When Giulio Caccini entitled his landmark 1601/02 publication Le nuove musiche, he confidently laid claim both to the novelty of the emerging baroque style and his formidable role in bringing it to blossom.
Category: Reviews
GASPAROV: Five Operas and a Symphony
This new volume from Yale University Press is one of those rare and treasured phenomena in Russian music scholarship that illuminate their subject from a new angle ó that of cultural history. Indeed, Boris Gasparov’s expressed goal in Five Operas and a Symphony is nothing less than turning the table on poetry, philosophy, and literary criticism that have for so long ruled the field of Slavic research, and elucidating them from a musical point of view.
VERDI: Macbeth
This Macbeth, originally conceived by Phyllida Lloyd for a co-production of the Paris OpÈra and Covent Garden, is an excellent example of what nowadays is to be seen on most opera stages in Europe (and probably the States as well).
BELLINI: I Puritani
Through Rossini’s influence Bellini and his rival Donizetti were each invited to compose an opera for the ThÈ‚tre des Italiens in Paris. Bellini who, paranoid and delusional, thought he was the object of a sinister plan headed by Rossini to benefit Donizetti, went out of his way to ingratiate himself with the “Great Master” long before Donizetti’s arrival in the French capital. After a year of idle life in Paris, where he survived off the kindness of his hosts and friends, the Sicilian composer set to work on what would regretfully become his last opera: I Puritani di Scozia.
RenÈe Fleming and the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall ó Two Reviews
On 8 January 2006, the Met Orchestra performed at Carnegie Hall with James Levine, RenÈe Fleming and Julien Robbins.
CILEA: LíArlesiana
For a work that is known as a one-aria-opera, four official (this one included) recordings is not a bad record. And of course most opera-lovers have not only ìE la solita storiaî in their many tenor recitals but know the baritone aria ìCome due tizziî and the mezzoís ìEsser madre Ë un infernoî as well.
Operatunity Winners ó Denise Leigh and Jane Gilchrist
When asked if I had any interest in reviewing the discs of ìthe Operatunity finalists,î I admit I was so ignorant of what Operatunity was that I had to make a quick web search to find out.
Dvo?·k und seine Zeit
Dvo?·k und seine Zeit ñ Dvo?·k and his Time ñ immediately conveys a singular perspective on some of the vocal music of AntonÌn Dvo?·k (1841-1904) in the context of his generation. Recorded on 17 August 2004, the music on this two-CD set is from the second of two programs that were given at the 2004 Salzburg Festspiel under the rubric of ìDvo?·k und seine Zeit.î
Natalie Dessay: Mozart Concert Arias
I wonder how Natalie Dessay would comment on this CD made more than 10 years ago when she was barely thirty? The lady is a dream for every interviewer.
BELLINI: La Sonnambula
What to do, what to do, with Bellini and Romaniís bel canto masterpiece, La Sonnambula? The exquisite music demands to be performed, so the opera continues to have an existence on the fringes of the standard repertory.