This summer at Caramoor, Will Crutchfield (not pictured) will conduct two Verdi operas written for the Paris Opéra. Read more »
Richard Wagner told Cosima he first got the idea of composing an opera about Tristan and Isolde while he was conducting Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi starring his muse, Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, in the trouser role of Romeo.
Wagner said lots of stuff. Whether this bit was true or not, it was Wagner’s high opinion of Bellini (especially Norma, of course) that kept the man in the repertory outside of Italy through the dark years of verismo and Gesamtkünstwerk. Happily, the two men never met; Wagner would have tried to borrow money and you know how that would have turned out. Read more »
Our Own JJ has been spending a lot of time outdoors lately, which is such a novelty for him that he felt he really must write about it. Fortunately, on at least two occasions when he found himself in the midst of nature, there happened to be music playing somewhere nearby, so that at least gave him a topic. Caramoor’s Ciro in Babilonia is the subject of a piece in Musical America, and the New York Post sent our scribe into the wilds of Brooklyn to cover the New York Philharmonic.
By the time Rossini was 20, he had produced six operas, most of them brief, comic and slight. He admitted to admiring Mozart (not then well known south of the Alps), but the melodies of his early works show more of the influence of Paisiello.
The Post decided to pass on a review of the Caramoor Maria di Rohan (July 24), but the presentation is definitely worth a mention and some discussion, so let’s take it to parterre.
The much-publicized Takesha Meshé Kizart has withdrawn “due to illness” from the title role of Maria di Rohan at Caramoor tomorrow night (!!!) to be replaced by her cover, Jennifer Rowley.
Cher Public