A Franco Zeffirelli production for The Metropolitan Opera typically prompts the use of adjectives such as “grandiose,” or “gorgeous” on the positive end or “gaudy” and “gratuitous” on the negative. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/06/john-adams-lends-his-music-to-i-am-love-starring-tilda-swinton.html
The opening tableau of Penny Woolcock’s new production depicts deep waters with rays of sun hitting the surface; in the murky blue depths, three harnessed acrobats glide down to the sea bed and back up again. 
Detailed and precise, but never fussy, David McVicar’ thought-provoking production of Le Nozze di Figaro is ‘usy’from the opening rushing semi-quavers of the overture. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/arts/music/18forrester.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7498707a-7313-11df-ae73-00144feabdc0.htmlThis recital was the last in a series of five put together by Roger Vignoles
to celebrate the lieder of Richard Strauss — a series which, comprising
85 of Strauss’songs, has highlighted the composer’ role as heir
to the nineteenth-century German lieder masters and reminded us of the
ravishing beauty and varied emotional range of these unjustly neglected
songs.
Everyone knows the tunes from Bizet's Carmen even if they don't know it's an opera. Now the Royal Opera House, London, is making the world's best known opera into the world's first 3D opera film.http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7146754.ecehttp://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_15246643
Ring fever rages on. San Francisco has just unveiled its Walküre the completed cycle to take place next June. Gratefully the price of the SFO effort has not become a topic of conversation, as has the cost of the just completed L.A. Ring http://70.32.73.199/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&blog_id=1http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704895204575320720137221224.html?mod=WSJ_ArtsEnt_LifestyleArtEnt_4http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/8ab066ec-7313-11df-ae73-00144feabdc0.html
Otello: Dramma lirico in four acts.Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Arrigo Boito after The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice by William Shakespeare.
A bizarre rock cliff attributed in the program booklet to one Antonio Nigro was the sole background for San Francisco Opera’s production of Puccini’s version of a play named The Girl of the Golden West by San Francisco born David Belasco (1853-1931). http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20100619_Opera_s_challenge_is_to_take_it_easy.html#axzz0rb8JTP5Yhttp://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2010-06-23-italy-opera_N.htmhttp://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/17/entertainment/la-et-wagner-movies-20100617http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/14/AR2010061405599.html
Richard Wagner’s 200th birthday is just around the corner in 2013 — and the composer was, after all, born in Leipzig.http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/06/san-francisco-operas-feminist-die-walkure.html
$32,000,000, and it would have been a bargain at $50,000,000. Los Angeles Opera went for broke, and it paid off with a Ring that has raised the worldwide Ring bar to a dizzying height.
Early Greek writings say that Orpheus was the son of the muse Calliope and either Apollo, the god of prophecy and music or Oeagrus, the river god. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/24/AR2010062406932.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/54c35442-7c7b-11df-8b74-00144feabdc0.htmlhttp://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_15245607?nclick_check=1
Faust has long since left the French repertory to enter the international repertory, meaning that, like Disneyland, it has been absorbed into diverse cultures where it discovers new resonances. 
During its recently concluded season Lyric Opera of Chicago presented two
musical pieces based on the theme of “Faust.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/7811652/Armida-Garsington-Opera-review.html
Israel Opera Nabucco includes three Va pensiero’s It’s apocrypha, of course, but legend has it that since its 1843 premiere at La Scala audiences have wanted an encore of the chorus Va pensiero when Verdi’s Nabucco is on stage. http://oq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/26/1/131?etochttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/360f5762-7a2d-11df-aa69-00144feabdc0.htmlhttp://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/opera-orchestra-of-new-york-stages-a-comeback/
Perhaps the most famous of singing rounds, Dona Nobis Pacem, means "Give us peace." Now with free guitar tabs and staff for pianists, vocalists, fiddlers, and other instrumentalists.
Our Principal Harpist is also the face of Salvi Harps!
Congratulations Louise!