A farewell to Frisell
Old opera productions at the end of their performing life can be sad affairs.
Paolo Carignani
12 pieces since 2011 — at 3 companies, most often at Metropolitan Opera.
12
pieces
3
companies
16
years
By company
Alone in the world
Step aside, Texas: “Everything is bigger at Aida” is the motto of the Met’s second attempt at retiring Sonja Frisell’s colossal production.
Quiet please, there’s a lady on stage
On this day in 2008 Anja Harteros sang her first Metropolitan Opera Violetta.
Laugh, laugh, I nearly died
Whoever thought Verdi’s Il trovatore needed an injection of humor to make it complete?
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new Dane
C-major has made available the first DVD/Blu-ray of Franco Faccio’s Amleto.
Ice storm
Two months after my last visit to this season’s sixteen-performance run of Puccini’s Turandot, I returned eager to witness the latest chapter in the sporadic Met career of Nina Stemme. Rising stars Anita Hartig and Alexander Tsymbalyuk also appeared in their roles for the first time at the Met, so Monday evening turned into a […]
Embroidered silk
Maria Agresta‘s delicately-acted, sumptuously-sung seamstress transformed what might have been just an average Wednesday night revival into something finer.
Gli enigmi sono due
Giacomo Puccini’s final opus interruptus is and shall always remain my favorite opera. The reasons for this preference are so varied and numerous that if they were printed and bound the volume would most assuredly require its own stand.
Enigma variation
On Thursday evening Jennifer Wilson “finally” made a belated, disappointing Met debut as Turandot.
Veiled threat
Angela Gheorghiu‘ s idiosyncratically alluring, sometimes maddening, always fascinating Floria Tosca inevitably became the evening’s unmissable raison d’être.
The unanswered question
Would exciting American dramatic soprano Christine Goerke be the next great ice-princess we have been waiting for?
The art of making art
In this new Decca DVD of Tosca we find a highly intellectual, even fascinating staging at odds with the visceral nature of the original melodrama but one that inspires its cast to great heights. Robert Carsen is a clever producer with an elegant visual palette. He employs the same directorial strategy as his famous Mefistofele […]