Baroque in the Bay Area Baroque in the Bay Area

Under the baton of Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale proves they have a magic touch in a program of Rameau and Handel.

Everything the light touches Everything the light touches

Vincent Lombardo pays poetic tribute to the 60-year-long career of Robert Wilson.

Tales as old as time Tales as old as time

The Paris Opera continued their 350th anniversary celebration January 26 with a brand new production of Alessandro Scarlatti’s 1707 oratorio Il Primo Omicidio ovvero Caino.

The ambassadors The ambassadors

“Trove Thursday” offers a recent broadcast of one of his best-known but rarely performed operas, Il Mitridate Eupatore. 

The not so great outdoors The not so great outdoors

For all the company’s good intentions this opera-dance combo was not one of its happiest outings.

I love you to death I love you to death

New York fans of 17th century Italian vocal music should be rejoicing this month.

Significant mother Significant mother

Fans of divas who sing 19th and 20th century opera may find themselves searching in vain for CDs to buy with this season’s gift cards, since their idols so rarely put out solo recitals these days.

Maxed out Maxed out

Might Max Emanuel Cencic be the countertenor for people who hate countertenors?

Mission statement Mission statement

Can it be nearly a quarter-century ago that an Italian mezzo-soprano in her early twenties recorded her first recital?

All hell baroque loose

Many American opera-lovers take the “Grand Tour”—a pilgrimage to Europe to attend opera at its great houses—Peter Grimes at the Royal Opera in London or Otello at La Scala in Milan, or perhaps for the more well-heeled a visit to the summer festivals of Glyndebourne, Salzburg or Aix-en-Provence.  

Mind over Mater

It’s Holy Week (as I write) and I just received this new CD from our Doyenne. Good timing. For the concert stage (and the opera house), I think of Pergolesi as essentially a one-hit wonder (each). I won’t pretend to know his opera buffa, La Serva Padrona, let alone hide the fact that I drove right…

Auburn notice

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…

Fire and Music

With Händel’s canon largely rediscovered and audiences hungry for more music from the Baroque period, opera houses and recording companies have increasingly turned their attention towards the stage works of Antonio Vivaldi. In only the past decade around 25 of Vivaldi’s operas and pasticcios have been revived, and more and more artists are performing and…