Reviews, appreciation and analysis of all things opera
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
[This is the second part of an Interview, the first part of which took place at the Santa Fe Opera (see Rising Stars: An Interview with Elza van den Heever, Part I) in August, 2009.] Wm: In the past two years, I have reviewed your performances as Donna Anna in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” in San Francisco … Read more
The Dallas Opera commissioned the team of Director Stephen Lawless and Belgian set designer Benoit Dugardyn to create three new productions around operas now known as the Donizetti “Tudor Trilogy”. Two of the three productions have been mounted – “Maria Stuarda” in Dallas in 2008 (here revived by the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto) and … Read more
Strong bonds have developed between Houston Grand Opera and the opera community of Great Britain – from whence HGO’s general director Anthony Freud, OBE, came. These bonds were further evident with the importation of one of the English National Opera’s most celebrated Handel productions, under the musical leadership of British conductor William Lacey. Performed uncut … Read more
Dallas Opera was the setting for the world premiere of Jake Heggie’s “Moby Dick”, which may prove to be a seminal 21st century American opera. Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking” (which premiered in 2000 at the San Francisco Opera) is one of the handful of recent operatic works to have surpassed the 100 performance mark. Even so, … Read more
We are three years from the worldwide bicentennial celebration of the birth of the great Italian opera composer, Giuseppe Verdi. In the countdown to the bicentennial, San Diego Opera’s 2010 Season presented two of Verdi’s great successes – an utterly smashing production of the 29 year old Verdi’s first big hit, “Nabucco” (championed and conducted … Read more
The fourth installment of Achim Freyer’s much discussed conceptualization of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungs” has premiered at the Los Angeles Opera, setting the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion stage for three complete cycles scheduled during May and June, 2010. An enthusiastic Los Angeles Opera audience was treated to an extraordinary and spectacular performance, whose musical leadership … Read more
Note from William: This post continues my series of observances of historic performances that I attended at San Francisco Opera during the general directorship of Kurt Herbert Adler. This is the third of five such observances of performances from the company’s 1960 Fall season. 2010 is a year of two centennial celebrations, the 100th anniversary … Read more
How can any of us Fifty-Something Plus Types ever forget that incredible, epochal meeting in February 1972 when Nixon met Chairman Mao Zedong (modern [pinyin] Chinese for the formerly spelled Mao Tse Tung) in Beijing (used to be Peking), literally changing history from that episode foreward? Prolific American composer, Pulitzer-Prize winning John Adams (born 1947, California-based) … Read more
Chicago’s Lyric Opera presented a strongly cast production of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” with American bass baritone Kyle Ketelsen as Figaro, Polish baritone Marius Kwiecien as Count Almaviva, Australian-American Danielle De Niese as Susanna and American mezzo Joyce DiDonato as Cherubino. Each of the comprimario roles was in good hands, led by the formidable … Read more
San Diego Opera mounted Gounod’s “Romeo et Juliette” for the attractive, youthful-looking husband and wife team of leggiero tenor Stephen Costello and coloratura soprano Ailyn Pérez. Both were debuting at San Diego Opera. Conductor Karen Keltner emphasized the score’s abundant lyricism. Several cuts in the opera were made. The formulaic French ballets, imposed on all … Read more
Hector Berlioz’ musical composition, “La Damnation de Faust”, never ceases to be both bewildering and beguiling. Much about it seems to belong in the opera house, but its mixture of irresistible music and episodic subject matter has made its introduction to the operatic standard repertory as elusive as its message. Lyric Opera, which had never … Read more
This post continues the essay I began in the feature Opera in Live Performance: Thoughts and Assessments at the End of 2009, Part One. I don’t know if I would characterize the Part One as necessarily pessimistic, even though I argued that a considerable amount of the revenues that operatic performance received from philanthropy may be … Read more
Note from William: Over the past several months, I have posted occasional interviews with opera singers and other artists, whose careers are obviously in their ascendancy, reflecting worldwide interest in securing their talents for future opera seasons. The current interview is with Raymond Aceto, the basso cantante graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Company’s Lindemann Young … Read more
The Dallas Opera presented Mozart’s “Cosi fan Tutte” as their second offering (after Verdi’s “Otello” last fall) in their new Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House. They assembled an excellent cast in the beautiful production conceived by John Cox and his collaborating set and costume designer Robert Perdziola. The production, owned by the San Francisco Opera, … Read more
There is a tendency to think of the operas written by Verdi as a genre that differs from those of the early 19th century Italian operas of the “bel canto era“. During that period, according to opera lore, the singing was florid, pretty, but dramatically vapid. In the opera goers’ understanding of the history of … Read more
The Dallas Opera mounted Donizetti’s comedy “Don Pasquale” in the venerable Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production, originally created for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. The performance provided a vehicle for the American debut of Slovakian soprano Adriana Kucerova and the Dallas debut of Italian Conductor Stefano Ranzani. Written for four world-class voices, the Dallas Opera chose … 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
[Note from William: Many of the major American opera companies, and their counterparts elsewhere in the world, have “Young Artists” programs for developing the opera singers of the future (as well as covering roles and singing the smaller parts of the season’s operas). With this interview with the San Francisco Opera Center’s director, Sheri Greenawald, … Read more
Is there anyone out there in the world of opera who doesn’t adore Puccini’s super-popular “La Boheme”? Who doesn’t dab at tears at the end when Mimi dies in Rodolfo’s arms? This is opera verisma (opera in the Real World) at its absolute best! And how do you top Act II’s rollicking Cafe’ Momus Christmas Eve scene for sheer delight. [Below: A Paris … Read more
Houston Grand Opera opened the new decade with a new production of “Tosca”, with a distinguished title role debut by Patricia Racette, supported by role debuts of Russian tenor Alexey Dolgov as her lover Mario Cavaradossi and Ohio basso Raymond Aceto as her tormentor, the Baron Scarpia. The opera was staged by John Caird, the … Read more
It’s been 112 years since Henry James’ serialized ghost story absorbed the interest of the readers of Colliers magazine. To its author’s surprise, it created a storm of controversy that has continued throughout the decades that followed the American author’s death. What evil lurks in the Bly mansion in Essex that appears to possess the … Read more
[Note from William: As part of my “Rising Stars” series of interviews of major new talents in the field of opera, I conducted an interview with stage director José Maria Condemi.] Wm: For the Seattle Opera “Trovatore” you are utilizing Allen Moyer’s sets from the Minnesota Opera and John Conklin’s costumes from a previous Seattle … Read more
Over the past year or so, I have on various occasions presented evidence that refutes the cliche that there no longer are opera singers capable of singing the principal roles in Giuseppe Verdi’s operas. However, one concedes that, like the music dramas of Wagner, Verdi operas can add levels of complexity to the already stressful tasks … Read more
For the past four years, I have published my thoughts on the performance of grand opera, usually as reviews of live performances that I have attended, mostly in the American West (defined here as a line from mid-Pennsylvania to the Pacific Ocean), but I also include reviews from such non-American West outposts as France and … Read more