“Pardon me, but your teeth are in my neck”: Giambattista Marino, Claudio Monteverdi, and the bacio mordace Massimo Ossi Claudio Monteverdi’s “Eccomi pronta ai baci” presents an odd pairing of…
Wiener Staatsoper Announces Program Remembering 50th Anniversary of Rebuilding of Opera House
On 5 November 2005, the Wiener Staatsoper will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the rebuilding of the opera house, which had been destroyed near the end of World War II.…
More on the Reopening of La Fenice and La Scala
Opera house rises from the ashes — again After fire and years of controversial renovations, Venice’s La Fenice and Milan’s La Scala raise the curtains By PAUL FRENCH Special to…
Pro Ópera on Daniel Catán’s Salsipuedes at HGO
Salsipuedes ha llegado a buen puerto Modelo que muestra a Ulises y Chucho a bordo de “El invencible” Dentro de la presente temporada de la Gran ópera de Houston, se…
WSJ Reviews Le Grande Macabre and The Flying Dutchman at the SFO
Waiting for the End of the World
By HEIDI WALESON [WSJ]
November 17, 2004
San Francisco
Many listeners know Gyorgy Ligeti from the creepily futuristic orchestral music in the soundtrack of the 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” His opera “Le Grand Macabre” (1978, revised in 1996), given its American premiere this month by the San Francisco Opera, is a thoroughly different creature, yet it is just as much an artifact of its time. Though carefully crafted and full of compositional references, the score is mostly an elbow-in-the-ribs accompaniment to a nihilistic black comedy. Beginning with an opening fanfare for car horns that sounds like Harpo Marx multiplied and continuing with a parody of the “Dies Irae,” the prophecy of the Day of Judgment, the opera is a soulless and often scatological joke.
Manhattan School of Music to Present Hoiby’s A Month in the Country
LEE HOIBY: A Month in the Country Libretto by William Ball after the play by Ivan Turgenev The Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater presents Lee Hoiby’s A Month in…
I Puritani at Baltimore Opera
More than meeting Bellini’s demands Baltimore company sings ‘I Puritani’ with polish, precision and control By Tim Smith Sun Music Critic November 15, 2004 Bel canto – “beautiful singing.” It’s…
Le Figaro Reviews La Traviata at La Fenice: Praises Ciofi, But Not Much Else
Verdi à Las Vegas Venise : de notre envoyé spécial Jacques Doucelin [15 novembre 2004] Un de ces chats comme Venise en a le secret, trone impérial et méprisant au…
Phoenix Rising
Venetian Phoenix Rises Operatically From the Ashes By ALAN RIDING [NY Times] VENICE, Nov. 14 – Destroyed by fire on the night of Jan. 29, 1996, and rebuilt during eight…
On Lulu’s Portrait
Ascription of Identity: The Bild Motif and the Character of Lulu Silvio José Dos Santos The most controversial aspect of Alban Berg’s opera Lulu — and one that has generated…