a recording of selected songs for voice and piano from various collections of
the composer’s Lieder, including his early settings from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the later Wunderhorn Lieder that Mahler set in the 1890s in versions with both orchestral and keyboard accompaniment, and also his Rűckert-Lieder, performed by the young mezzo soprano Christianne Stotijn accompanied by Julius Drake.
VIVALDI: Arie per basso
In 2001 the recording company Naïve and the Istituto per beni musicali in Piemonte began a large-scale undertaking of recording the vast holdings of Vivaldi’s musical library.
Italiana restored: Rossini’s afterthougts staged in Vicenza
Vicenza’s Teatro Olimpico, a jewel of Renaissance architecture inaugurated in 1585 and seating around 500, hosted in early June a run of three performances of Rossini’s Italiana in Algeri.
Pasatieri’s return to opera impressive
The June 2 world premiere of “Frau Margot” at the Fort Worth Opera might be regarded as “an historic return,” for this is Thomas Pasitieri’s first opera in 18 years.
BUSONI : Songs
Doktor Faust eclipses most of Ferrucio’s Busoni’s other work in terms of popularity. Surprisingly, though, he wrote little song. Only 40 pieces remain, many written in his youth.
The Jussi Björling Series: rare opera recordings from Stockholm
“We’ll discuss the greatest tenor in history, Jussi Björling, and his astounding voice.”