Quests and Anticipations

I suppose it is still taught in “opera appreciation” classes, that in the early 19th century Italy there were three composers (Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti), who constituted a bel canto “school” of opera. Later in the century, it is taught, Giuseppe Verdi and after him Giacomo Puccini replaced them in the Italian public’s and The … Read more

Over the past five and half years, in my reviews of opera performances, I have identified certain productions as particularly worthy of revival, and periodically list opera companies that have scheduled such revivals (in many cases, the first time the production has been mounted at that company).  In the past I identified seven productions as … Read more

During 2011, the most popular French opera, Bizet’s “Carmen”, is scheduled to have 340 performances worldwide in 64 productions in 60 cities. In the United States alone “Carmen” as seen at the New York Met (January) and will be performed at the Lyric Opera in Chicago (March), Indianapolis (March), Nashville (April), Opera Colorado (Summer), Glimmerglass … Read more

Over the past couple of years, a selection of Benjamin Britten operas, including major new productions of  “Billy Budd’ and  “Albert Herring” at Santa Fe Opera; “Death in Venice” at Hamburg Staatsoper; and “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Turn of the Screw” at Houston Grand Opera have been highlighted in this website’s features In Quest of Britten – … Read more

The Summer of 2010 The Santa Fe Opera’s 2o1o season includes four new productions, including three operas never before performed by the company. The season opener is a new production of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”, starring Kelly Kaduce (Butterfly), Brandon Jovanovich (Pinkerton), Elizabeth DeShong (Suzuki) and James Westman (Sharpless) with Conductor Antony Walker making his Santa … Read more

Even in a period when economic realities have forced opera companies to cut back on plans, the West Coast continues the extraordinarily ambitious mountings of Wagner’s major works. A year ago, we highlighted upcoming performances of Wagner’s “Ring” in our feature California Rings Up Wagner – 2009-2010. A similar feature in the previous year also included … Read more

I suspect that most opera goers spend rather little time thinking about the contributions that librettists make to the world of opera. Most will know that Wagner wrote all the words to his operas. Probably, most opera aficionados will associate the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte with Mozart, and Arrigo Boito with Verdi, and Hugo von … Read more

In midyear 2008, I highlighted the operatic works of Benjamin Britten in a “Quests and Anticipations” feature, entitled In Quest of Britten – A 2008-09 Itinerary. During that period, I reviewed performances of Britten works at the Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera and the Hamburg Staatsoper and my colleague Tom reviewed another at the San … Read more

As related in the first article in this series, the Los Angeles Opera is mounting three cycles of Wagner’s four opera “Ring of the Nibelungs” in May and June 2010. A year later the San Francisco Opera will present the “Ring” in an entirely different production, with a different conductor and an almost completely different … Read more

Cyc

This post is the second in a four part series on West Coast performances of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungs”, scheduled for Seattle in August 2009, Los Angeles in May and June 2010, and San Francisco in June 2011. (For the earlier article, see:  Gods and Nibelungs on the Pacific Coast: the Three Ring “Rheingolds”.) … Read more

Over a year ago this website chronicled the performances of Puccini operas planned by California’s three major opera companies during the 150th anniversary of Giacomo Puccini’s birth (December 1858). (See: The “Golden West” Does Puccini 2008-2010. For a report of another Puccini sesquicentennial celebration in the Golden State, see: Puccini’s 150th Birthday Party Takes Place as Santa … Read more

The Summer of 2009 The Santa Fe Opera thus far has presented 143 different operas, including 44 American premieres and ten world premieres.  The summer of 2009 presents a new Laurent Pelly production of Verdi’s “La Traviata” starring Natalie Dessay in her role debut. Also scheduled is a new Stephen Lawless production of Donizetti’s “L’Elisir … Read more

Wagner’s four opera “Ring of the Nibelungs” is, under the most favorable of circumstances, a complex undertaking for an opera company, yet three of the four largest opera companies on America’s Pacific Coast are mounting their own versions of the “Ring” in productions as unalike from each other as one can imagine. One set of … Read more

In September 2007, this website launched an examination of the current state of the “Donizetti Revival”.  (That month was the fiftieth anniversary of Leyla Gencer’s first bel canto role, the title role of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” at San Francisco Opera, and it was Gencer whose career was most closely associated with the “Donizetti Revival” … Read more

During a 12 month period in 2007 and 2008, California’s three major opera companies each created a production of Wagner’s “Tannhauser”. In the period between Summer 2008 and Summer 2011, the companies of San Francisco and Los Angeles are absorbed in producing the four operas of Wagner’s “Ring des Nibelungen”. San Francisco’s effort was planned to … Read more

From time to time this website highlights upcoming performances of operas along various themes – such as our features on performances of Belle Epoque French Operas, or those of Benjamin Britten, or of Bizet’s “Pearl Fishers”, or of productions this website has reviewed favorably. With this posting, we cite upcoming performances of the three towering … Read more

Periodically, I cite productions that I regard as of more than routine interest, that are revivals of productions I have reviewed on this website. In each case listed below, the production is one I have seen performed at one opera company, that is scheduled to be performed at another. Obviously, this is not meant to … Read more

This is the third post in an ongoing quest for productions of the operas of Gaetano Donizetti that has taken me to Donizetti’s home town of Bergamo in Lombardy for background, and, for performances, to Paris (for Laurent Pelly’s production of “L’Elixir d’Amour”) to Zurich (for “Don Pasquale”), to Houston (for “Fille du Regiment”), to … Read more

After the Fall of Emperor Napoleon III, France decided to give Republicanism a third chance, and, this time it put down roots, with no monarch nor emperor sitting on a French throne ever since.  There were 20th century catastrophes to come, and some political and social turmoil at the end of the 19th, but, all in all, … Read more

This website has reviewed productions that are scheduled for performance (in each of the cases listed below) at other opera houses.  Our reviews gave high marks to these productions and strongly recommends each for the consideration of opera goers with an opportunity to see them.  Our reviews of each of these productions are cited. Simon Boccanegra (Verdi), San Francisco Opera, September 5, 9, 12, 17, 21, 24 … Read more

The reign of Napoleon III proved to be an extraordinarily dynamic one for France, and especially, Paris, its capital city, even though the reign ended badly for Napoleon and Paris itself was roughed up a bit at the end. We especially remember the Second Empire for Paris’ architectural and transportation makeovers. But there is an operatic legacy … Read more

Several decades have passed since mid-20th century operas by Britten, Stravinsky, Poulenc and Floyd, among others, were composed.  Several of these works have a substantial performance history, with productions mounted at companies throughout the world.  At some opera houses, over the past several decades, there have been three or more new productions of at least one opera … Read more

Although the three major opera companies in California – San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera and San Diego Opera – frequently present works of the great Italian opera composer, Giacomo Puccini, one can expect special attention to his compositions as we approach the 150th anniversary of Puccini’s birth on December 22, 1858. In fact, between the productions … Read more

This website has reviewed performances in the United States of two operas from, respectively,  France’s Second Empire and Third Republic –  Bizet’s “Les Pecheurs de Perles” and Saint-Saens’ “Samson et Dalila”.   Their stories  incorporate exotic and fantastic themes; the music that Bizet and Saint-Saens composed for these operas are as immersed in exoticism as the … Read more