Born to a very poor family in 1797, Gaetano Donizetti was lucky enough to become the pupil of Johann Simone Mayr, the Maestro di Capella of his native city, who recognized his talent and made sure he received appropriate instruction.
Category: Performances
Tosca by Arizona Opera
The libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa for Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca is based on Victorien Sardou’s French play, La Tosca.
Amsterdam: Tell Hits a Bulls Eye
With a visually beautiful and dramatically honest staging, Netherlands Opera has made as compelling a case as I would imagine possible for Rossini’s grand opera Guillaume Tell.
Der Kaiser von Atlantis at the Staatsoper Berlin
Recent seasons have seen a surge in so-called ‘Holocaust
operas,’ from Peter Androsch’s Spiegelrund, which
premiered in Vienna last week, to Mieczysław Weinberg’s The
Passenger, unveiled with a half-century of delay in Bregenz in 2010.
A Timeless H‰nsel und Gretel in Chicago
In remounting its 2001 production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s H‰nsel und Gretel Lyric Opera of Chicago has demonstrated the timeless nature of the score and narrative as well as the ingenuity of the production with its thoughtful and touching updating to a twentieth-century milieu.
Maria Stuarda at the Met
The Met’s opulent and well-sung Maria Stuarda cannot overcome its insipid libretto.
Soile Isokoski – Wigmore Hall – Sallinen
Soile Isokoski and Maria Viitasalo made a welcome return to theWigmore Hall, London. Their recital was a masterclass in what singing really should be about: not simply sound production, but the expression of meaning.
PellÈas et MÈlisande in Nice
PellÈas et MÈlisande, in t-shirts and jeans, were out riding bicycles. They came upon a fountain. You know what happened.
Nash Ensemble, Wigmore Hall – Warlock, Britten
Surveying British chamber and instrumental music written between the 1890s and WWII, the Nash Ensemble’s Wigmore Hall residency series, Dreamers of Dreams, has illuminated the creativity and originality of British musical life during this period, revealing the shared and the idiosyncratic preoccupations of composers; the intertwined biographies of musicians; the influence of key individual performers on repertoire, style and idiom; the dialogue between old and new; and the prevailing shadows of war and irreversible change.
San Diego Opera new season 2013
The New Year 2013 is here and San Diego Opera will open its season at the
end of this month. The company will present four well known operas:
Gaetano Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment (La Fille du Regiment),
Camille Saint-SaÎns’ Samson and Delilah, Ildebrando Pizzetti’s Murder in
the Cathedral (Assassinio nella Cathedrale) and Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida
along with a Mariachi opera: Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, (To Cross the
Face of the Moon).