A fine-sounding Santa Fe Opera orchestra, excellently conducted by FrÈdÈric
Chaslin, was barely into the haunting, delicate prelude to Act I of La
traviata, when a funeral procession, wet umbrellas unfurled, arrived to
wend its way though a stage full of big grey marble rectangular boxes,
handsomely abstracted tomb shapes, soon to be the courtesan Violetta
ValÈry’s destination. So much for the Prelude to Act I.
Category: Performances
An Evening at PËre Lachaise [Or, Natalie Dessay Attempts Violetta]
Bought and Paid-for Magic — Bernstein Tahiti in Munich’s CuvilliËs Theater
There she is, in her inch or two of sarong, floating, floating…Oh, excuse me, where was I?
A knock-out Ariadne auf Naxos at Munich’s Bavarian State Opera Festival
There are rare times when a critic can just enjoy, and say “Wow!”
Tosca at the Baths of Caracalla, Rome
Tosca is the quintessential Roman opera, with a plot located in
three infamous landmarks of Rome, its 1900 premiere in Rome was bound to be
enormously successful.
Munich’s Re-constructed Lohengrin
Were someone looking to assemble a musical Dream Team to thrill us to the core with Wagner’s Lohengrin, one would need look no further than the assembled forces currently on stage at Munich’s Bavarian State Opera.
Alice Coote stars in the First Night of the BBC Proms 2009
The Proms reach people all over the world, bringing them together for a kind of international street party, celebrating a shared love of music. If the arts make us more human and humane, then the BBC Proms are a force for good.
Festival Aix-en-Provence by StÈphan Lissner
The Aix Festival imagines itself one of Europe’s great festivals, defining itself as the crossroads of European culture.
Gˆtterd‰mmerung at Aix-en-Provence — A Human Symphony
This year’s program at the Aix-en-Provence Festival includes
Gˆtterd‰mmerung, the much-anticipated final installment of the
Ring co-sponsored by Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Osterfestspiele Salzburg.
Mozart Mistreated at Aix-en-Provence Festival
At the festival of Aix-en-Provence, now in its sixty-first year, the final installment of Wagner’s “Ring,” with Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, has hogged the spotlight.
Prom 2 — Haydn: The Creation
‘I never left a theatre more contented, and all night I dreamed of The Creation of the world.’ — the view of one of those at the first performance of The Creation in 1799.