If you’re cold, they’re cold
La bohème at The Santa Fe Opera feels warmed over in more ways than one.
David Pountney
19 pieces since 2009 — at 7 companies, most often at Lyric Opera of Chicago.
19
pieces
7
companies
18
years
Empty chairs
The fourth production of Santa Fe Opera’s 66th Festival Season that opened on Saturday June 22 offered a multitude of firsts.
Behind the mask
Un ballo in maschera—but instead of a tragedy, an opera buffa—and in Danish?
Grimm and proper
Bring your family: This show is special! Such perfect opera is hard to find!
Stranger with candy
Saturday night I navigated the Music Center concourse, or what’s left of it with it’s seemingly eternal construction to the main plaza, wending my way to the Dorothy Chandler for the opening night of LA Opera’s Hansel and Gretel.
First action hero
Director David Pountney and his splendid designers have brought Lyric Opera of Chicago a visually spectacular Siegfried full of daring ideas.
Girls on horseback
It’s a fairly traditional post-Patrice-Chereau Ring, set during the Industrial Revolution.
Wow factor
The second installment of Lyric’s Ring Cycle proved an evening of glorious singing, moving drama, great conducting and orchestral playing.
Just duet
Lyric Opera of Chicago presented a highly anticipated joint recital featuring tenor Lawrence Brownlee, bass-baritone Eric Owens, and accompanist Craig Terry.
The sprite in you
Today’s Rusalka video overview covers filmed performances of Dvorák’s opera since 2010.
A new beginning
Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2016-17 season got off to an exciting start on Saturday night with Wagner’s Das Rheingold.
Sybil, shepherd
The original conductor of Nielsen’s opera summed the piece up well I think…
And never brought to mind
It would be generous to say that history comes alive on the operatic stage.
Chute your shot
Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher is heavy on macabre atmosphere and light on action.
Notes on camp
Zofia Posmysz spent two years as a prisoner in Auschwitz—and she’s still alive and standing pretty tall, in New York for the Lincoln Center Festival God bless her.
Lake, placid
Having recently reviewed Glass’s The Perfect American on this site and participated in spirited discussions about the film Saving Mr. Banks, it is perhaps not surprising that Walt Disney should spring to my mind as I watched the Unitel Classica video
of Die Zauberflote from the floating stage of the Bregenzer Festspiele.
Just around the corner
Cubes and Macbeth seem to have been a successful pairing in the recent Regietheater. Graham Vick’s production of Macbeth at the Teatro alla Scala in the 1997/98 season had become famous, or infamous, for centering its spirit and energies on a big cube dominating both sets and singers. David Pountney exploited the same idea of […]
Cult favorite
The relative obscurity of Karol Szymanowski‘s Krol Roger (King Roger, 1924) can only be blamed on its being in Polish. The music is often as thrilling as anything by Janácek or Bartók, and the libretto by Jaroslow Iwaszkiewicz (heavily adapted by the composer) is as full of provocative philosophical ideas as operas by those composers […]
An opening for a princess
I’m sure I do not need to tell the mostly New-York based readers of parterre this, but Turandot is an opera that can really be turned into a pageant. Not that that’s a bad thing. It is, after all a fairy tale, and so when directors attempt to delve deep into the psychology of Puccini’s […]
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
