For the first generation of singers who traveled to China in 2011, I SING BEIJING was something new and adventurous, but also a bit of a lark. That has changed over the intervening years. On November 2, 2024, the iSING! Festival, as it is now known, and the Philadelphia Orchestra performed under the baton of Marin Alsop at Beijing’s National {…}
As chance would have it, the day the Paris cathedral reopened was also the 100th anniversary of Puccini’s birth. To mark the occasion, his “Messe di gloria” was performed at Metz’s Saint-Etienne cathedral on November 29. The last descendant of a long line of organists in his home town of Lucca, Puccini, only twenty-two, wrote a religious work with this {…}
(Photo: Gianfranco Rota) An early gem by Donizetti is reborn as part of the #donizetti200 project during the Donizetti Opera Festival’s tenth anniversary. This festival reaffirmed its commitment to recovering lesser-known works from the Bergamo composer’s catalogue, presenting this year the second version of “Zoraida di Granata.” Originally premiered in 1822 and revised by Donizetti himself in 1824, this opera {…}
(Photo: Dutch National Opera/Monika Rittershaus) (*** Trigger warning based on explicit content & suicide ***) “Le Lacrime di Eros” takes the audience back to the Italian city states of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a period still basking in the afterglow of the High Renaissance, in which the artworks of Da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo hung in the {…}
(Photo: Zani-Casadio) In his program notes, the director, Pier Luigi Pizzi, writing about “Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria,” stated that “the opera speaks for itself,” adding, “we must not induce or force its interpretation… It is up to the audience to confront it, to think about it, and to decide for themselves whether or not it is worthwhile.” Even {…}
For the first time in 11 years, the Metropolitan Opera has revived what I consider to be one of its greatest productions in my lifetime. Herbert Wernicke’s production of “Die Frau ohne Schatten” is simply one of the most sublime marriages of stage direction and opera in recent Met history. First off, it’s a challenging piece, not only musically, but {…}
(Brescia e Amisano © Teatro alla Scala) November 29th is a date of particular significance in the history of opera: in 1797, Gaetano Donizetti was born in Bergamo, while on the same date in 1924, Giacomo Puccini passed away. A century later, in 2024, Teatro alla Scala planned to commemorate the centenary of Puccini’s death with a grand tribute led {…}
(Credits: Brescia e Amisano) This may be a Ring Cycle that will not make history, and Wagner’s monumental cycle has only just begun. As proposed by Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the Prologue evening of “Das Rheingold” displayed an almost complete lack of interesting, cohesive ideas concerning staging; somewhat complacent conducting; and shaky casting. This should serve as a warning of the {…}
(Photo © [2024] Clive Barda) Puccini’s “Tosca” is, in effect, a historical 18th Century fable as seen through 19th Century eyes; still resonating here in the 21st Century purely because its story of love over politics – played out by Tosca, an opera singer; her lover the heroic painter Cavaradossi; and the thoroughly unpleasant dictator Baron Scarpia – combine to {…}