Category: Performances

On 9 December 2005, Malena Ernman stepped in for an ailing Magdalena Koûen· at the Barbican in London. Here are 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Not Just a Famous Overture

OMAHA ó Having first heard Anna Christy a few years ago in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, she clearly had a bright future ahead of her. On Tuesday, this opinion was not only reaffirmed, but it is now manifest that this lovely and elegant soprano is well on her way to becoming one of the great coloraturas of the 21st Century.

Since opera began, composers have honoured, or pretended to honour, the principle that the music should serve the words, though, in reality, it is done more in the breach than the observance.

First, you signed the waiver relieving the venue of any liability for your injury or death. Then, you were handed a flashlight and felt the chill in the air – not a typical cold draft but the prickly tingle that comes with unquiet spirits nearby.