John Yohalem’s critical writings have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, American Theater, Opera News, the Seattle Weekly, Christopher Street, Opera Today, Musical America and Enchanté: The Journal for the Urbane Pagan, among other publications. He claims to have attended 628 different operatic works (not to mention forty operettas), but others who were present are not sure they spotted him. What fascinates him, besides the links between operatic event and contemporary history, is how the operatic machine works: How voice and music and the ritual experience of theater interact to produce something beyond itself. He is writing a book on Shamanic Opera-Going.
John Yohalem
Dell’ Arte Opera Ensemble calls this summer’s final offering “Scenes from the Tower,” although the only actual tower on view appears in Act I of another of its presentations, Princess Maleine. The “Scenes from the Tower” evening is devoted to three operas composed by women, and the metaphorical tower is women’s sequestration from the opera stage. Read more »
“If you abstain from tennis and read Maeterlinck in a small country village, you are of necessity intellectual,” Saki pointed out back in 1904. He did not think highly of either diversion. Read more »
Dell’ Arte Opera Ensemble tends to choose a “theme” for each year’s offerings. This summer the theme is women composers, which is timely, and the more to be applauded as likely to turn up unusual works. Read more »
Grand Prix winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, soprano Hibla Gerzmava returns to Carnegie Hall, with pianist Ekaterina Ganelina, for a recital in Stern Auditorium/Perlman Stage on Friday, November 1, 2019, at 8:00 pm. Her program will feature art songs by such Russian masters as Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov and Prokofiev coupled with those by Hahn and Fauré set against a backdrop of arias by Verdi and Donizetti.
A hefty thunderclap shook Tanglewood’s Koussevitzky Shed just as Andris Nelsons raised his baton for the third act of the weekend’s concert Die Walküre.
The Mac-Haydn Theatre are giving Ragtime, a musical about turn-of-the-century race relations, unwelcome immigrants, labor revolts against brute force and the collapse of the traditional family.
The four leading roles in La Straniera were all attractively cast by Teatro Nuovo with fresh, promising young voices that did not seem quite ready for the big time.
Promenade is a powder keg but the powder may not be as explosive as it hints.
The singers and the orchestra carry the show, but where do they carry it?
Cher Public