In Napoli where love is queen
Final opera of the season. Little-known opera. A revival. So, you can probably skip it, right?
West Coast
The eras tour
She can’t put her foot on the gas the way she used to but there’s still plenty of fuel in that tank.
Four frightened people
As an opera fanatic who was baptized by the blood of Leontyne Price, the Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi appeared on my radar fairly soon after I started delving into the operatic canon.
Psychological projections
“The distance between dreams and reality is called action.” – Brian Tracy
The age of Innocence
The score for Innocence was menacing yet comforting, and, essentially, violent and peaceful at the same time
Speaking of tradition
You can imagine my surprise at encountering an almost wholly traditional staging with one teensy difference.
I’m a stranger here myself
In 1982 I saw Turandot at the San Francisco Opera, the year after I became an opera fan, and it was my first live opera.
No strings attached
Madama Butterfly is the opera of the moment.
“I just sing whatever I can get my throat around”
Rachel Willis-Sørensen might be the greatest American soprano right now who doesn’t sing much in America.
Dinosaur surviving the crunch
I have a confession and you may need to sit down for it: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita was one of the gateway drugs to my eventual opera fandom.
Havin’ a ball
Over the weekend, Opera Parallèle, San Francisco’s contemporary opera company, stayed true to their mission of “merging tradition and innovation to re-invent opera for a modern world” as they presented a world premiere double-bill cheekily titled Birds & Balls at SFJazz Center’s Miner Auditorium.
Champagne tastes
Oh, La traviata, how do I love thee? Let me count the recordings.
Thoughts on La Gioconda: the others
Yes, there were other Giocondas if not of quite the same distinction. Chronologically…
Femenine mystique
“What I am trying to achieve is to be what I am to the fullest. Black to the fullest, a musician to the fullest, a homosexual to the fullest.”
Small but mighty
One of the first things James Conlon did when he took over the reins as Music Director of LA Opera was create the “Recovered Voices” project, producing operas that had been suppressed by the Nazis.
Katya, later
Leos Janácek’s rise to international prominence as a Titan of music was dovetailed by a cluster of profoundly original operas that were written during his extraordinary autumnal years.
A three-hour tour
We may all be armchair Handelians, but some of us are more used to it than others.
Thoughts on La Forza del destino: versions
Following the composition of Un ballo in maschera, Verdi had gone into a self-imposed retirement, at least musically; he had not composed a note in four years.
Matinee idol
On this day in 1974 soprano Kiri Te Kanawa made an “emergency” Met debut as Desdemona and her broadcast debut
Rondo and rondo and rondo we go
A convocation of mezzos–and a pride of tenors–produce hundreds of sixteenth notes in a bewitching Rossini showpiece
Love potion no. 8 1/2
A perfect escape for a city laden with recent layoffs and job cuts coming into Holiday season
Flores para los muertos
Despite this being the first full-length opera for Gabriela Lena Frank, there’s no lack of experience across the creative team which, along with favorable reviews for the production, contributed to high levels of anticipation.
Scholarly pursuits
“What would you do if the world you knew was suddenly gone and you were thrown into the deepest abyss stripped of all humanity? Would you fight to remember who you were?”
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).