Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Beethoven fest doubtful after opera house fire
A fire, apparently set off by welders carrying out roof repairs seriously damaged Bonn's opera house on Monday, two weeks before the planned start of its fall season with music by Ludwig van Beethoven, the city's best-known son. The blaze in the city where Beethoven was born in 1770 left scorched holes in the boxy building's aluminum-tiled exterior, and authorities said smoke and water caused damage on and around the stage.
— Read more at
hindustantimes.com
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Opera company loses director
The music director of the Welsh National Opera (WNO) has stepped down, just months before the company takes up residence in the new Wales Millennium Centre.
Tugan Sokhiev, whose appointment was first announced at the end of 2001, has given the WNO's board notice to terminate his contract.
— Read more at
BBC NEWS
Monday, August 16, 2004
Jerry Springer opera caught up in money wrangles
The date of Jerry Springer - The Opera's Broadway debut has been thrown into jeopardy, following money wrangles.
The show is scheduled to be unveiled in New York city in the autumn of 2005, but major investor Allan McKeown and Avalon Productions are currently battling over the anticipated cost and scope of the production.
— Read more at
IOL
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Great Falls Student to Peform in Opera
Sarah Glaser, 14, of Great Falls, is one of 28 students chosen by audition to participate in a four-week opera camp at the Washington National Opera. The program will end with the production of, a new opera, "The Enchantment of Dreams," this weekend.
"I was really excited because it is really fun when you audition for something. It makes you feel good to know that you did a good job out of all the people that auditioned," Sarah said.
In addition to playing a dream weaver in the opera, she has been in community theater and the World Children's Choir. "The choir has performed at the Kennedy Center, for President Clinton, and toured in Canada and Ireland. I really enjoyed it," said Sarah .
— Read more at
Connection Newspapers
Friday, August 13, 2004
A Modern 'Cosi,' With Spike Heels and Leather
Jonathan Miller's exhilarating production of Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" for the Mostly Mozart Festival is not new. It originated in 1995 at Covent Garden in London and was presented last year at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
— Read more at
The New York Times
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Ebony Opera Guild starts season in style
The musical potpourri is out of fashion, but the Houston Ebony Opera Guild has made Opera Gems: A Concert of Excerpts From Great Operas a cornerstone of its season, kicking off the group's annual August season.
Soaring lyricism, paint-scraping high notes and a big sweep of selections made this year's program an afternoon of grand entertainment Sunday at the Hobby Center's Zilkha Hall.
— Read more at
HoustonChronicle.com
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Pavarotti portrait shocks opera buffs
FIRST the queen of pop was accused of doing it and now it's the turn of the king of opera.
The newly engaged Britney Spears was criticised during the UK leg of her raunchy Onyx Hotel tour earlier this year for apparently lip-synching to a number of her hits such as Oops, I Did It Again and Toxic.
— Read more at
ic Wales
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Opera Star Set for Stage Return
Lesley Garrett, one of world's top opera singers, is to perform in Bristol with the Welsh National Opera, it was announced today.
She will take the lead in a production of Lehar's The Merry Widow in her first full-scale opera for several years.
— Read more at
Scotsman.com News
Monday, August 09, 2004
Reprieve for Opera chorus
TWENTY members of Scottish Opera's chorus will keep their jobs for at least nine months in a deal announced by the Opera and unions last night.
Equity, the actors' union, claimed a victory in turning aside plans to make the entire 34-strong chorus redundant by the end of August. Now only 12 jobs will go, the union said.
— Read more at
Scotsman.com
Shock treatment
Taught by Jesuits, Calixto Bieito studied art history and went on to work with some of the great European theatre directors. His challenging interpretations of stage and opera classics have been dismissed by some as pornographic sensationalism and praised by others as revelatory. This month he opens two shows at Edinburgh, including a graphically violent version of Il Trovatore.
— Read more at
Guardian Unlimited
Friday, August 06, 2004
Santa Fe Opera star speaks her mind
Ask an opera diva about the biggest challenges she faces on stage, and you might reasonably expect her to cite nailing the high notes or handling a tricky articulation.
But 39-year-old French soprano Natalie Dessay, the unrivaled star of this summer's Santa Fe Opera season, likes to buck expectations.
— Read more at
DenverPost.com
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Glimmerglass Finds Adventure in the Country
Opera buffs can't go wrong with any of the four new productions the adventurous Glimmerglass Opera is offering this summer, its 30th anniversary season. There is an impassioned performance of Puccini's inexplicably neglected tale of homesick miners during the California Gold Rush, "La Fanciulla del West"; a boldly updated and splendidly sung production of Handel's "Imeneo"; and a wildly costumed and zany staging of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Patience."
— Read more at
The New York Times
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
S.F. Opera creates committee to find new director
The search is officially on to find a successor for San Francisco Opera General Director Pamela Rosenberg, who announced she'll leave her position in the summer of 2006.
— Read more at
sfgate.com
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Lively staging makes "Lohengrin" seem speedy
When you have a 4 1/2 hour opera whose pace and intensity never flag, and audiences are heading off for intermissions saying "Boy, that act went fast," you know two things: The production has a terrific conductor and a great stage director. This is the happy case at Seattle Opera, where the company's revival of Wagner's "Lohengrin" kept Saturday's opening-night audience riveted all evening.
— Read more at
The Seattle Times
Monday, August 02, 2004
From Herod Hall to St. Louis Opera Theatre
Alek Shrader recently returned from his first professional stint with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Before the season ended, Shrader auditioned before representatives from other opera companies including the Met in New York City.
— Read more at
Alva Review/Courier
Wagner opens opera season
As is its tradition, Seattle Opera opens its new season on Saturday with an opera by Richard Wagner.
"Lohengrin," a mythic story of a mysterious knight with powers so strong he can save a kingdom, is one of Wagner's more accessible operas. A three-act opera on a grand scale, it's the story of the knight Lohengrin who uses his powers over evil to rescue a good woman and even promise her marriage, but only if he is never asked to reveal his name or his origins.
— Read more at
HeraldNet.com
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Pop goes the music
Jo Appleby studied opera for years, won coveted roles in key operas and performed at some of the most revered venues in classical music.
Yet this year you'll hear her soprano on a semi-operatic, semi-cheesy version of "Unchained Melody" with four other classically trained singers in the group Amici Forever, which bills itself as the â??world's first opera band.â??
— Read more at
Kansas City Star
|
