AllAboutOpera.com

A knight at the opera

2008-05-14T05:00:00.000-04:00

A BAWDY bedroom scene is playing on Scottish Opera's rehearsal stage. Baritone Peter Sidhom, playing Sir John Falstaff - in a padded fat suit that bulges bizarrely from both his front and rear - is comically attempting to pin soprano Amanda Roocroft on the bed.
— Read more at The Scotsman

REVIEW: Berkeley Opera, with video

2008-05-14T04:55:00.001-04:00

The folks at the Berkeley Opera figured out a while ago that video projections are a canny way of adding a visual dimension to a production within the constraints of a tight budget and the spare settings of the company's home in the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. But they've never pursued the idea as comprehensively as in the company's latest offering, a double bill of one-acts by Bart�k and Ravel.
— Read more at sfgate.com

Interview: Jonas Kaufmann on singing his first Cavaradossi in Tosca at Covent Garden

2008-05-13T05:00:00.000-04:00

Jonas Kaufmann is a rare breed of singer. Coming originally from Munich, he has avoided being type-cast and has a repertoire that ranges from Mozart to Wagner, encompassing many of the great French and Italian roles. This season at Covent Garden he's already impressed critics and audiences alike opposite Anna Netrebko in La traviata. His Don Jos� in Francesca Zambello's production of Carmen (when it opened in 2006) received the kind of universal acclaim that's hard to come by in the opera world. He first made an impression at the Royal Opera House when he appeared opposite Angela Gheoghiu in Puccini's La Rondine and it's in the same composer's Tosca that he makes a role debut next week, as Mario Cavaradossi.
— Read more at MusicalCriticism.com

The Bronx Opera Makes Fun of Itself in a Mozart Adaptation

2008-05-13T04:55:00.000-04:00

It is a Thursday night at 7:30, and the members of the Bronx Opera, its two designated divas included, have assembled to rehearse.
Tables must be moved to make space inside Lehman College's East Dining Room, so they are moved with a song. As performers await their scenes, they eat takeout food, singing between bites. A chorus member waiting his turn reads a newspaper, humming to himself. People pace or study scores, singing all the while.
— Read more at New York Times

Metropolitan Opera Season Preview: Now Hear This

2008-05-12T05:00:00.002-04:00

With directors Robert Lepage and Penny Woolcock making Met debuts and Mary Zimmerman returning after her hit production of Lucia di Lammermoor, the potential for dynamic stagecraft at the Met next season is enormous. But beyond theatrical ingenuity, the 2008?09 season's new productions also afford the opportunity for extraordinary vocalism. The stars of the six new productions may be familiar to Met audiences, but their repertoire is not. With the exception of Il trovatore, none of these operas has been performed at the Met in more than a generation - and in the case of Doctor Atomic, never before.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

Verdi Versus Shakespeare: With 'Macbeth' It's a Draw

2008-05-12T04:50:00.000-04:00

There are two gripping productions of "Macbeth" in New York right now.
The darkly theatrical, cinematic staging directed by Rupert Goold and starring Patrick Stewart opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and is now at the Lyceum Theater on Broadway.
Then there is the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Verdi's operatic adaptation of that Shakespeare drama, a breakthrough work for the young Verdi, first performed in 1847. The Met's grim, boldly updated production by the director Adrian Noble, which opened in October, returns on Friday with a new cast, led by the baritone Carlos �lvarez, the soprano Hasmik Papian as Lady Macbeth, and, in the crucial role of Banquo, the formidable bass Ren� Pape. James Levine conducts.
— Read more at New York Times

ALT's Composer Librettist Development Program accepting applications

2008-05-12T04:45:00.000-04:00

Applications are now being accepted for American Lyric Theater's Composer Librettist Development Program - the only full time mentorship program for emerging operatic composers and librettist in the United States. Producing Artistic Director Lawrence Edelson explains, "while there are playwright programs at theater companies around the country that have proven immensely successful at mentoring artists, no opera company has a full-time program to mentor its writers. Opera companies tend to focus their resources on the mentorship of young singers ? and the results have been extraordinary. Just imagine what could happen on the American opera stage if there were comparable mentorship opportunities for our emerging writers... ALT is committed to making this happen."
— Learn more at altnyc.org

REVIEW: Roberto Alagna, Barbican Hall, London

2008-05-09T05:05:00.000-04:00

It was plucky, not to say defiant, of Roberto Alagna to include the treacherous "Celeste Aida" in his Viva Verdi recital. This was, after all, the aria that precipitated his famous walk-out from La Scala, Milan, in December 2006, when elements in the audience showed their disapproval in the traditional manner. But if he sang it there as he did here, then I can't say I blame them.
— Read more at The Independent

Von Stade stars in Long Beach Opera's first recital

2008-05-09T04:58:00.001-04:00

In three decades of adventurous programming, Long Beach Opera has tried a lot of things - from its beginning in 1979 as Long Beach Grand Opera producing large works, to its recent experiments in operas performed in a parking garage and a swimming pool.
— Read more at Press-Telegram

Frances Yeend, Soprano at City Opera and the Met, Dies at 95

2008-05-09T04:55:00.000-04:00

Frances Yeend, an internationally known soprano who appeared regularly with the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in the decades after World War II, died on April 27 in Morgantown, W.Va. She was 95 and lived in Morgantown.
— Read more at New York Times

Duke Ellington's Only Opera to be Performed in Oakland

2008-05-09T04:45:00.001-04:00

Duke Ellington's only opera, Queenie Pie is scheduled for 12 performances during May at the Oakland Metro Operahouse in Oakland, Calif. Produced by the Oakland Opera Theater and the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, under the artistic direction of Tom Dean and musical direction of Deirdre McClure, it opens on May 10th and runs through May 25th. The stage director and choreographer is Michael Mohammed, the musical orchestrator and arranger is Marc Bolin, and the playwright is Tommy Shepherd.
— Read more at JazzTimes Magazine

Soprano takes Madison Opera to limit with notorious "Mad Scene"

2008-05-09T04:40:00.000-04:00

How does a perfectly sane person -- if an opera singer can said to be perfectly sane -- portray insanity?
That's the challenge that faces soprano Luz del Alba and the entire Madison Opera as it tackles its first-time production of Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" this weekend at Overture Hall.
— Read more at madison.com

Hip Hopera breaks ground, gently

2008-05-09T04:30:00.001-04:00

They're understandably wary of one another, but hip hop and opera aren't totally alien bedfellows.
Both rely on outsized characterizations to spin a good yarn through music, and when rappers get particularly ambitious with their storytelling - Jay-Z on American Gangster or Lupe Fiasco on The Cool, to name two recent examples - the results tend to be painted in the same epic (and violent) narrative strokes as any corpse-littered production of Tosca.
— Read more at TheStar.com

Kinetic twist on 'Little Prince'

2008-05-08T05:00:00.002-04:00

There's opera, and then there's children's opera, each with its own audience. But the beguiling opening-night performance of "The Little Prince" gave both groups a chance to meet on common ground.
On Friday, Rachel Portman's adaptation of the classic 1943 novella by Antoine Saint-Exup�ry made its West Coast debut at Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall. Presented by Cal Performances and San Francisco Opera through Sunday, the production attracted both seasoned operagoers and families.
— Read more at San Jose Mercury News

Encores Come to the Met

2008-05-08T04:59:00.001-04:00

It was a night for the history books.
Juan Diego Florez jauntily cherry-picked the nine high C's in "La Fille du Regiment" at the Metropolitan Opera April 21. These were the same stratospheric nine that signaled the 1972 breakthrough of some tenor named Pavarotti. And the aria sent a special shiver of approval through the primed opening-night crowd.
— Read more at Nevada Appeal

Opera stumbles in its wanderings

2008-05-08T04:58:00.001-04:00

A great night at the opera means seeing a stage full of characters who feel trapped by their fates and emotions, yet still leaving the theatre feeling exalted.
It's not so good when you feel your own life force ebbing away well before the title character has had a chance to slip into death.
Unfortunately, the Canadian Opera Company's mainstage season-closer - Claude Debussy's early 20th-century masterpiece, Pell�as et M�lisande - feels twice as long as its 3-plus-hour running time. This despite a captivating stage design (by Dany Lyne) and a stunning performance by Canadian baritone Russell Braun in the role of Pell�as.
— Read more at TheStar.com

The Met's HD lineup a treat for opera fans

2008-05-08T04:07:00.000-04:00

Thousands of Toronto opera lovers who have turned the Metropolitan Opera's HD series into a huge hit at select Cineplex theatres will be delighted by the lineup for 2008-09.
There will be 11 simulcasts next year (compared to eight this past year), starting with a star-studded opening night on Monday, Sept 22. That will be followed by 10 Saturday afternoon HD presentations.
— Read more at TheStar.com

Woody Allen Dabbles in Puccini, Opera Suffers

2008-05-07T05:25:00.000-04:00

"I have no idea what I'm doing," said Woody Allen. "But incompetence has never prevented me from plunging in with enthusiasm."
So declared the New York filmmaker when the Los Angeles Opera announced last June that he would direct a production of Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi" to be staged this September.
— Read more at Bloomberg.com

'Little Prince' takes opera to the kiddies

2008-05-07T05:21:00.000-04:00

The creators of books, musicals, movies and television shows all figured out long ago how to tailor their art specifically for children. Until now, opera has been late to the party.
Rachel Portman's beautiful 2003 opera, "The Little Prince," which had its West Coast premiere over the weekend in a co-production by the San Francisco Opera and Cal Performances, corrects that oversight with uncommon sensitivity and flair. Tender and funny, brightly colored and easy to digest, it has all the qualities of a first-rate kids' story.
— Read more at sfgate.com

Canadian Opera Company goes hip hop

2008-05-07T05:17:00.000-04:00

The Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, best known for producing classical European operas for almost 60 years, is breaking new ground with an original hip hopera production on Wednesday.
— Read more at Yahoo! News

The Pittsburgh Opera makes its move

2008-05-07T05:15:00.000-04:00

The Pittsburgh Opera is almost done with its move from its Downtown offices to its new, huge complex in the Strip District. Our intrepid videographer, Michael Henninger, shot a short video last week, if you want to get a sense of the enormity of the transfer. With many costumes, scores, computers, files and sets, this is not your standard house move.
— Read more at post-gazette.com

REVIEW: Roberto Alagna at the Barbican

2008-05-07T05:06:00.001-04:00

Nobody booed this time. Roberto Alagna didn't flounce off the stage, as he famously did in December 2006 after nasty noises from La Scala's cheaper seats and one aria's worth of A�da.
In any case, the atmosphere in the Barbican Hall was a world away from that bearpit in Milan. Here, this tenor "divo" was entirely among friends - his wife Angela Gheorghiu included, who was the encore recipient of an unaccompanied love song. Alagna wooed the whole audience too, with every gesture and most of his notes. "Very nice to be here," he said, before settling into another Verdi aria of abject suffering.
— Read more at timesonline.co.uk

Delaware Valley Opera Summer Schedule

2008-05-07T05:01:00.001-04:00

The 22nd Season of the Delaware Valley Opera will highlight two of Opera's most notorious bad boys: Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and Donizetti's "Don Pasquale."
The season will also offer a program of highlights from favorite operas called "Divas o�n the Delaware," and a program of Broadway songs by the amazing lyricist, Yip Harburg, who wrote the lyrics to "The Wizard of Oz," among other great songs. Performances will be in Sullivan County, NY and across the Delaware River in Pike County, PA.
— Read more at tristateobserver.com

The Emperor Tito, Focus of Mozart's Tones and Characters' Plots

2008-05-06T05:30:00.001-04:00

Mozart's "Clemenza di Tito" has the reputation of being an opera for connoisseurs, not because the music is rarefied but because it typically takes a discerning opera lover to appreciate the work's splendors while overlooking its flaws.
But as the Metropolitan Opera's revival of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's elegantly stylized 1984 production made clear on Saturday night in the first of four performances, with a strong cast and a sympathetic conductor (here Harry Bicket), "Clemenza" emerges as a musically ravishing and dramatically complex opera of great immediacy.
— Read more at New York Times

Nuns Face the Guillotine, Each on Her Own Terms

2008-05-06T05:23:00.000-04:00

In the 10 years that Joseph Colaneri has been artistic director of the Mannes Opera at Mannes College the New School for Music, the program has earned a stellar reputation for the quality of its presentations and the excellence of its student singers. On Saturday evening in the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College the company presented Poulenc's "Dialogues of the Carmelites" in a production that lived up to the expected high standard. A second performance with a different cast was scheduled for Sunday
— Read more at New York Times