The tense, three hour knock-down-drag-out seduction of Beauty by Pleasure consumed our souls in this triumphal evening. Forget Time and Disillusion as destructors, they were the very constructors of the beauty and pleasure found in this miniature oratorio.
Tag: Milenski
Pelleas et MÈlisande in Aix
Three parallel universes (before losing count) — the ephemeral Debussy/Maeterlinck masterpiece, the Debussy symphonic tone poem, and the twisted intricacies of a moldy, parochially English country estate.
Cosi fan tutte at the Aix Festival
Said and done the audience roared its enjoyment of the performance, reserving even greater enthusiasm to greet stage director Christophe HonorÈ with applauding boos and whistles that bespoke enormous pleasure, complicity and befuddlement.
Don Carlo in San Francisco
Not merely Don Carlo, but the five-act Don Carlo in the 1886 Modena version! The welcomed esotericism of San Francisco Opera’s extraordinary spring season.
Jen?fa in San Francisco
The early summer†San Francisco†Opera season has†the feel of a classy†festival. There is an introduction†of†Spanish director Calixto Bieito to American audiences, a five-act Don Carlo and two awaited,†inevitable role debuts, Karita Mattila as Kostelni?ka and Malin Bystrom as Janacek’s Jen?fa.
Carmen in San Francisco
Calixto Bieito is always news, Carmen with a good cast is always news. So here is the news.
The Lighthouse at San Francisco’s Opera ParallËle
What more fitting memorial for composer Peter Maxwell Davies (d. 03/14/2016) than a splendid performance of The Lighthouse, the third of his eight works for the stage.
Svadba in San Francisco
The brand new SF Opera Lab opened last month with artist William Kentridge’s staged Schubert Winterreise. Its second production just now, Svadba-Wedding — an a cappella opera for six female voices — unabashedly exposes the space in a different, non-theatrical configuration.
Benvenuto Cellini in Rome
One may think of Tosca as the most Roman of all operas, after all it has been performed at the Teatro Costanzi (Rome’s opera house) well over a thousand times since 1900. Though equally, maybe even more Roman is Hector Berlioz’ Benvenuto Cellini that has had only a dozen or so performances in Rome since 1838.
Roberto Devereux in Genova
Radvanovsky in New York, Devia in Genoa — Donizetti queens are indeed in the news! Just now in Genoa Mariella Devia was the Elizabeth I for her beloved Roberto Devereux in a new trilogy of Donizetti queens (Maria Stuarda and Anne Bolena) directed by baritone Alfonso Antoniozzi.