Opera

Giulio Cesare in HD

April 28, 2013

David McVicar’s vaudeville, Giulio Cesare, was telecast in HD on April 27, 2013. The show featured goose-stepping Scottish troopers led by a man in a kilt, cardboard waves rollicking in the background, cutout ships of various periods, the Keystone Cops, Gay Pride, the Daughter of the Regiment, Texas Guinan, Yodel King, a king in a brassiere, the Charleston Q’Tease, Clara Bow, loose order marching drills, […]

Tutto Verdi: Ernani

April 25, 2013

Verdi’s fifth opera was his first opera to be premiered away from La Scala, the first to be premiered in Venice, and the composer’s first international success. The opera is, in many ways, a dress rehearsal for Il Trovatore which is resembles in setting, tone, melodic fecundity, and ferocious intensity. It also marks the emergence […]

Tutto Verdi: I Lombardi

April 16, 2013

Verdi’s fourth opera like its predecessors was premiered at Milan’s La Scala – February 1, 1843. It was a big hit, but gradually faded away such that by the end of the century it had all but disappeared. More recently it has reappeared, most recently in New York City last week where it was successfully received in […]

The Queen of the Night’s Aria

April 14, 2013

Now for something completely different. Here is a portion of the Queen of the Night’s aria sung by the late Menino. She (?he) does it better than some sopranos I’ve heard. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo6tb6kj8MA Here’s Diana Damrau singing the aria.

Tutto Verdi: Nabucco

April 11, 2013

Verdi’s third opera, Nabucco, was not merely a success, it was an explosion. Its combination of almost ferocious vitality and lyrical beauty was not only entirely new to opera, but was also the herald of the rest of Verdi’s career. Verdi’s mastery of drama, melody, and psychological penetration is what sets him above every other […]

Dumas and Rossini: The Count Goes to the Opera

April 8, 2013

Chapter 88 of Dumas great novel of revenge and adventure, The Count of Monte Cristo, is called ‘The Insult’. Here are a few excerpts pertinent to this brief note: Albert went to his room, and dressed with unusual care. At ten minutes to eight Beauchamp arrived; he had seen Chateau-Renaud, who had promised to […]

Tutto Verdi: Un Giorno Di Regno

April 6, 2013

Verdi’s second opera was premiered, as was his first, at Milan’s La Scala. Unlike Oberto, Un Giorno Di Regno was a complete failure. Its first performance on September 5, 1840 was its last. Verdi was devastated to the point where he considered abandoning his career as an opera composer. In a later reminiscence he attributed […]

Tutto Verdi: Oberto

March 31, 2013

Oberto Conte Di San Bonifacio was Verdi’s first opera. Its premiere was at La Scala on November 17, 1839. Oberto’s modest success was sufficient to earn its composer a contract to produce three more operas for the Milan theater. Before going further, a word about what books on Verdi are, in my opinion, best for someone who wants […]

A Nap at Opera – II

March 29, 2013

“Sleep – the opera was invented for no other purpose.” The opera being performed at the time the remark was made was Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable. Alexandre Dumas – The Count of Monte Cristo (It’s 1838 at this point in the novel) Interestingly the opera was recently revived at London’s Royal Opera House apparently without much success.

Tutto Verdi

March 27, 2013

This is 200th anniversary year of Giuseppe Verdi’s birth. To mark the occasion Parma’s Teatro Regio has released a 30 DVD set which presents videos of the master’s 26 (none of the reworked operas is included) operas and his requiem mass. The pdf file below gives the particular’s of this mammoth collection. Almost all the operas […]

Francesca da Rimini in HD

March 16, 2013

Riccardo Zandonai (1883-1944) wrote 13 operas only one of which roams the outskirts of the standard operatic repertory – Francesca da Rimini. The Met telecast the opera today as its penultimate HD presentation of this season. The opera’s libretto is a shortened version (by the publisher Tito Riccordi) of Gabriele D’Annunzio’s tragedy of the same name. The […]

Recording of the Week – Die Tote Stadt

March 9, 2013

This week’s Recording of the Week is a DVD release by Arthaus Musik of the Deutsche Oper of Berlin’s 1983 production of Erich Korngold’s (1897-1957) Die Tote Stadt. The video was shot in the theater, but without an audience allowing for TV values that would not have been then possible were the recording been made during […]

Rigoletto at the Met – 1945

February 18, 2013

Rigoletto was just broadcast by the Met. It was a nice performance, but check this one out. Its the broadcast of Dec 29, 1945. The cast is impossible to duplicate today. The difference between then and now is wider than the Grand Canyon. Warren and Björling seem another species; It’s on Youtube so I can’t […]

Rigoletto in HD

February 17, 2013

The Metropolitan Opera’s 847th performance of Verdi’s masterpiece was telecast in HD yesterday. It’s 6th on the company’s list of most frequently staged operas. Though Verdi was only 37 when he wrote Rigoletto it was his 17th opera. Over the remaining half century of his life he would write only 11 more. Rigoletto was based on Victor Hugo’s play […]

What Makes a Great Tenor

February 11, 2013

That’s the title of a 2010 BBC program narrated by Rolando Villazon. I don’t know how long it will stay on Youtube, but here it is. It’s almost an hour long and leaves out a lot of great tenors; but it’s worth watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A66Adiz0pY