Bembo eruption
Supported by an ingenious production and strong performances, Antonia Bembo’s Ercole Amante makes a successful Paris Opera debut.
Francesco Cavalli
30 pieces since 2010.
30
pieces
17
years
No need to grin and bear it
An exciting cast digs their claws into a heady production of La Calisto at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées.
¡Sí, se puede!
The world premiere of Dolores and Charpentier‘s David and Jonathan bring the heat to West Edge Opera’s 2025 Festival.
The head on the cake plate
John Yohalem reports on Catapult Opera’s satiating San Giovanni Battista
Garden varieties
Those of us in New York City who relish 17th century Italian vocal music were offered an enticing banquet over the past few weeks.
Spaced out
Before Wednesday I don’t remember gasping when I entered a concert venue.
Making her garden grown
Joyce DiDonato admits that she is “a problem solver, a dreamer, and—yes I’m a belligerent optimist.”
Sweet 1600s
Over the past week New York City was blessed by two appealing 17th century presentations: John Blow’s Venus and Adonis from Opera Lafayette and La Storia di Orfeo courtesy of the Boston Early Music Festival.
Los Aztecas Galantes
What is opera for if not to commemorate a national epic tragedy and triumph?
Gods and monsters
Legrenzi married the quirky libretto to a score of transcendental beauty.
Good news bear
Teatro Real continued their 200 years’ celebration by premiering a piece that they have never done before, Francesco Cavalli’s opera La Calisto.
Frick show
French early music group Ensemble Correspondances offered two of the year’s very best concerts.
Something’s comin’
This program honored the singer, composer and theorist Giulio Caccini, “Giulio da Romano,” on the 400th anniversary of his death.
I love you to death
New York fans of 17th century Italian vocal music should be rejoicing this month.
Tree for the show
The late-mid 1730s were transitional years for Handel, to put it nicely.
Elements of style
Antonio Literes, a boy soprano from Majorca, had, we may presume, friends in high places.
Beyond the forest
An opera revolving around chastity vows, adultery, slut-shaming, lesbianism, transvestism and much more!
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.
Inappropriately touching
“Operatic” generally refers to sung drama, but there is another meaning of that term: grandiose, outsize, hysterical.
Farinelli from heaven
My impossible wish would be to hear one of the great castrati who dominated opera for most of the 18th century.
Didon’t
The theatrical expression “You can’t tell the players without a program” was never more apt than when applied to Opus Arte’s release of Cavalli’s La Didone.
Mission statement
Can it be nearly a quarter-century ago that an Italian mezzo-soprano in her early twenties recorded her first recital?
Brit star! would I were steadfast as thou art!
Rule Britannia? Often during the Olympics that famous number from Thomas Arne’s 1740 Alfred echoed in my ears.