Opera News articles from April 2002

Opera News archives from April 2002

Past, present and future. (Viewpoint).
April 1, 2002... There are some grounds for hoping that the fear voiced in this column two months ago about the arts being starved in the wake of September 11 was excessive. All around the country, bold plans are being announced that show confidence in the...

Opera watch.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... 1. Defying rumors that her 1998 Met run as the Countess in Capriccio marked her U.S. opera farewell, KIRI TE KANAWA will take on Samuel Barber's Vanessa for her company debut next season at THE WASHINGTON OPERA. Vanessa, a co-production with...

Lincoln Center's redevelopment plans heat up New York; Rudel hears things differently. (On The Beat).(Julius Rudel)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... For those who have followed it closely, the heated battle over the proposed redevelopment of Lincoln Center has contained more purple emotion and high-glamour venom than a boxed set of Falcon Crest episodes. A brief review: JOSEPH VOLPE, the...

The Misslin guide. (A Singer's Diary).(Patricia Misslin)
April 1, 2002... When Renee Fleming was invited to give a master class at the Manhattan School of Music, she said, "Why do you want me? You have Pat Misslin." Patricia Misslin, who launched some of her undergraduate students into glorious careers, is like a...

Camilla Tilling. (Sound Bites).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Camilla Tilling dazzled New York City Opera audiences in September 1999, when her Corinna, Rossini's "celebre improvvisatrice romana," stole the show in James Robinson's witty production of II Viaggio a Reims. Who could have guessed from...

Clipped wings: Leonard J. Leff chronicles Japan's ambivalent relationship with Madama Butterfly.
April 1, 2002... Madama Butterfly has been part of the standard repertory almost since its "second" premiere, in May 1904; the Japanese, however, have long had ambivalent feelings about the story, the heroine and the opera. As early as 1914, at the Imperial...

Classic vision: critics may sneer, but Franco Zeffirelli has remained true to his extravagant style. This season, he returns to the Met to refurbish his much-loved 1964 production of Falstaff.
April 1, 2002... Having turned seventy-nine this past February, Franco Zeffirelli is quite possibly the worlds oldest enfant terrible. One of the last great European directors of the postwar era, he has always enjoyed a reputation for glamorous excess and...

Gabriella Tucci. (Reunion).
April 1, 2002... She strides into the room, all smiles -- svelte, vivacious, emphatically youthful. She exudes self-confidence and Italianate flair. When she speaks, in husky, slightly accented English, she sounds like a diva between engagements. Heads turn....

Reawakened sleeper.
April 1, 2002... "Strictly speaking, every man, seen from outside, is a comic figure, and inside is a tragic one...." Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, a mild man not much given to public confession, was offering a rare glimpse into his own conflicted character when he...

Welcome visitor: Jane Glover, who led the New York City Opera premieres of Handel's Ariodante and Acis and Galatea, returns to NYCO this month for the company's first performances of Agrippina.
April 1, 2002... Jane Glover's crisp, stylish readings of Bach, Mozart and Britten have taken her from the British Isles and Europe to China and Australia for twenty-five years. These days, her U.S. engagements are growing more frequent, with stops this month...

Face to face: Lili Chookasian and Ewa Podles.(Brief Article)(Interview)
April 1, 2002... These days, genuine contraltos seem to have gone the way of girdles, malt shops and rotary phones. Whether due to changes in taste, style, genetics or the music industry, this rare bird is verging on extinction. So it was doubly thrilling to...

Broadcasts Metropolitan Opera.(Brief Article)(Critical Essay)
April 1, 2002... On March 6, 1964, two well-known artists, neither of them a singer, made their Met debuts together in a new production of Falstaff. The designer/director, Franco Zeffirelli, had made his mark in Shakespearean staging with Romeo and Juliet at...

Madama Butterfly. (Metropolitan Opera).
April 1, 2002... BROADCAST OF MARCH 30, 2002 SPONSORED BY CHEVRONTEXACO OVER THE CHEVRONTEXACO-METROPOLITAN OPERA INTERNATIONAL RADIO NETWORK, 1:30 P.M. MADAMA BUTTERFLY Music by Giacomo Puccini Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, based on a play by...

Falstaff. (Metropolitan Opera).
April 1, 2002... BROADCAST OF APRIL 6, 2002 SPONSORED BY CHEVRONTEXACO OVER THE CHEVRONTEXACO-METROPOLITAN OPERA INTERNATIONAL RADIO NETWORK, 1:30 P.M. FALSTAFF Music by Giuseppe Verdi Libretto by Arrigo Boito, after Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor ...

The casts.(Critical Essay)
April 1, 2002... Soprano Daniela Dessi (Cio-Cio-San) kicked off 2002 as Maddalena in Rome Andrea Cheniers, then sang Tosca in Munich before coming to the Met, where she bowed in 1995 as Nedda in Pagliacci. The Genoa native has more Butterflys coming up in...

Sly. (Metropolitan Opera).
April 1, 2002... BROADCAST OF APRIL 13, 2002 SPONSORED BY CHEVRONTEXACO OVER THE CHEVRONTEXACO-METROPOLITAN OPERA INTERNATIONAL RADIO NETWORK, 1:30 P.M. SLY Music by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari Libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, after the induction to Shakespeare's The...

Lulu. (Metropolitan Opera).
April 1, 2002... BROADCAST OF APRIL 20, 2002 SPONSORED BY CHEVRONTEXACO OVER THE CHEVRONTEXACO-METROPOLITAN OPERA INTERNATIONAL RADIO NETWORK, 1:30 P.M. LULU Music and text by Alban Berg LULU THE CAST (in order of vocal appearance) Animal Tamer...

What to read and hear.(Bibliography)(Critical Essay)
April 1, 2002... MADAMA BUTTERFLY Mosco Carner's Puccini: A Critical Biography (third edition, Holmes & Meier) is strong on both life and music. William Ashbrook's The Operas of Puccini (Cornell, paperback) discusses the works in biographical and stylistic...

Verdi: Aroldo.
April 1, 2002... [] Vaness; Shicoff, Gavin, Michaels-Moore, Scandiuzzi; Orchestra e coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Luisi. Text and translations. Philips 462 512-2 In 1857, when it proved simply too problematic for the Italian censors and the Italian...

Verdi: II Trovatore.
April 1, 2002... [] Frittoli, Urmana; Licitra, Nucci; La Scala Chorus and Orchestra, Muti. Text and translations. Sony Classical S2K 89553 Riccardo Muti's Il Trovatore caused a scandal when it opened La Scala's 2000-01 season. At Muti's behest, in "Di...

Strauss: Die Agyptische Helena.
April 1, 2002... [] Blinstrubyte, Kodalli, Mauel; O'Mara, von Duisburg, Haselsteiner; Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Korsten. Text and translations. Dynamic CDS 374/1-2 (Qualiton, dist.) Who would have thought such a wonderful, engaging...

Dohnanyi: Tante Simona.
April 1, 2002... [] Ulbrich, Lory, Kertesi; Toth, Derecskei, Racz; Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Kovacs. Text and translations. Hungaroton HCD 31973 (Qualiton, dist.) A native of the tri-lingual city of Pozsony (now Bratislava), Budapest-educated Erno...

Janacek: The Diary of One Who Disappeared; Piano Works.
April 1, 2002... [] Philogene; Bostridge; Ades, piano. Texts and translations. EMI Classics 5 57219 2 The new EMI Classics recording of Janacek's The Diary of One Who Disappeared is a follow-up to staged performances of the work directed by Deborah Warner...

Rorem: Selected Songs.
April 1, 2002... [] Farley; Rorem, piano. Texts. Naxos 8.559084 Ned Rorem, born 1923 in Indiana, is known to many (including OPERA NEWS readers) as an author of articles and books. His approach to songwriting differs little from his prose style. Both are...

Airs Francais.
April 1, 2002... Ben Heppner [] "AIRS FRANCAIS" Arias by Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Halevy and Massenet. London Voices, London Symphony Orchestra, Chung. Texts and translations. DG 471372 The arrival of Ben Heppner's album of French arias in close conjunction...

Mots D'Amour.
April 1, 2002... Anne Sofie von Otter and Bengt Forsberg [] "MOTS D'AMOUR" Songs and instrumental pieces by Chaminade. Texts and translations. DG 471331 If you prefer sparkling wine to Pinot Gris, and a hot bubble bath to twenty minutes in the sauna, then...

French Arias.
April 1, 2002... Marcelo Alvarez [] "FRENCH ARIAS" Opera arias by Massenet, Offenbach, Donizetti, Verdi, Gounod, Meyerbeer, Rossini. Orchestra and chorus of the Opera de Nice, Elder. Texts and translations. Sony SK 89650 It was clear at Marcelo Alvarez's...

French Baroque Arias.
April 1, 2002... Patricia Petibon [] "FRENCH BAROQUE ARIAS" With Les Folies Francoises; Cohen-Akenine. Virgin 545481 2 The benefits of staking out a small corner of the repertoire and then performing it extremely well are clear from Patricia Petibon's...

ARIAS.
April 1, 2002... [] ARIAS by Bach, Haydn, Mendelssohn. Bach Collegium Stuttgart, Rilling; Stuttgarter Hymnus-Chorknaben, Weyand. No texts or translations. Hanssler Classic 98.403 Christine Schafer is pursuing a nutritionally balanced career, drawn from all...

It's Wonderful.
April 1, 2002... Barbara Hendricks [] "IT'S WONDERFUL" A Tribute to George Gershwin. Bateman, The Guildhall Strings, other musicians. Texts. EMI Classics 57049 It's almost de rigueur these days for American classical singers to insist on recording at least...

Il Sibilo -- The Whisper.
April 1, 2002... Nuccia Focile, Donata D'Annunzio Lombardi, Paul Charles Clarke and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo [] "IL SIBILO -- THE WHISPER" Songs of Pacini, Donizetti, Ricci, Crescentini et al. Harper, piano. Texts and translations. Opera Rara ORR 219 (Harmonia...

Paris.(opera productions)
April 1, 2002... In an interesting essay in the program notes of the Opera's new production, at the Bastille, of Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina, director Andrei Serban explains that Russians hold this work in higher esteem than either Bon's Godunov or Eugene...

Vienna.(Romeo et Juliette)
April 1, 2002... Once very popular, Gounod's Romeo et Juliette had not been seen at the Staatsoper for more than eighty years until December 22, when Jurgen Flimm's new production was unveiled (seen Dec. 30). Birgit Hutter's costumes were modern yet belonged to...

London.
April 1, 2002... January 11 saw the first of four Toscas in what was widely expected to be Luciano Pavarotti's final run at the Royal Opera House. Last-minute doubt was cast on his availability due to the death of his eighty-six-year-old mother late in the...

Amsterdam.(L'Elisire d'amour)
April 1, 2002... Bryn Terfel has often drawn inspiration from the career of his fellow Welshman Geraint Evans in assuming such roles as Figaro, Leporello and Falstaff. The late bass-baritone likely would have been surprised if he had seen Terfel's debut in...

Budapest.(Romeo et Juliette)
April 1, 2002... Poor Gounod! He has been relegated to the list of "B" composers, and his sweet melodies are more often than not considered trite. But when one of his works is revived with the degree of conviction applied to Romeo et Juliette by the Hungarian...

Zurich.(Die Schweigsame Frau)
April 1, 2002... From the moment Christoph von Dohnanyi launched into the "potpourri" overture (as the composer described it) of Richard Strauss's Die Schweigsame Frau in Zurich's new production (seen Dec. 21), it was clear that this performance would be a...

New York City.(opera productions)
April 1, 2002... This season's Met revival of Don Carlo brought back David Reppa's traditional, monumental sets, with John Dexter's 1979 production restaged by Paul Mills. The conductor and most of the cast were new to their assignments, giving the work a...

Chicago.(Hansel und Gretel)
April 1, 2002... Parents who brought their children to Lyric Opera's December performances of Hansel und Gretel expecting a warmhearted holiday entertainment were in for a rude awakening. The company's new Richard Jones--John MacFarlane production seemed more...

Baltimore.(Die Zauberflote)
April 1, 2002... The English music critic Neville Cardus thought that Mozart's Die Zauberflote was the only opera "in existence that might conceivably have been composed by God." The work's ethereal charms shone through in the Baltimore Opera Company's...

Austin.(A Streetcar Named Desire)
April 1, 2002... Many opera productions now offer eye candy as well as music to the ears, but in Austin Lyric Opera's recent staging of Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire, one often had the feeling that the eight buff gym boys who moved menacingly and...

New York City.(recital by Deborah Voigt)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Few artists in Lincoln Center's "Great Performers" series have deserved the appellation as fully as Deborah Voigt, whose January 20 Alice Tully Hall recital was a triumph. Voigt and Brian Zeger, her indefatigable accompanist, presented a...

Los Angeles.(The Merry Widow)
April 1, 2002... January's entry on the Los Angeles Opera schedule originally called for three performances of a Spanish-language version of Lehar's The Merry Widow, to follow the English-language production that -- as fate would have it -- had thudded across...

April online edition of Opera News.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... INTERNATIONAL: In Madrid, Flotats's class-conscious Cosi Fan Tutte hearkens to World War I; in Budapest, Polgar's Filippo dominates a revival of Don Carlo; in Cologne, Carsen stages a wintry Walkure, with Behle, Stemme, Titus under Tate's...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
April 1, 2002... CORRECTION: In the photo caption that accompanied our review of Houston Grand Opera's Rigoletto (Feb. 2002), one of the performers was misidentified. She is Elizabeth Kaufman (Young Gilda), not Laura Claycomb (Gilda).

The Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... by Bryan Magee Metropolitan Books, 397 pp. $24.50 In an essay published this past January in The New Republic, historian Daniel Jonah Goldhagen expresses astonishment that anti-Semitism continues to be "minimized" and "cordoned off" in...

The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Opera.
April 1, 2002... by William Berger Perigee Books, 240 pp. $13.95 The latest welcome-to-opera book comes from William Berger as part of NPR's new Curious Listener's Guide series. (Other installments will feature Max Morath and Michael Feinstein on popular...

Lotte Lehmann, Master Classes, Vol. 1.
April 1, 2002... [] Music of Strauss, Mozart, Schumann. With Duke, de la Cruz, Bolton, Milius, Chronis. 1961. VAI VHS 69232, 56 mins. Celebrity master classes are so entertaining for the spectator and such torture for the students that there ought to be a...

Monteverdi: L'Incoronazione di Poppea.
April 1, 2002... [] Schuman, Kuhlmann, Brooks; R. Croft, Peeters, Rayam, Visse; Concerto Koln, Jacobs. 1993. Arthaus Musik DVD 100109, 150 mins. (dist. Naxos) Viewers suffering from Baroque Opera Gender Confusion Syndrome will welcome the video vignettes...

In Performance: Jennifer Larmore.
April 1, 2002... [] Live Recital, January 5, 2001 Arias and songs by Handel, Rossini, Bizet, Debussy, Weill, Heggie, Barber et al. Palloc, piano. Texts and translations. VAI DVD 4205; VAI VHS 69229 Jennifer Larmore emerges as a consummate entertainer on...

Obituaries.(Peter Hemmings)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
April 1, 2002... PETER HEMMINGS, Enfield, Middlesex, England, April 10, 1934 -- Dorset, England, January 4, 2002 Where others had failed, or succeeded only halfway, Peter Hemmings planted the operatic seed in the Los Angeles cultural desert and nursed it...

Lulu in silence. (Coda).(G.W. Pabst's silent motion picture, Lulu)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The most famous Lulu of them all never sang a note. "Imagine!" fumed Marlene Dietrich -- "Pabst choosing Louise Brooks for Lulu when he could have had me!" It was 1928, and Dietrich was in film director G. W. Pabst's Berlin office, on...