L’elisir d’amore is perhaps Donizetti’s silliest opera — but also one of his most charming.
Category: Performances
Peter Grimes — English National Opera, London Coliseum
In David Alden’s extraordinary new staging of Britten’s
masterpiece, with sets by Paul Steinberg, the Borough is populated by stylised
grotesques, a clever twist on the opera’s existing ‘Little
England’ character stereotypes.
Paris: Mostly Verdi Good Indeed
The Scottish Play’s ability to conduit bad luck is apparently not limited to the spoken stage, witness the new Paris OpÈra production of Verdi’s Macbeth.
Der Ring des Nibelungen at the MET
It’s the Ring — not just an ordinary evening (or four evenings) of opera — indeed, if you accept its creator’s words on the matter, it’s a music-drama, not an opera at all.
Canadian Opera on the rise
How often does one experience an opera in which everything works — in which there is not one flaw either in the staging or in its musical dimensions?
Subtle Previn world premiere in Houston
As far as world premieres go, Houston Grand Opera is in elite company in the United States, having performed thirty-eight new works prior to opening night of AndrÈ Previn’s new opera Brief Encounter.
Verdi and Boito at the Rome Academy of Santa Cecilia — Angels and Demons in an Unusual Setting
By sheer coincidence, the Academy of Santa Cecilia — one of the most authoritative symphonic orchestras in Europe — planned a rather unusual concert in the same days (May 3-7) when just in the very same auditorium there was the world premiËre of a movie expected to be a Hollywood blockbuster — the thriller titled “Angels & Demons”.
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk — Opera Australia
For two years following its premiere Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsesnk was one of the most often performed contemporary operas.
Kate Royal at Wigmore Hall
Soprano Kate Royal is reported to have said that singing at the Wigmore Hall is “like a religious experience”.