(Photo credit: Ryan Harper) Opera Revue is a company made of three talented individuals: soprano Danie Friesen, baritone Alexander Hajek, and the sonic backbone of it all, pianist Elise Harris. Their mission, they say, is to introduce opera to newcomers and deliver a fresh way to experience it for veterans in a relaxed environment at an affordable price. My attitude {…}
(Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera) Whether Nietzsche actually meant it when he declared Bizet’s “Carmen” to be the perfect opera, or whether it was merely a literary tantrum aimed at his once-beloved Richard Wagner, it matters not. The resounding overture to “Carmen” provides its own argument as to the opera’s justified and beloved place in the canon. Love is a {…}
(Photo: Stefano Binci) Maiolati, a small Italian municipality of just six thousand inhabitants located in the province of Ancona, at the heart of Italy, preserves an important cultural legacy. In this serene village, Gaspare Spontini was born in 1774, a composer who, during his time, achieved extraordinary fame and recognition. However, over the years, his name and works have gradually {…}
(Photo: Patricio Cassinoni) History has not been kind to Charles Villiers Stanford’s reputation as an opera composer. During his lifetime he wrote nine complete operas, which, apart from his comic opera “Seamus O’Brien,” was met with limited success. Today, they are rarely performed, and none have found their way into the mainstream repertoire. In 2019, the Wexford Festival Opera produced {…}
(Photo by Rikimaru Hotta) The New National Theatre Tokyo is on the rise. Fresh off its announcement earlier this year that the company would be hosting the 2028 World Opera Forum, the organization has committed to expanding its repertory in recent seasons, taking on increasingly ambitious projects, oftentimes in collaboration with the major opera houses around the world. Over the {…}
Every production at the Donizetti Opera Festival has its specialty and purpose. One (this year, “Roberto Devereux”) is a serious production of the highest quality, another is a rare piece (this time “Zoraida di Granata,” which also took a stand to bring the most serious and painful topics to the stage), and another is fun and delightful. So, when you {…}
Raising a child is a complicated process. Raising a prodigious one is absolutely unforeseen and fraught with constant error, for no ordinary laws apply here. The Donizetti Festival in Bergamo, although still an officious event, always seemed to be this prodigy for me, every year somehow attempting to prove that Donizetti’s music might be the center of the opera world. {…}
(Photo: Gianfranco Rota) As part of the Donizetti Opera Festival (DOF), the stage came to life with “Don Pasquale,” the renowned opera buffa by Gaetano Donizetti, one of the last and most refined jewels of Italian bel canto. This production in Bergamo not only pays homage to the composer in his hometown but also celebrates the tenth anniversary of its {…}
(Credit: Marco Borrelli) Sometimes one has the impression that anniversaries are used to rationalize our infatuation with the music of an already popular composer. Such is the case this year when opera houses around the globe are commemorating the centenary of Puccini, the most performed opera composer after Verdi and Mozart. The Opéra de Monte-Carlo is no exception and in {…}