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.
Mario Del Monaco at the Bolshoi
Myto has the good sense to call a spade a spade. This is an issue exclusively meant for the Del Monaco-crowd and not for people wanting a Carmen or a Pagliacci. The set has one enormous quality: a brilliant natural sound that hides nothing and doesnít change the balance of the voices.
Macabre, magical and magnificent
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/12/29/bthans29.xml&sSheet=/arts/2005/12/29/ixartleft.html
ENO changes tune on music director
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1674599,00.html
Barenboim hints at La Scala encore
http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,1674692,00.html?gusrc=rss
SCHREKER: Christophorus oder ìDie Vision einer Operî
How easy it might be to overlook this lesser-known Schreker opera, composed in 1928 and dedicated to Schrekerís good friend Arnold Schoenberg, here in its recorded debut. It has a quite curious libretto, complex and multilayered, and Schreker moves between what are at times quite disparate styles.
SPITZER & ZASLAW: The Birth of the Orchestra ó History of an Institution, 1650-1815
At a time when the press has made the public aware of the difficult circumstances that exist for the symphony orchestra in the United States, it is refreshing to find a book that demonstrates unequivocally the nature of that institution and, as a consequence, its power in culture.
GOUNOD: Faust
Faust, OpÈra en cinq actes
Music composed by Charles Gounod. Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel CarrÈ after Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
ENO woes continue with new sacking and strike
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1961532,00.html