On 28 December 2005, soprano Alla Ablaberdyeva and pianist Andrei Korobeinikov presented a program of songs by Rachmaninov, Britten and Shostakovich. Here are four reviews.
Category: Performances
L’Elisir d’Amore at the Met ó Three Reviews
The Metropolitan Opera presented Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore (The Elixir of Love), which “tells of the peasant Nemorino who decides to take some magic elixir sold to him by a quack doctor, so that he can win the heart of a wealthy land-owner, who (to spite Nemorino) has announced her marriage to a sergeant.” Here are three reviews:
Berg’s Wozzeck at the Met ó Three Reviews
The Metropolitan Opera presents Wozzeck, Alban Berg’s “operatic version of B¸chnerís play about a soldier who subjects himself to medical experiments to augment his pay.” Here are two reviews.
Malena Ernman, Simon Rattle and OAE at the Barbican ó Three Reviews
On 9 December 2005, Malena Ernman stepped in for an ailing Magdalena Koûen· at the Barbican in London. Here are three reviews.
Rigoletto at the Met ó Three Reviews
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: Verdi considered Victor Hugoís play Le Roi síamuse ìone of the greatest creations of the modern theatreî, and jumped at the opportunity to adapt it for Venice in 1851.
Stravinsky in San Francisco ó Two Reviews
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY: The San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas present two semi-staged theatrical performances: a double-bill featuring Stravinsky’s rarely heard operas The Nightingale and Oedipus Rex.
Billy Budd at ENO ó Two Reviews
ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA: ëUnder no circumstances to be missedí (The Guardian), Neil Armfieldís illuminating reading of Billy Budd receives its long-awaited London premiere. In the season in which Benjamin Britten becomes ENOís House Composer, this engrossing WNO/Opera Australia production is the perfect salute to a great British masterpiece.
An American Tragedy ó Three Reviews
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: The American author Theodore Dreiser published An American Tragedy in 1925 and it quickly became a classic. Based on a true story of a man who was found guilty of murdering the woman who was carrying his baby, while he was simultaneously pursuing another woman of a higher social class, Dreiserís novel tells the story of a mid-western preacherís son who tasted a little sophistication on his way to death in the electric chair.
Thomas Hampson in Recital
Monday evening, November 21, 2005, I was fortunate enough to attend a benefit recital given by Thomas Hampson in the Fox Theater in Spokane, Washington.