Category: Performances

Don Pasquale is generally considered one of Donizetti’s greatest works. Yet, “[o]f the three Donizetti operas being performed at The Met this season, the comedy Don Pasquale has been out of the repertoire for the longest time.” This season the opera returns with bass Simone Alaimo (Don Pasquale), soprano Anna Netrebko (Norina) and tenor Juan Diego FlÛrez (Ernesto). Here are four reviews.

The East Thirteenth Street Theatre is so unprepossessing that it would be easy to miss it altogether. From the street the entrance looks like an ice cream shop more so than a theatre. The crowded foyer has chairs around little tables and a food service counter.

Guy Joosten, who recently directed the Metís new RomÈo et Juliette, reworked an attempt of Cav and Pag presented at the Essen Opera for the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam. I cannot say he succeeded or to put it more plainly: Cav was bad and Pagliacci suffered too.

Having missed the first 10 minutes of Lysistrata, Or the Nude Goddess, I foolishly crept into my seat where I saw what appeared to be four raging Lainie Kazanís protesting war by Athenian ruins.

The New York City Opera opened its spring 2006 season with a new production of Frank Loesserís The Most Happy Fella, which premiered on Broadway fifty years ago in 1956.

Hercules (HWV 60) was first performed on 5 January 1745 at King’s Theatre, Haymarket, London. Categorized as a drama, it traditionally has been performed in the oratorio style (i.e., a concert performance). Following its performance as an opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, this production by William Christie now appears at the Barbican in London. “This extraordinary opera recounts the tragic tale of a hero literally poisoned by the jealousy of his misguided wife. In this modern-dress production, punctuated by Greek references, the action takes place on a sand-covered, amphitheatre-style arena where the chorus is used as Handel originally intended, to embody the people of Trachis and comment on the action.” Here are five reviews.

Producer Robert Carsen, together with his set designer Tobias Hoheisel, is taking a big risk with their new production of Gl¸ckís 1762 version for alto of ìOrfeo ed Euridiceî at Chicago Lyric Opera.

For most of its 40 plus years the Adelaide Festival of Arts has had as its central attraction the Australian premieres of a landmark European opera like Wozzeck, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, The Fiery Angel or landmark contemporary works like Death in Venice, Nixon in China or El Nino presented within a few years of their world premieres.

On Sunday, 28 February 2006, Carnegie Hall presented Les Violons du Roy, Bernard Labadie, Music Director and Conductor, with Magdalena Koûen·, Mezzo-Soprano, featuring works by Rameau and Gluck. Here are two reviews.

On 26 February, Constantine Orbelian led the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, marking its 50th anniversary this season, in works by Haydn, Prokofiev, Rossini, Shostakovich, and Mussorgsky, with the renowned contralto Ewa PodlÈs. Here are two reviews.