Trial at Rouen slow but revealing on record

Review

Thankfully, Odyssey Opera thought a little ahead of the curve: for the next album in their recordings of newer opera, they have opted to put The Trial at Rouen on Boston Modern Orchestra Project's recording label, BMOP/sound, and with the same cast that performed it in December 2017, no less!

Tête à Tête at home: a sampling

Review

These are strange times, and I am still not convinced that going virtual is the way. Has it afforded us some opportunities we would not have had otherwise? Sure. Has it required us to get creative in ways we could not have imagined? Certainly.

Well okay, au revoir, I guess?

Editorial

I think Neef has been playing a different game than Canadian opera fans. He was making the COC a new hub in the international opera scene, and we were loving the big gets onstage.

Untold: a collaborative tale of pride and grace

Review

This was a piece that did not feel as though it existed musically as a complete score but more so in the gathering of people together, in the physicality of the performance space, and in the unknowable magic that occurs in the moment of performance itself.

Aria guides: Mab, la reine des mensonges

How-To

This aria is a ballad to Queen Mab, a mysterious fairy creature that gets into one's dreams; it's a breathless bit of excitement that sets up Mercutio as Roméo's outgoing, affable friend, so when he meets his end later in the opera, the loss sinks in deeply.

Intimate Voix humaine provides a way forward

Review

How do you stage something that is so static in tableau and also has so few characters? And more to the point, how does a company stage it in a time when theaters are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Tiny worlds & admiring singers: a mid-pandemic wellness check

Editorial

I don't live in the vast world of opera, anymore, and it's fucking sad. I haven't had one of those heart-racing experiences at a live show since February. I haven't had that happy, vibrating commute home in the magical night-time after seeing something incredible; it's been a long time since I've felt the relief of taking off high heels at the end of the night, or placed those heels gently back on their shelf, for next time.

Renée Fleming Brings A New Luster To Dumbarton Oaks

Review

Renée Fleming knows her audience, or in this case, the lack of one. Creating a sense of intimate occasion in the elegant music salon at Dumbarton Oaks, a Georgetown estate with a musical pedigree of its own, Fleming made her contribution to the Metropolitan Opera's MET Stars Live streaming concert series feel like a musical get-together.

The Emphatically Present “West Side Story”

Op-Ed

Through the years the original Broadway cast recording, abridged as it is to fit the time limitations of a single “long-playing” vinyl disk, has remained the pinnacle of its major recordings. The soundtrack of the hugely successful film recruited legions of fans plus a few detractors, Bernstein among them, who found it overblown.

The concessions we make for live opera: Tosca goes up at Northern Lights Music Festival

Review

With no performances scheduled in the United States scheduled for the next six months will there still be an audience? I think so, and I hope so. Cautious performances like those put on by Northern Lights are essential to keeping the spirit of opera alive in the United States. Let us hope for more innovation and live music making in the coming months.