Reviews, appreciation and analysis of all things opera
Interviews with opera signers, directors and other people engaged in opera production, and performance.
The following conversation follows up on my 2016 in-person interview with George Gagnidze, when he was preparing for a performance of Amonasro with the San Francisco Opera in a new Francesca Zambello production of “Aida”. Gagnidze returned to California in May 2022 to perform the role of Amonasro at the Los Angeles Opera, in their mounting of … Read more
In observance of the hundredth season of the San Francisco Opera, whose performances I have attended since my middle and high school years, I am conducting a series of conversations with artists associated with the company. The first of these conversations is with American bass Kevin Langan, who participated in the company’s Merola young artists … Read more
The first of a series of discussions with opera director Grischa Asagaroff about the production and performance of opera in Europe and North America in the late 20th century.
Wm: Since the first part of this conversation was posted [Bel Canto in Troubled Times: A Conversation with lyric tenor Michele Angelini, Part One], you have appeared at the Glyndebourne Festival in Rossini’s “Il turco in Italia” directed by Mariame Clément, whose work I have admired [ Review: Mariame Clément Mounts Wagner’s “Liebesverbot”: Opéra du Rhin, Strasbourg, … Read more
My conversation with Michele Angelini began at the Glimmerglass Festival where he was performing the lead tenor role in Rossini’s “La Gazza Ladra” and resumed during the global Covid-19 pandemic that has so disrupted the performance of opera. [Below: tenor Michele Angelini; edited image of a Rebecca Fay photograph.] Wm: Michele, the Glimmerglass performance of … Read more