As an addendum to yesterday’s concert review and with an eye toward holiday gift-giving, here’s a quick sprint through some recent (and a few maybe not-so-very-recent) Handel CDs that have been stacking up. Read more »
Idle question: Is there a singer today for whom you would stand overnight on line for a ticket to the following day’s concert? The Met was sold out, as was often true in 1979, but standing room, sold the day of the performance, was affordable, the inconvenience of acquiring it aside. It was an occasion—just the line, never mind the event. I began friendships that night that lasted for decades. Read more »
Celebrated conductor William Christie, widely considered among the foremost interpreters of early-music for modern audiences, and his acclaimed ensemble Les Arts Florissants have delighted audiences at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) for 30 years. On March 1st, they return with Rameau, maître à danser, featuring two rarely seen operas originally penned by 18th-century French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau for the court of Louis XV.
A pastoral atmosphere prevails throughout La naissance d’Osiris, a one-act ballet set to a libretto by Louis de Cahusac commissioned to celebrate the birth of the Duke of Berry, future Louis XVI; Daphnis et Églé tells the story of two lovers ignorant of their own love for each other, charming audiences with its use of classic European dance styles like sarabande, gavotte, gigue, minuet, tambourin, and contredanse.
Both operatic miniatures served as a symbol of the court’s opulence as well as a source of evening entertainment; together, as Rameau, maître à danser, they serve as a sublime showcase for Christie’s singular brilliance and the ravishing power of baroque music. At the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House Mar 1—3. Read more »
I think most of us knew this day would come. Let us not collapse in unattractive spasms of shame and anguish but, rather, let us show fortitude in our belief that the career of our beloved Renée Fleming deserves to continue… by whatever means necessary. Read more »
Orfeo’s latest edition is a 1978 performance of Lucia di Lammermoor with a very estimable cast that on its surface may seem a tad mundane but the extensive liner notes (with performance photos) tell the story of why it held such magic.
The arrival of a new recording of Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello into the catalogue, to say nothing of a new tenor capable of singing Otello, is generally cause for hosannas all around in operatic circles.
Recorded on 7 May 2017, 50 Years at Lincoln Center: A Gala Celebration features three dozen Met singers of the present decade, from A(ngela) to Z(eljko).
The Eloquence label of Australia, the down under-arm of Decca and now by extension Deutsche Grammophon, seems to specialize in the re-release of “Auld Lang Syne” treats.
For her first CD in six years, Angela Gheorghiu has chosen Italian repertoire.
Cher Public