Elza van den Heever and the MET Orchestra: A stunning all-Strauss program
Slapstick done right: Burnaby Lyric Opera's Barber
ReviewWhen Figaro needs a guitar, a hand simply juts out from the wings with a guitar in hand, then promptly collects it when he's done. The show is full of hilarious slapstick comedy, amazing comic acting, and is an absolute comedic tour de force, which had the audience howling with laughter throughout.
Barton leads "fantasy cast" in WNO's Don Carlo
ReviewIf you were asked to come up with a fantasy cast for a hypothetical production of Don Carlo, you'd be have a hard time assembling a lineup better than the one at Saturday night's performance. Tenor Russell Thomas sings the title role with clarity and passion, and not a hint of the strain which is all too common in this repertoire. Throughout their duet, his voice blends seamlessly with Quinn Kelsey’s Rodrigo.
Too much magic? A Midsummer Night's Dream at ENO
ReviewBritten's stunning opera has made it into the standard operatic repertory not only because of the genius writing but because of its malleability as a piece. There are so many directions the design of this opera can go, and so many choices to be made for the character's relationships, thus every new production of Midsummer can feel like a new opera entirely.
Appetizers & arias: Popera! at the Drake One Fifty
EditorialPopera! has a chic air of exclusivity to it, the menu items like "Love Elixir" cocktails and "Opera Cake" seeming positively swanky when paired with Mozart. My only wish is that the event grows in size - as in, more singing, please. I could have done with a couple of sets' worth of singing, perhaps over appetizers as well as cocktails, with a bonus handful of sweet picks - some Andrew Lloyd Webber, say - for dessert.
A "rare event" at Chicago Lyric: Piotr Beczała in recital
Interview"I am pleased to say that, in my experience, audiences outside Poland respond to Polish music with great satisfaction and enthusiasm. I appeared one-and-a-half months ago in Zürich with this same program and the great majority of the audience seemed smitten with the Polish portion of the program."
Hilarity: Someone Like Me (L'opera di Facebook)
HumourThe folks behind Something Blue: The Bachelor Opera and Connection Lost: The Tinder Opera are back! This time, it's Someone Like Me (L'opera di Facebook), a harrowing tale of likes, validation, and rye toast. Adam Taylor writes and directs, with music by Nathan Fletcher. Baritone Jonathan Hare and soprano Amelia Berry star in the fab, sassy cast of this must-see:
Three cities, lots of options: coming up in March
NewsThe opera by composer Stewart Copeland and librettist Jonathan Moore is based on the novel by Adolfo Bioy Casares, "La invención de Morel". An escaped fugitive ends up on a strange island, falls in love, is abandoned, and begins to unravel before meeting the mad scientist Morel.
Opera & Song(Fest) team up in LA
NewsIt's an exciting step for the program, which focuses on the interpretation of art song. It's a place where voice lessons, coachings, and studio work between pianist and singer are distilled into the performing of song repertoire - a refreshing bit of clarity in the craft of communicating music and text to an audience.
"Great Operas Don't Just Happen."
Interview"We emphasize a very detailed outlining process at ALT, wherein the librettist and the composer create beat-by-beat outlines - for both the libretto and the score - before a word of the text or a note of the music is written. For a short piece, like those in the upcoming Living Libretto event, this might take one month. For a longer, full-length work, the planning process could take six months or more, especially if extensive research is required."
Misnomers & interstellar sex scenes: Vasco de Gama
ReviewIn the 21st century, any production of an opera about a 15th-century colonizer is going to be about race and white guilt, whether it intends to be or not. While Kratzer adds in some key pieces of information that provide a certain degree of critical comment on the white colonial mindset, certain visual decisions throughout the production muddy that stance.