Janacek’s Kata Kabanova began this year’s run at the Met on Friday night with a very new cast including two important and highly successful debuts.
This is Janacek late in his career, writing on a Russian subject by the playwright Ostrovsky. His admiration for Russian culture and literature may also have led him to follow Anton Chekhov’s example — Kata moves swiftly with the sense that any extraneous word or note has been rigorously pruned away — it is an opera that speaks directly and powerfully to its audience. Last night’s audience — the Met was at least 90% full — reacted with enthusiasm that bordered on delirium when the final curtain rose again for beloved Finnish soprano Karita Mattila’s pride-of-place first solo bow.
Kata Kabanova at the Met
Das Rheingold at Covent Garden
THE slightly unsettling fervour of Wagner adepts as they look forward to the start of another Ring cycle is matched by a religious hush as we sit in the dark waiting — for a good 30 seconds — for the thing to begin. And then it does, soft, impossibly deep rumblings emerging from the void to become the longest E flat chord in history, and a single light lost in the blackness of the stage. You think: this better be good.
Miah Persson Replaces Natalie Dessay in Mahler’s Fourth
Fi de Natalie Dessay et des Brentano-Lieder de Strauss (dont le dernier, Amor, donne le titre de son dernier album, chroniqué sur ResMusica). Qu’importe, le public s’est pressé ce soir là, comme à chacun des concerts de cette intégrale Mahler (lire le compte rendu de la symphonie n°3 et de ce même concert, deux jours plus tôt, à Dijon). Composée lors de son dernier séjour en Italie la symphonie n°29 d’un Mozart d’à peine 18 ans est créée en 1774 à Salzbourg, qui connaît depuis deux ans le règne du Prince-Archevêque Colloredo. Myung Whun Chung a choisi de réduire son orchestre en « formation Mannheim » (moins de trente cordes) pour servir cette œuvre avec la légèreté et la fluidité nécessaire. L’ensemble est très énergique et homogène, et accentue le coté brillant de cette symphonie par le parti pris de tempi plutôt allant, malgré quelques fluctuations dans les départs de mouvements.
Once More, With Feeling
Recorded music has benefited from the digital revolution, with lifelike reproduction possible in a variety of formats.
That’s not always a good thing, because professional musicians find themselves competing for work with a device known as Sinfonia.
The introduction of this “virtual orchestra” into opera and Broadway pits has stirred resentment, lawsuits and countersuits. Even the definition of what it is has generated heated debate.
A Day in the Life of an Opera Student
At Juilliard, Students Learn That Opera Is Both Craft and Commodity By BLAIR TINDALL The Juilliard School in New York City has trained some of the world’s most prominent singers…
The Oxford History of Western Music
A History of Western Music? Well, It’s a Long Story By JAMES R. OESTREICH OXFORD HISTORY OF WESTERN MUSIC By Richard Taruskin Illustrated. 4,272 pages. Oxford University Press. $500 until…
Carmen at Semperoper
Kein Urweib, keine femme fatale – eine “ganzheitliche” Frau mit einem unbändigen Freiheitsdrang soll diese Carmen sein. So stellt sie sich Regisseurin Konstanze Lauterbach laut Programmheft vor. Was man auf der Bühne von Peter Schubert sieht, sind Genreszenen in einem faschistischen Land.
Das Eröffnungsbild schon zeigt einen Marktplatz, auf dem es vor lungernden Soldaten nur so wimmelt. Kinder sitzen in dem lindgrün-ockerfarbenen Geviert auf dem terrakotta-farbenen Steinfußboden für ihren Auftritt bereit. Gruppen von schwarz gekleideten Lorca-Frauen huschen über die Bühne.
Man and Boy: Dada
Schwitters Agonistes: Opera Takes on a Radical By ANNE MIDGETTE Kurt Schwitters. Merz Picture 32A (The Cherry Picture). 1921. Cloth, wood, metal, fabric, cut-and-pasted papers, cork, gouache, oil, and ink…
Philip Gossett Receives Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award
Philip Gossett, one of the world’s foremost experts on Italian opera, will receive one of four Mellon Distinguished Achievement Awards, an honor that carries with it a $1.5 million prize.…
E’ morta Renata Tebaldi
E’ morta Renata Tebaldi Era la “rivale” di Maria Callas SAN MARINO – Renata Tebaldi è morta alle 03.30 nella sua casa di San Marino. La grande cantante lirica, nata…