Month: October 2012
Rising Stars: An Interview with Sean Panikkar, Part 2
The facilitation of the interview by the Glimmerglass Festival is gratefully acknowledged. See: Rising Stars: An Interview with Sean Panikkar, Part 1. [Below: Tenor Sean Panikkar; edited image, based on a Kristina Sherk photograph, for img_artists.com.] Wm: Your agent is Bill Palant, whose conservative approach to building the careers of young tenors you have noted. Several … Read more
Rising Stars: An Interview with Sean Panikkar, Part 1
The facilitation of this interview by the Glimmerglass Festival is gratefully acknowledged. [Below: Tenor Sean Panikkar; edited image, based on a Kristina Sherk photograph, from imgartists.com.] Wm: You were born and raised in Bloomsburg, a small city in a rural part of Central Pennsylvania. Nothing in your early experiences would have suggested an operatic … Read more
A Second Look Review: A Bright Future for Heggie’s Magnificently Melodious “Moby Dick” – San Francisco Opera, October 21, 2012
San Francisco Opera is the third American opera company (after those of Dallas and San Diego) to mount Heggie’s extraordinary opera “Moby Dick”. I first reviewed the world premiere in Dallas [see World Premiere: Heggie’s Theatrically Brilliant, Melodic “Moby Dick” at Dallas Opera – April 30, 2010]. I was also present at the first performances in … Read more
Review: Jovanovich is a Joy in Luisotti’s Luminous “Lohengrin” – San Francisco Opera, October 20, 2012
The San Francisco Opera presented Wagner’s “Lohengrin” in Daniel Slater’s Grand Théâtre de Genève production. It was the occasion for the role debut of Brandon Jovanovich as the spellbound knight in the magical service of the Holy Grail. It also marks Music Director’s Nicola Luisotti venture into conducting Wagnerian opera. Both proved worthy champions of … Read more
A Second Look Review: “Capulets and Montagues” at San Francisco Opera, October 14, 2012
In addition to reviewing the first performance of San Francisco Opera’s 2012 production of Bellini’s “I Capuleti e i Montecchi” [See Joyce DiDonato, Nicole Cabell Sing Beautifully in Bellini’s Bel Canto “Capulets and Montagues” – San Francisco Opera, September 29, 2012], I attended the fourth performance. [Below: Romeo (Joyce Di Donato, left) embraces a concerned Giulietta … Read more
Review: Ildar Abdrazakov is Don Giovanni in the Pascoe Production’s Revival – Washington National Opera, October 7, 2012
Two weeks prior to this performance, I attended a pre-performance lecture at the Los Angeles Opera, presented by the evening’s conductor, Music Director James Conlon. His thesis is that Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, the opera he was to conduct, is impossible to know completely. Whatever one’s interpretation of the events occurring the last day on earth … Read more
Review: Another Opera House Conquered – Ovations for Heggie’s “Moby Dick” at San Francisco Opera, October 10, 2012
I suspect that readers of this website will not be surprised by a positive review from me of San Francisco Opera’s premiere of a production of Heggie’s now two-year old opera “Moby Dick”. In my comments on the production debuts in Dallas and San Diego [see World Premiere: Heggie’s Theatrically Brilliant, Melodic “Moby Dick” at … Read more
Review: Radvanovsky’s Astonishing Anna Bolena Adorns An Admirable Cast – Washington National Opera, October 6, 2012
Washington National Opera imported Stephen Lawless’ production of Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena” from the Dallas Opera. Conceived by Lawless as the first part of the so-called “Tudor Trilogy”, followed by Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda” and “Roberto Devereux”, it was the last of the three productions (with set designs by his frequent collaborator, the Belgian Benoit Dugardyn) to … Read more