Valmont


Igor Stravinsky was a bit of a musical shapeshifter in his day, especially when compared to his contemporaries in early 20th century Europe. Given, the time in which Stravinsky was living in Europe was one of the most dynamic periods in recent history, but few were able to consistently generate music of such varying style…

on September 01, 2010 at 11:23 AM

“Parade” is defined simply by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “a pompous show.” Fitting enough, then, that the triple bill titled Parade: An Evening of French Music Theatre recorded at the Met on March 16, 2002 consists of Erik Satie’s ballet Parade, Francis Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias, and Maurice Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. These…

on August 27, 2010 at 10:34 AM

The first opera to be performed in the 21st century at the Metropolitan Opera, thankfully after the lack of total destruction from the Y2K bug, was the recently premiered The Great Gatsby by John Harbison. Commissioned to mark James Levine’s 25th anniversary with the company, the recording of this New Year’s Day broadcast is now…

on August 25, 2010 at 10:59 AM

My grandfather warned me once: “Beware redheaded women. They’re both good and evil, depending on the second.” On Patricia Petibon’s new album Rosso the soprano combines arrestingly beautiful singing and aggressively amorous characterizations with wildly dramatic artistic choices so easily and effectively, that she in a way lends an air of truth to the old…

on August 13, 2010 at 12:15 PM

Asking New Yorkers to travel two hours to the remote but beautiful campus of Bard College in New York’s Hudson River Valley to see an opera can be like asking them to cross the Sahara. Yet if there is any opera I would put my life at risk to see again, it just might be…

on July 31, 2010 at 10:21 AM

After Friday night, it seems clear that the Brooklyn hipster is destined to be the next audience for opera.  Galapagos Art Space was home to another co-production by American Opera Projects and Opera on Tap, this their fifth collaboration, and once again some amazing surprises were presented by this rag-tag bunch of very experimental artists.…

on July 12, 2010 at 11:14 PM

Juan Diego Flórez is without question a superstar of bel canto repertory, but the recent release of the recording of his role debut as Orphée in Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice at the Teatro Real in Madrid raises some interesting questions. Among these questions, first and foremost is the nature of Orpheus, and whether Flórez has…

on June 22, 2010 at 10:25 AM

The wealthy suburban community of Greenwich, CT is a place where diamonds are in no short supply.  Yet there are still some diamonds of artistic excellence hidden in this seaside town, including the shockingly well-done production of Hans Werner Henze’s The Runaway Slave (El Cimarrón) by the Greenwich Music Festival.  This most likely will be…

on June 11, 2010 at 11:50 AM

Maybe it’s just me, but every time I listen to well done French baroque music, my imagination flies to the opulent halls of Versailles.  I fantasize about being amongst Louis XIV and his cohorts drunk on wine, good food, and better music, enjoying the life of a bon vivant.  Few recordings have created this vivid…

on June 04, 2010 at 8:52 PM

There is no cry heard more often these days than, “Where are all the Verdi sopranos?!?” Yes, there was a day when we had the likes of Aprile Millo, Eva Marton, Leontyne Price, Renata Tebaldi, Maria Callas, Leonie Rysanek, Zinka Milanov and Antonietta Stella all singing in the same, say 25 or 30 years. While…

on June 01, 2010 at 11:30 AM

When attending a production by one of the myriad small, independent opera Companies in New York, it’s always a bit of a crapshoot. When I go to one of these things, I try and play by an old Irish saying: “If you’re expecting a kick in the balls, a slap in the face is a…

on May 21, 2010 at 12:04 PM

To be, or not to be?  This is the question.  But for the producers of opera on DVD, the question is really, to be an opera or to be a film.  The producers of the 1991 DVD of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito as produced by Glyndebourne that same year seemed to have been sitting…

on May 08, 2010 at 12:03 AM

Adapting a novel, especially a well known novel like Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron, can be a herculean task. The two conflicting, almost mutually exclusive, forces at work are the desire to create a great work for the stage, while at the same time remaining true to all the nuanced characterizations and storylines present in…

on May 03, 2010 at 10:21 AM

Last night, Manhattan School of Music presented a charming, funny and partially polished Le Nozze di Figaro that showcased the ability of the school’s opera program to take a pleasing singer and create a great performer, making for a wonderfully entertaining performance.

on April 29, 2010 at 11:43 AM

On Friday, April 16th, American Opera Projects and Opera on Tap presented a triple bill of new works at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO, including what is essentially a pastiche, a collection of songs, and a one act opera. There were highs, there were lows; there was booze and opera in the same room. I…

on April 18, 2010 at 6:58 PM

The setting is Salzburg, September of 2009. Anna Netrebko and Daniel Barenboim partnered for a recital with lofty aspirations and difficult works mere months after her unfortunate Lucia at the Met. Thanks to the foresight to record this evening, we now have a record of a great night – hopefully a turning point – in…

on April 17, 2010 at 4:29 PM

I have to admit, I am not one often seen on the Great White Way; musicals aren’t usually my cup of tea. So as I was charged with reviewing a new musical, Whida Peru: Resurrection Tangle last night at 59E59 Theaters, I decided to call in reinforcements. I brought an amazingly talented and breathtakingly beautiful…

on April 09, 2010 at 11:02 AM

Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice marked an epic first, a turning point in the history of opera.  In this, the first of the composer’s “reform” operas, his intention was to take the opera seria style popular at the time and to boil it down to its purest dramatic elements, creating an opera of “noble…

on February 17, 2010 at 10:43 AM

We all know and love Fauré, but how many of us can say we’ve seen his opera Pénélope live and in person? As of last night, I number myself among the few.

on December 10, 2009 at 2:59 PM

The joy on my face after opening the plain manila envelope that contained the ArtHaus Musik DVD of Walter Felsenstein‘s 1975-6 Die Hochzeit des Figaro is hard to describe.  I wanted to love this DVD with all my heart, as I have with the three other Nozze DVDs I own. I did, and then some.…

on November 05, 2009 at 11:28 AM
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