One from the vault
It’s a strange feeling, going to an opera that loads more people have heard than seen. To have seen Semiramide staged at the Royal Opera House before this season, you’d have to be over 120 years old, and a good many of the audience at tonight’s performance were younger than that. Read more »
“Is this what they call a ‘textured’ performance?”
A gnawing sense of déja vu kept invading my thoughts during the second half of Bellini’s Norma Monday evening: I was reminded of the Met’s Opening Night two years ago when the audience got a new dark, dull Otello that didn’t at all improve on the production it was replacing. 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 don’t usually attend a performance of an opera I’ve known well most of my life expecting a revelation, but exactly that happened Sunday afternoon at The English Concert’s presentation of Handel’s Ariodante conducted by Harry Bicket and starring a sovereign Joyce DiDonato in the title role. Read more »
The Bayerische Staatsoper just announced, in addition to their usual bounty of webcasts, two special presentations: a repeat of Semiramide and a live telecast of Andrea Chenier.
Watch and discuss, cher public, as the Bayerische Staatsoper streams a new production of Rossini’s Semiramide boasting a starry cast including Joyce DiDonato, Alex Esposito, Daniela Barcellona and Lawrence Brownlee.
Joyce DiDonato’s atest album, In War & Peace: Harmony through music, is more specific than it sounds.
“Grammy Award winner and international opera star Joyce DiDonato will perform on October 3 in White Rabbit Red Rabbit.”
The Richard Tucker Music Foundation’s annual gala promises (note, promises) a particularly glittery roster this year.
Cher Public