With voices of doom predicting the end of the CD format — supposedly to be replaced by downloading — the ancillary art of CD packaging also faces a grim future.
It costs a lot to look cheap. And it takes a village to raise a child. In
the case of the Metropolitan Opera’ current revival of Donizetti’
Lucia di Lammermoor, it takes a lot of talent to produce underwhelming
opera.
This production retains a special place in my heart: its first outing in
1999 was my first Parsifal in the theatre. Saving up my student
pennies, I made the journey not once but twice from Cambridge to London, was
mightily impressed the first time and a little irritated the second.
This is an opera written with a cannon and a feather. There is sensory
overload—an overload of sensory overload: lights that shine into your face in
the manner of an ophthalmologist scanning your retina; eerie, too-loud sounds
that invade you from every direction; dancing patterns of light that may
resolve into huge words or huge faces; a great chandelier-harp that sometimes
descends to be played, a strumming like the sounds of the sirens in Plato’s
parable of the concentric crystalline spheres.
Gluck’ operas are part of a continuum, a tradition of French vocal
declamation (as opposed to the Italian school of flights of elegant,
open-throated vocal fantasy) that can be traced to him from Lully and Rameau,
and then from Gluck through certain works of Mozart and Gluck’ pupil,
Salieri to the operas of Spontini, Berlioz and Wagner.
After hearing his stunning Leporello at Glyndebourne and his Figaro at Salzburg, there was no way I was going to miss Luca Pisaroni’s concert with Wolfram Rieger at the Wigmore Hall, London. But I was delighted by how wonderful he sounded close up in recital.
In the mid-nineteenth century, every nationality that did not possess a
national state felt a need to prove itself, to square its shoulders and claim
nationhood with all the identifying marks of a nation: a language with a
literature, a tricolor flag, a national anthem extolling the people’
stalwart character and the country’ landscape (inevitably the loveliest
in the world), a national theater and a national opera to be performed there.
Francis Poulenc’ Dialogues des Carmélites is an unusual opera, but much sensitive musical thinking has gone into this production at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London.
Interesting recordings continue to be produced in the classical music business by smaller labels with particular niche markets. For the label Timpani, their specialty tends to be rarer French repertoire.
Strict courtly hierarchies and the repressed formality of ritual juxtaposed
with violent sexual jealousy and lurid erotic excess … a stage-world
more suited to the Straussian insalubrity of Salomé than to the epic
grandeur of Verdi’ Aida, perhaps?
Eugène Scribe and Giacomo Meyerbeer were in the business of creating
proto-cinematic spectacles of drama and music, the formula being to take a historical incident in some exotic country or era, put in a tormented love story to hold our attention, and resolve the whole in catastrophe.
The front leg of the grand piano may rest at a rather precarious angle, and
the out-sized martini glass lean a trifle askew, but Jonathan Miller’
1986 production of Gilbert & Sullivan’ The Mikado wears its
twenty-five years lightly — as do Stefanos Lazaridis’eye-wateringly white, gleaming sets.
Adapting an extended literary work for the stage remains a challenge today
and was no less so in the baroque era. Ariosto’ enormously long poem
Orlando Furioso was extremely popular and inevitably his highly
coloured characters found their way onto the operatic stage.
Rossini’ penultimate stage work, Le Comte Ory, belongs to
the tradition of sexy scoundrel operas, along with such works as Don
Giovanni, Zampa, Fra Diavolo, Barbe-Bleu,
Les Brigands and Threepenny Opera.
Monday, April 18 • 5:00pm – 9:00pm Come support Opera Idaho by simply having a delicious dinner or a soothing drink at Bardenay’s Downtown Boise and Eagle locations! Mention Opera Idaho and 20% of your tab will go directly to support the efforts of Opera Idaho in bringing great music to the Treasure Valley. Downtown [...]
If you missed the opportunity to attend Opera Idaho’s performances of Madama Butterfly or you want to hear more, mark your calendars – Boise State Public Radio is broadcasting it on KBSU on the following days: Tuesday, April 19 • 9:00am Friday, April 22 • 3:00pm Turn your dial to 90.3 FM or log on [...]
Thursday, April 7 • 5:30pm 715 S. Capitol Blvd., Boise Soprano Tara Victoria Smith Opera Idaho Artist-in-Residence, headlines a program of popular opera arias, including the show-stopper from La Fille du Régiment, in which she takes the lead role for Opera Idaho’s May 6 & 8 performances. Michele Detwiler, Boise Mezzo-Soprano will also sing popular [...]
Mona Seghatoleslami2011 03 31falseCenterfalseThe Metropolitan Opera broadcasts can now be seen in several more West Virginia movie theatres – live broadcasts in Nitro and encores in Bridgeport. I’m not sure when these new locations were added, but I’m glad to
Happy Birthday (Thursday) to beloved composer, "Papa" Haydn! He was groundbreaking in the Classical period for his contributions to the form of the symphony, the string quartet, the piano trio, and sonata-allegro form. Haydn was a busy, busy composer. He spent most of his career working for the Esterhazy family, ...
Thanks to everyone who made this weekend's concert such a rousing success! We hope you had a great time! Here are some of this weekend's reviews:
As befits a symphony about a painter, the Utah Symphony brought rich, almost saturated musical color to its interpretation.
- The Salt Lake Tribune
...guest clarinetist Ted ...
: The Opera Tattler Subscribe to this blog's feed West Coast Opera Companies Los Angeles Opera Portland Opera San Diego Opera San Francisco Opera Seattle Opera The Rape of Lucretia at Cal Performances Main March 27, 2011 Albert Herring at Cal Performances Notes This weekend Cal Performances presented Castleton Festival s Albert Herring The production involves much abuse of artificial fruit . It was particularly unsatisfying when the title character threw fake peaches against a Plexiglas window in Act II . The use of astroturf was , however , . entertaining The cast , as with The Rape of Lucretia boasted not a few lovely voices . The three children Harry , Cis , and Emmie were amplified , but sounded clean and pure in tone . Rachel Calloway was perfectly hysterical as Mrs . Herring . Adrian
Have you been wondering what our Utah Opera Scene Shop is up to lately? I sure have been!
In addition to the sets they do for operas, they also do a lot of work on set pieces for other arts companies, tradeshow booths, and other fun projects that come their way.
If ...
Mona Seghatoleslami2011 03 25falseRightfalseRecently, we received a CD of choral music by Canadian composers called “Into Light” performed by the ensemble musica intima. It is beautiful throughout. You can listen to musica intima sing Imant Raminsh’s Ave verum corpus
: The Opera Tattler Subscribe to this blog's feed West Coast Opera Companies Los Angeles Opera Portland Opera San Diego Opera San Francisco Opera Seattle Opera Orlando Furioso at Champs-Élysées Main March 24, 2011 Dutoit conducts CSO Notes Yesterday Charles Dutoit conducted Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a program of Berlioz , Penderecki , and Elgar . The concert began with Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture . The brass was clear , and the piece was played with much charm . For some reason , I experienced the Concerto grosso for Three Cellos and Orchestra from Penderecki that followed as an unrelenting stomachache . The most of the phrases seemed rather sinister to me , especially those shared by the low strings . The soloists , John Sharp , Kenneth Olsen , and Katinka Kleijn , played well .
This week's composer is Grammy-winning American composer Joan Tower! It's not too often than we feature a living composer on the blog! Tower was born in New York in 1938, but she moved to Bolivia at a young age. She credits her experiences there for making rhythm such an important ...
Mona Seghatoleslami2011 03 22falseCenterfalseDo you know about the connection between Laurie Anderson and Jules Massenet? This pair of pieces keeps coming up in conversation recently, and I think it started with my friend Anne, who is teaching students at WV
Single tickets for the 2011 Deer Valley® Music Festival are officially on sale!
We had a great season last year with five sold-out shows, and this year we've got another amazing lineup! Here are just a few of the great performances we have coming up at Snow Park Outdoor Amphitheater:
The Music ...
We've been fortunate to add some great players to the symphony recently! Here's one of our new violinists, Alex Martin.
Alexander Martin joined the Utah Symphony in February 2011. He comes to Salt Lake City from Miami Beach, Florida, where he was a member of the New World Symphony. He holds ...
So...I 'm curious...what stops the average opera-goer from attending a Utah Opera production? This is not to be confrontational (at least in the usual manner). More so, why do the people that normally flock to our performances make their choices to "take a miss" with particular pieces? Yes...the ...
I'm happy to present an amazing piano composer as our Composer of the Week - Cécile Chaminade! (1857-1944)
A French musician and composer, Chaminade studied piano in secret when she was young, because he father disapproved of her musical endeavors. She was a popular composer of smaller pieces for the piano, ...
The Utah Opera Chorus will be holding auditions for the 2011-2012 Utah Opera season on March 28.
Members of the Utah Opera Chorus have the opportunity to work with nationally and internationally-acclaimed conductors, stage directors and principal artists. The repertoire for 2011-12 includes Beethoven’s Fidelio, Verdi’s Rigoletto, Donizetti’s The Elixir of ...
The 2011-12 Utah Symphony and Utah Opera seasons have been announced, and now is the time to buy or renew your season tickets! Why purchase season tickets? Many great reasons!
The Best Seats - Our Season Ticket holders pick their seats first before they go on sale to the general public.
Exchanges ...
: The Opera Tattler Subscribe to this blog's feed West Coast Opera Companies Los Angeles Opera Portland Opera San Diego Opera San Francisco Opera Seattle Opera La Finta Giardiniera at De Munt Main Nott Gluzman at Luzerner Sinfonieorchester March 18, 2011 Cav Pag at Opernhaus Zürich Notes Opernhaus Zürich held a performance of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci Wednesday night . Grischa Asagaroff's production was straightforward , the set simple , the costumes very cute . The orchestra sounded lovely under Stefano Ranzani , fluid and . clear Cavalleria rusticana featured Beatrice Uria-Monzon Santuzza and José Cura Turiddu Uria-Monzon embodied her role , the anguish in her voice was palpable . Cura sang with strength , his reedy voice was easy on the ear . The rest of the cast supported them
Mona Seghatoleslami2011 03 17falseCenterfalseContralto Anna Larsson will be singing music by Gustav Mahler with the Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra this Friday. Earlier this week, she and I spoke over the phone about Mahler’s music and her approach to singing it,
: The Opera Tattler Subscribe to this blog's feed West Coast Opera Companies Los Angeles Opera Portland Opera San Diego Opera San Francisco Opera Seattle Opera Jonas Kaufmann at Cal Performances Main Cav Pag at Opernhaus Zürich March 17, 2011 La Finta Giardiniera at De Munt Notes De Munt has revived a production of La Finta Giardiniera from the National Theatre , Prague but based on one originally from De Munt that premiered in 1986. Directed by Karl-Ernst Herrmann and Ursel Herrmann , the production featured a little person , one Mireille Mossé , who seemed to be the ringmaster of this circus of an opera . She gave monologues in German before each act , some silent commentary throughout the scenes , and seemed to direct the rather absurd plot , which worked well . It made the motivations
Mona Seghatoleslami2011 03 12falseCenterfalseAfter some wonderful adventures in New York, I'm enjoying a quiet day in New Jersey with my family. Due to my mom's love of crafts (and coupons), part of this visit involved some yarn shopping. In front
Opera Idaho welcomes back tenor Matt Morgan along with Sarah Jane McMahon who will be making her first appearance in Idaho on Friday, March 11, 2011 at The Egyptian Theatre in downtown Boise. Morgan starred in Opera Idaho’s 2009 production of Faust. He has made debuts at three of the four theaters at New York’s [...]
The Boise Art Museum, Boise State University Music Department, Idaho Dance Theatre, and Opera Idaho collaborate to present three performances of Orpheus and Euridice. Performed in BAM’s Sculpture Court, Stephen Knapp’s Lightpainting will provide the backdrop and inspiration for a new, visionary retelling of this age-old tale. Knapp’s eighty-foot installation of colored light will create [...]
On March 18 and 19, the Opera Idaho Children’s Chorus, directed by Linda Berg with accompanist Liz Noland, will perform a shortened version of The Mikado. Starring as the Mikado is Drew Myers who also performed the lead role as Amahl in Opera Idaho’s 2009 production of Amahl and the Night Visitors. Drew Myers is [...]