Human beings will always be good for a laugh, especially when they’re in full pursuit of sex.
Category: Reviews
PUCCINI: La Bohème
Even for a jaded reviewer like this one who has seen innumerable Bohème’s all over the world, there comes a moment in the third act when music and production simply take precedence over intellectual curiosity: the old magic works again and one is moved by the fate of these youngsters. High praise indeed for the famous Zeffirelli-production, born in 1963 at La Scala together with a juicy scandal when Di Stefano was ousted and replaced by Gianni Raimondi.
Fidelio at Carnegie Hall
Beethoven’s “Fidelio” is an opera about freedom that is shackled by a limited libretto. A great performance can unlock its treasures. A mediocre one can feel like prison, as the Collegiate Chorale’s performance on Thursday night at Carnegie Hall underlined. It was a long and murky night, although there were many glints of bright light that tantalizingly shone through.
ZEMLINSKY: Une Tragédie Florentine
The operas of the Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942) continue to fascinate audiences with their combination of carefully composed music and well-selected librettos. After using fairy-tale elements in his early operas, such as Sarema (1897), Es war einmal (1900), and Der Traumgörge (1905-6), Zemlinsky turned to Renaissance settings for Eine florentinische Tragödie (1917) and Der Zwerg (1922). In fact, Zemlinsky’s Florentinische Tragödie is based the dramatic fragment A Florentine Tragedy, by Oscar Wilde, whose works intrigued other composers of the time. Beyond the provocative drama Salome set by Richard Strauss, Franz Schreker used a story by Wilde as the basis for his ballet Die Geburtstag der Infantin (1908).
SCHOENBERG: Gurrelieder
Schoenberg for lovers. Sounds like an oxymoron, but in fact there is enough passion in the too seldom heard Gurrelieder to make even Valentine blush. We know Schoenberg largely from the atonal and dodecaphonic later works (and most listeners know of these mostly by inaccurate rumor). But we forget all too often the fact that Schoenberg had an early period, much of which is readily accessible to conservative tastes. Gurrelieder is the sort of diamond in the crown of this period, a long cantata-like adventure, some two hours in full. Scored for an enormous orchestra, four choirs, and speaker, and five soloists, the work is the logical conclusion of the nineteenth-century penchant for Texas-style excess when it comes to orchestration: you can’t get any bigger than this without havin’ to build a second story.
Stiffelio at Sarasota Opera
SARASOTA — Many operas are all about the music, but in “Stiffelio” composer Giuseppe Verdi paid a lot more attention than usual to the words.
Ravel and Poulenc at the Barbican
On paper, Ravel’s mock-Spanish “comédie musicale” (1904) and Poulenc’s mock-everything “opéra bouffe” (1944) should make a toothsome double bill. Less than an hour each, elegantly funny in quite different veins – and excellent for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, for no heroic voices are required. But the team’s Ravel proved a lame affair, and its Poulenc – sung in English, with the same director (Stephen Langridge) and conductor – a delight.
Handel’s La Resurrezione in Chicago
Since Brian Dickie arrived as general director, Chicago Opera Theater has become the place to catch Handel’s operas staged with a bold theatrical flair that’s fresh and cutting-edge. The company began its 2005 season with a beautiful and inspiring production of a Handel rarity, “La Resurrezione,” Wednesday night in the Harris Theater for Music and Dance at Millennium Park.
Musica Sacra at Carnegie Hall
Richard Westenburg led his 36-member Musica Sacra chorus and a small orchestra in works by Bach and Mozart at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday evening, and for the occasion, he revived one of the group’s hits from the 1970’s – the rarely heard early version of Bach’s Magnificat (BWV 242a) [sic].
Villazón at the Wiener Staatsoper
Er ist ein Bühnenmensch. Durch und durch. Schon ein Interview mit ihm ist eine äußerst unterhaltsame Dar bietung: witzig, inspiriert und sprühend lebendig. “Ich wollte immer alles darstellen,” sprudelt es aus dem 33-jährigen Mexikaner hervor. Mit Kindereien hat er sich dabei nicht aufgehalten. Bereits mit elf Jahren gehörte sein literarisches Interesse Camus und Kafka. “Die Figuren aus den Romanen waren für mich real, ich wollte so sein wie sie.” Das hat er bisweilen im Extrem ausgelebt. Die Biografie Gandhis hat den Jugendlichen später so fasziniert, dass er mit runder Brille und Glatze zur Schule ging. Das überbordende Ausdrucksbedürfnis entdeckte auch bald den Gesang. Vorerst unter der Dusche, am liebsten die Songs von “Perhaps Love”, Placido Domingos Cross-over-Album mit dem Popsänger John Denver – beide kann Villazón heute noch köstlich imitieren.