review / performance
AVA met the challenge with a delightful, if necessarily truncated, video recital that allowed each singer to participate in the now-familiar Zoom platform.
By David Fox
3 comments
Lady M, an Online Fantasia on Verdi’s Macbeth, Heartbeat Opera’s creative and thought-provoking foray into the Zoom opera scene, left me feeling alternately pensive, hopeful and somewhat uneasy, in a good way.
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2020 New York Virtual Opera Fest
New York Opera Alliance (NYOA) proudly presents the 2020 New York Virtual Opera Fest. The festival showcases the breadth and diversity of opera in NYC, and many events are free. All events are produced by participant companies of NYOA in partnership with OPERA America. Read more.
HERE’s Zoom opera, all decisions will be made by consensus, is not merely an opera written to be performed on a digital platform, but an opera that critiques the platform itself, laying bare all its social and aesthetic limitations.
Time to stop being coy, I think. You and I had quite different takeaways on the show, didn’t we?
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Faithful Friday with Angel Blue
Need an uplift? Every Friday Angel Blue broadcasts a fun chat with a special guest to help people ‘keep the faith’, believe in themselves, and support each other through tough times. Tune in to Angel’s Facebook page for Faithful Friday with Angel Blue. Every Friday at 12:00 p.m. ET.
For a show set during the hardscrabble 1930s, very few of the performances give off an air of downtroddedness.
As long as women have been preyed upon, Don Giovanni has been relevant.
By Harry Rose
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Heartbeat presents ‘Lady M!’
EXTENDED THROUGH JUNE 6! Through the eyes of opera’s most thrilling anti-heroine, Lady M is a nightmare-fantasia of Verdi’s Macbeth, featuring six powerhouse singers, six astonishing instrumentalists, and electrifying electronic sound design. Heartbeat Opera brings you Virtual Soirées via Zoom (each 45 minutes) to experience a live performance and sneak peeks into our process. Tickets on sale now.
It’s difficult to discuss Unknown Soldier without considering the impact of legacy.
We are in the midst of a titanic Beethoven onslaught prompted by the unstoppable need to commemorate the composer’s upcoming 250th birthday.
Ester, Liberatrice del Popolo Ebreo was presented in concert on Thursday night by Salon/Sanctuary Concerts in the Brotherhood Synagogue on Gramercy Park, in proper time for Purim.
By John Yohalem
Bess is clearly Angel Blue’s part—set in the richest and most shimmering upper middle portion of her voice, and optimally suited to her persona.
By David Fox
Not everyone is happy about the Beethoven sestercentennial.
That question hung in the air when Teatro de la Zarzuela Madrid revived Tomás Bretón’s opera Farinelli for first time since its premiere in 1902.
While last year’s finals were dominated by early nineteenth-century bel canto arias, this year’s finalists took on a remarkably broad range of music from a variety of repertoires.
VIctor Herbert demonstrates in this slight, affectionate piece a talent for keeping his musico-dramatic balls in the air, as Madeleine’s spirits juggle, fall, rise again, and droop to elegant resignation at the last.
By John Yohalem
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Beth Morrison Projects presents Opera of the Week
Beth Morrison Projects is keeping the work of our artists out in the world by offering an “Opera of the Week” which will stream on our homepage, for one week every Thursday at noon. Ellen West, a new work from Ricky Ian Gordon and Frank Bidart, features extraordinary performances by Jennifer Zetlan and Met Opera favorite Nathan Gunn. Learn more.
