Alcoholics astonished
Christoph Willibald Gluck wrote some fifty operatic works, not counting revisions and translations, and in every form extant in the two cities, Paris and Vienna, in which he made his career.
Review
The Roman stain
Gotham Chamber Opera stumbled so badly Friday night with Francesco Cavalli’s 1668 Eliogabalo at The Box, it was hard to know whether to feel sad or angry—or both.
Down Argentine way
It has always puzzled me—and I’m not the only one—that so few successful operas have been composed in Spanish.
You, Claudius
Those Romans! How decadent, how corrupt, how much fun!
Queen of the Maybe
“I didn’t think anything could be campier than Adriana. But this is nothing but camp. Adriana at least has tunes.”
The use of wond’rin’
With Wednesday’s stellar staging of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, the New York Philharmonic joyously put the ‘music’ back into the Broadway musical.
Thrace off
Nearly 30 years after a Handel opera last played there, Carnegie Hall presented The English Concert opening a three-year opera-oratorio project on Sunday afternoon with Radamisto.
Bly spirit
In any narrative, the unmentioned—the unmentionable—will always be more alarming than that which is carefully described.
Rex appeal
Say this about Oedipus: The character’s got staying power.
Seria business
La Salustia was Giovanni Batista Pergolesi’s first opera, composed at the tender age of 21. In structure and storyline it’s a conventional baroque opera seria.
Empire records
That’s what it must have been like in 1726 London when Handel composed Alessandro for perhaps the three most famous (and expensive) singers of the day.
Ring à la russe
Wagner is becoming an important calling card for Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre.
Robber soul
C-Major continues their full frontal attack on the Verdi catalogue with this release of I Masnadieri which, I’m thrilled to report, does not hail from the Teatro di Regio in Parma like the previous aspirants. We’ve travelled south to Naples and the Teatro di San Carlo and we’re all the better for it as the […]
Parting shot
Somewhere around the early 80’s, stage directors realized that the odious theatre practice of “audience involvement” was over.
Tiny tunes
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s best known opera is La Serva Padrona, but the Neapolitan composer also composed several other works, which are now lovingly presented on video by the Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini at Jesi.
Under a linden tree
A new CD
features the ten most gorgeous minutes recorded by a tenor in Wagner since World War II.
Veni, vidi, Vinci!
Not only cursed to bear a name nearly identical to that of one of the greatest geniuses who ever lived, Leonardo Vinci also had the misfortune to die just three months after the premiere of his greatest opera, reportedly murdered with a cup of poisoned chocolate at the age of 36.
One Day more
There’s that old joke; What’s the difference between opera and sex? Punchline; you can have good sex.
The Prince of Alice Tully Hall
Either you adore “The World Is but a Broken Toy” from Act II of Princess Ida and have always wanted to hear it sung by voices of operatic quality… or you don’t… and you haven’t.
C’est la guerre, mais ce n’est pas magnifique
If war is hell, then Soldier Songs should rank somewhere around “purgatory.”
Come un bel dì di gennaio
I’ve always had a certain affection for Roberto Alagna.
Isle, cry tomorrow
I completely missed The Enchanted Island during the Met’s 2011-12 season, both in the house and in the HD presentation. Even on Sirius, I had only heard snippets of the performance.
Wigs and weaves
It’s easiest to write reviews when there are soaring triumphs and miserable failures.