La Lodoiska is a jewel composed by Giovanni (Johannes) Simone Mayr (1763-1845), a contemporary of Mozart and Beethoven.  Although he did receive instruction in music at early age, Mayr did not have the chance to systematically study composition until he was in his mid-twenties when he came a pupil of Ferdinando Bertoni, the maestro di…

It is a known fact that in summer, I only attend events in my habitual haunts of Nice, Antibes, St. Paul de Vence and Milan. However, when our coquine doyenne begged on her knees (à la Gencer in Alceste), I accepted the assignment to review Martina Arroyo Foundation’s production of Puccini’s La Rondine. 

When our coquine Doyenne invited those interested to review recordings I kindly requested Italian belcanto and early French works.  Instead, I got a DVD of Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella (ahem, in German!), thus the title of this review. It was one of those WTF? moments, and I thought La C. was in a PMS attack. …