Latest Operas Stories
On October 30, November 1, 8, 13 and 15, 2008 San Francisco Parlor Opera will perform W.A. Mozart's masterpiece Cosi Fan Tutte. All performances will take place at their new location at 1652 Hayes Street in San Francisco. Cosi Fan Tutte is a comic exploration of love and infidelity in spectacular Mozart style. Under the direction of Cole Grissom the story is updated and placed firmly on fashion forward. The cast includes Patricia Urbano as Fiordiligi, Elizabeth O'Neill as Dorabella, Cole...
By Edward Reichel Deseret News One benefit in heading the orchestra department at a university is the prospect of conducting a broad variety of music. And that makes Brigham Young University's Kory Katseanes very happy. "One of the highlights of my career here is the opportunity to do opera," he said in a phone interview. Since his appointment to direct the school's orchestras, Katseanes has conducted a large number of operas, including Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro," Johann Strauss'...
By Edward Reichel Deseret News Giacomo Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" has the distinction of being one of the most produced operas in the United States. It's a crowd pleaser, with its beautiful melodies and heart-wrenching story of passion and shattered love. It was also one of Puccini's favorites. Notorious for constantly revising his scores, Puccini labored for years after "Madame Butterfly" premiered at La Scala in 1904 to perfect it. There are no less than seven revisions, but no matter...
By Tanner, Michael Cavalleria rusticana & I Pagliacci English National Opera Don Giovanni Royal Opera Cavalleria rusticana and I Pagliacci tend to be regarded by opera buffs as a couple of blowsy old tarts, still plying their trade long after they could plausibly expect any decent customers, and only to be contemplated or tolerated if they are wearing heavy disguise rather than merely thick layers of cosmetics. It's to the credit of ENO and the team that has mounted the new production of...
By Anna Picard It may be slick and prettily dressed, but Cimarosa's marriage- market opera sorely lacks substance Classical Theatre Royal GLASGOW Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique/Gardiner Royal Festival Hall LONDON Among the greatest and best-loved operas, very few depend on behaviour unimaginable today. Rape, revolution, murder, suicide, infidelity, exile, corruption, poverty, sickness and greed still make the headlines, and a good production of a good opera can make a 400-year-old...
WHAT: Cineplex Entertainment is pleased to announce that the third season of The Met: Live in HD continues with an afternoon transmission of Richard Strauss's Salome this Saturday October 11th at 1 PM ET/10 AM PT, hosted by acclaimed soprano Deborah Voigt. Salome marks the second performance of the season as part of The Met: Live in HD series and will be transmitted live from New York via satellite in high-definition into more than 80 Cineplex Entertainment theatres across the country....
By Mark Kanny Once again, the imagination and daring of Opera Theater put music lovers in its debt by offering a charming staging of the all-but- forgotten short comic opera "Djamileh" by Georges Bizet. Opera Theater's artistic director Jonathan Easton, who likes to do stagings in untraditional locations, mounted "Djamileh" on a stack of oriental carpets at Artifacts galleries in the West End. The big showroom at Artifacts was a theater in the round for the opera, with the orchestra up...
On November 24, SonyBMG will release The Best of Gilbert and Sullivan by theatrical quintet the Gala Ensemble, aiming to bring their music back to the masses.The deal will see songs from comic operas such as Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado and HMS Pinafore receive a "fresh and uplifting" new recording, the label said. Those behind the deal said there has recently been a resurgence in interest in Gilbert and Sullivan, with the likes of Jo Brand, Alistair McGowan and Jonathan Ansell all taking...
By PATSY FULLER GILBERT and Sullivan's muchloved Mikado is undergoing a spectacular makeover... in black and white. All the costumes, sets and props will be in monochrome when Spa Opera perform the light-hearted operetta at the Spa Centre in Leamington later this month. Director Kenny Robinson says the black-and-white theme is a tribute to a 1986 production of The Mikado created by Jonathan Miller. "It really is taking a well-loved classic and doing something a little different to give it...
By Holloway, Robin There was no space in my report last month, on a first visit to the Bayreuth Festival, for what was in retrospect its most exciting quart d'heure, a privileged informal investigation of the unique orchestra layout that produces the Festspielhaus's unique acoustic. This, I was kindly permitted to explore one afternoon. Impossible to imagine from the auditorium the precarious peculiarity of this astonishing construction, steeply raked downward from the conductor's chair at...
