(Photo: Gianfranco Rota) If I close my eyes and concentrate, even today, locked in cold, rainy Vilnius, I can easily recall Bergamo in November. Warm, yellow, and red lights make their way through the morning fog in Città Alta. Città Bassa is still dark and sleepy. It’s only 7 a.m., and right from the airport, I take a walk in {…}
On Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020 the Los Angeles Opera gave the company premiere of Joseph Bologne’s “L’Amant Anonyme.” As the opera world in the United States reckons with racial inequity throughout the industry (I can’t really speak for how European companies are approaching these challenges or if they are at all), Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges has become a seminal {…}
(Credit: Anna Cillan) They say people tend to see what they want, but the tremendous professionalism of the team at Haymarket Opera convinces me that what I see is real. No matter how anxious we all are feeling these days, and how often the authorities and our own industry disappoint us, when I see people doing their job so brilliantly, {…}
(Photo credit: Opera Ithaca) Diving headfirst into creating a film production of an opera in the middle of a pandemic is a risk that most companies might shy away from taking right now. Social distancing and the tedious task of troubleshooting with technology, video editing, and sound design are all vital factors that must be adhered to and mastered. However, {…}
(Credit: Chris Singer) Only seven days before the COVID-19 pandemic fell on our heads, American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato was in New York portraying the role of Agrippina at the Metropolitan Opera House. Taking on the role of the cunning queen, DiDonato already had been in the eye of the storm. At that moment very few people really understood well what {…}
(Credit: Ray Burmiston) “One voice in a million.” This is the kind of phrase on which legacies, mythologies, histories are built. And it’s the phrase that continues to crop up whenever Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen enters the operatic conversation. The soprano has definitely played her part in bringing about this idea that her voice is of a unique power. She {…}
(Credit: © Gregor Hohenberg) The Metropolitan Opera Stars Live in Concert series continued this Sunday with a performance by the celebrated French-Italian tenor Roberto Alagna and Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak on the hilltop medieval village of Èze, France. On the outdoor terrace located at the Château de la Chèvre d’Or, Alagna and Kurzak were accompanied by the Vienna Morphing Quintet. {…}
As Renée Fleming, “America’s Diva,” introduced the third to last piece in a program that ranged from Handel to Cantaloube to Harold Arlen, the beloved singer sighed deeply. It was a testament to the magic and beauty she had spun singing one of the standout numbers of her concert, “O mio babbino caro” from Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi.” She sang the {…}
(Credit: Gregor Hohenberg / Sony Classical) When the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown the entire planet, the Metropolitan Opera was among the first companies to realize the potential of streaming operas to audiences worldwide. With its massive catalogue of opera recordings from both this century and the last, the company set out to present performances on a nightly basis. Other companies caught {…}