Category: Performances

It is a bit hard to know what to make of Olivier Messiaenís colossal piece ìSaint FranÁois díAssise,î beautifully mounted by Netherlands Opera.

If you are going to produce Jacques Fromental Halevyís forgotten opera ìClari,î I urge you to first make sure you have a signature on the contact from a superstar with the firepower of Cecilia Bartoli.

It is worth remembering that prior to the premiËre of Straussís opera in 1911, the working title was ëOchs auf Lerchenauí.

Opera producers in quest of headlines, unable to make them from the limited number of Mozart operas available (all of them far too familiar) but equipped with the flood of attractive young singers trained to sing Mozart in conservatories (because singing Mozart does not harm young voices, and
singing Verdi and Wagner before 30 ó better yet, 40 ó often will), sometimes turn to Mozartís contemporary, Cimarosa, and his Il Matrimonio Segreto, to get attention.

Handelís Rodrigo, subtitled ëVincer se stesso Ë la maggior vittoriaí (Self-conquest is the greater victory) is one of the composerís earliest operatic works, and rarely heard.

Chicago Opera Theater scored a resounding success with its area premiere of John Adamsí newest stage piece, ìA Flowering Tree.î

Upon its premiere at Chicagoís Lyric Opera in 1997 Anthony Davisí Amistad found little critical favor. Its undisciplined excesses led one writer to compare it to a high-school pageant.

In these days of ‘concept’ productions, it is rare that the curtain goes up on the first act of an opera and it looks exactly as one might reasonably expect it to.

I can still remember my first ever ìPelleas et Melisandeî in my first ever outing at San Francisco Opera during my first ever visit to that beautiful town.

A recent visit to Berlin’s three opera houses yielded decidedly, nay wildly varying outcomes.