Opera News articles from August 2002

Opera News archives from August 2002

Crossing Broadway. (Viewpoint).(Brief Article)(Column)
August 1, 2002... Many New Yorkers observe the division between opera and theater as though it were policed by border guards. Opera audiences here seem to stick with opera--often attending multiple performances of the same work--while theater fans rarely show up...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
August 1, 2002... Thomas Glover was not the "son" of the real-life model of Cio-Cio-San, as stated in "Clipped Wings" (April). He married a former geisha, and therefore his house is commonly referred to as the "Madame Butterfly" house. The program...

Opera watch.(announcements of debuts, awards, etc.)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
August 1, 2002... 1. DMITRI HVOROSTOVSRY will make his recital debut at the METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART with an all-Russian program, to be presented in the Museum's Temple of Dendur on January 12, 2003. Other vocalists to be presented by the Museum in its 2002-03...

Late-season farewells: Pavarotti cancels his Met finale, while Masur bows gracefully out of the New York Philharmonic. (On The Beat).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... It seemed that half the people I ran into last spring were planning to be at the Met on May 11. The date, of course, was supposed to be LUCIANO PAVAROTTI's company farewell--a gala performance of Tosca. I have to admit I was touched by this...

Sound bites.(Shuler Hensley as Jud Fry in Oklahoma!)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Shuler Hensley is "a Jud Fry worth rooting for"--so one critic described Hensley's portrayal of musical theater's most misunderstood guy. The baritone is the standout performer in the hit Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!,...

Genre confusion: is it "opera" or "musical theather"? Who cares, as long as it's good? Broadway composer Michael John Lachiusa (Marie Christine, The Wild Party) provides some notes on the two forms and how they cross over.(Column)
August 1, 2002... You've heard the accepted reasoning: it's an opera if it's performed in an opera house; it's a musical if it's performed in a musical house. I don't subscribe to that, because, taking it the next step in logic, that would mean an opera or...

Ground plans: how do opera and music-theater stage designs intersect? Robert Marx looks at changing styles and fashions over the last century.
August 1, 2002... Rudolf Bing's arrival at the Met in 1950 is often cited as the start of a theatrical revolution in American opera the moment when prominent directors and designers from the theater, including Broadway, began to be invited regularly into...

Standbys: if you could sing anything on the opera stage, which role would you play?(actors dream on . . .)(Cover Story)
August 1, 2002... Laughter was often the first reaction, but many of today's prominent actors rose to the occasion of picturing themselves performing at the opera house. Some offered thoughtful insights on famous roles; two already had sung on the Met stage....

Double exposure: some of the movie industry's most gifted directors are giving opera companies a boost--both artistically and at the box office.
August 1, 2002... Back in the days of the nickelodeon, ten-minute silent films based on popular opera plots wowed immigrant audiences fitting spellbound in the flicker of the projector beam. Given the long association of movies and opera, it's surprising how...

The last metro girls: MGM had Gable and it had Garland--and it also had three of the most popular and talented sopranos to come out of the movie musical's golden age: Ann Blyth, Kathryn Grayson and Jane Powell.
August 1, 2002... It's hard to believe from our vantage point today, but in the 1930s, `40s and `50s, when the Hollywood studios were producing their greatest musicals, they were catering to an audience with tastes of tremendous depth and breadth. For a good...

Universal appeal.(musical film actress Deanna Durbin)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Screen legends such as Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo chose t fade into seclusion during their final years, hiding their aged selves from the public that knew them only as glamorous icons. But no superstar ever pulled a vanishing...

Player king: actor, teacher, drama coach and confidant to stars such as Zinka Milanov and Joan Sutherland, Martin Waldron is to the grand manner born--a link to a glorious period in opera and the theater.
August 1, 2002... "Actors can learn a lot from opera singers and opera singers from actors." Mr. Martin Waldron will return to this theme again and again during our visit. Mr. Waldron--and it does seem impossible to divest his name of the "Mr."--well deserves...

Children of the wind: the short season of Rags, the ill-fated 1986 Broadway musical that starred opera's Teresa Stratas.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Teresa Stratas's Broadway debut was unlike any other. When the soprano took the stage on opening night of Rags, August 28, 1986--and when she left it on closing night, four performances later--she broke both hearts and records. The $5.5-million...

Force of nature: Ewa Podles unleashes her prodigious musical personality in an all-Russian program.(Russian Arias)
August 1, 2002... Ewa Podles [] "RUSSIAN ARIAS" Arias and songs by Borodin, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Shchedrin, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky. Philharmonia of Russia, Orbelian. Texts and translations. Delos DE3298 Instead of complaining that this fascinating...

Kurka: the Good Soldier Schweik.
August 1, 2002... [] Harrington, Baggott; Collins, Embree, Sharp, Calvert, Behr, Boldin, Noon, Judisch, Elser, Ramirez; forces of Chicago Opera Theater, Platt. Libretto. Cedille CDR 90000 062 (Qualiton, dist.) Robert Kurka, an American of Czech descent, died...

Debussy: Pelleas et Melisande.
August 1, 2002... [] Von Otter, Schaer, Couderc; Holzmair, Naouri, Vernhes; Orchestre National de France and Chorus of Radio France, Haitink. Radio France V4923 (Harmonia Mundi, dist.) Bernard Haitink is a conductor of undisputed integrity, but he has never...

Pacini: Carlo di Borgogna.
August 1, 2002... [] Futral, Larmore, Williams; Ford, Frontali, Natoli, Magee; Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Parry Text and translation. Opera Rara ORC 21 (3) (Harmonia Mundi, dist.) Few operas can match Giovanni Pacini's...

Ropartz: Le Pays.
August 1, 2002... [] Delunsch; Ragon, Lallouette; Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Ossonce. Timpani 2C2065 (Qualiton, dist.) Le Pays is drenched in nostalgia for distant places. Its central figure is the sailor Tual, shipwrecked and stranded on a...

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder.
August 1, 2002... [] Mattila, von Otter; Moser, Langridge, Quasthoff, Rundfunkchor Berlin, MDR Rundfunkchor, Leipzig, Ernst Senff Chor, Berliner Philharmoniker, Rattle. Text and translation. EMI Classics 57303 2 9 (2) Arnold Schoenberg's massive Gurrelieder,...

Karita Mattila.
August 1, 2002... [] "GERMAN ROMANTIC ARIAS" Scenes and arias by Beethoven, Weber and Mendelssohn. Staatskapelle Dresden, C. Davis. Texts and translations. Erato 42141 Karita Mattila has just the right voice for these early-Romantic German arias--warm and...

Roberto Alagna.(Bel Canto)
August 1, 2002... [] BEL CANTO" Scenes and arias from Poliuto, La Sonnambula, La Favorite, Don Pasquale, Norma, Roberto Devereux, Dom Sebastien, I Puritani, L'Elisir d'Amore, Il Pirata, La Fille du Regiment. With Gheorghiu; London Voices, London Philharmonic...

Kathleen Battle.(Classic Kathleen Battle)
August 1, 2002... [] "CLASSIC KATHLEEN BATTLE: A PORTRAIT" Arias and songs by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Faure, Mahler, Ellington, Vangelis et al. Various accompanying artists. No texts or translations. Sony Classical 89464 This disc, however oddly assembled,...

Olga Makarina. (Recital).(Italian Opera Arias)
August 1, 2002... [] "ITALIAN OPERA ARIAS" Arias by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. St. Petersburg Radio and Television Orchestra, Gorkovenko. Texts and translations. Romeo Records 7217 (Qualiton, dist.) Russian soprano Olga Makarina has degrees from...

Verdi: Simon Boccanegra.
August 1, 2002... [] Stella, Furlai; Silveri, Bergonzi, Petri, Monachesi, Giorgetti; Orchestra and Chorus of RAI, Rome, Molinari-Pradelli. Italian text only. Warner Fonit 8573 82648-2 (Empire Music, dist.) Tempus fugit, and all that. This performance was...

Bernadette Peters.(Bernadette Peters Loves Rodgers and Hammerstein)
August 1, 2002... [] "BERNADETTE PETERS LOVES RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN" Angel 34969-2 Despite her long stage, film and television career, Bernadette Peters has never done enough work in the recording studio. It's rare that she comes up with a solo CD, but...

August online edition of Opera News.
August 1, 2002... A historic L'Arlesiana with Tassinari and Tagliavini; CD release of 1972 program by the Malfitano Duo; new recitals by Piau and Grishko. INTERNATIONAL: In Paris, Graham redeems Idomeneo; Bouchot's world premiere Ubu; La Serva Padrona at...

Zurich. (International).(Il Turco in Italia )
August 1, 2002... Cecilia Bartoli assumed the role of Fiorilla in Il Turco in Italia for the first time onstage in a new production of Rossini's dramma buffo on April 28 at Zurich's Opernhaus. Conducted by Franz Welser-Most (in his first Rossini opera), it was a...

Madrid. (International).(Babel 46)(L'Enfant et les Sortileges)
August 1, 2002... Xavier Montsalvatge turned ninety the week of the house premiere (March 25) of his somber, post-Menottian Babel 46 at Madrid's Teatro Real; he died on May 7. [See obituary, p. 73.] For this tale of broken characters in a prison camp after World...

Paris. (International).(Arabella)
August 1, 2002... The Theatre du Chatelet had a great success with its new production of Richard Strauss's Arabella, directed by Peter Mussbach in a co-production with Covent Garden, conducted by seasoned Straussian Christoph von Dohnanyi. His conducting of the...

London. (International).(La Rondine)(Lulu)
August 1, 2002... Since its premiere in Monte Carlo in 1917, Puccini's La Rondine has taken eighty-five years to achieve a Royal Opera production, though it was given by the company in concert in 1998 at the Royal Albert Hall, during the rebuilding of their...

Buenos Aires. (International).(The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny)
August 1, 2002... Despite Argentina's economic problems, the city government of Buenos Aires came up with the necessary budget for Teatro Colon's 2002 season, which will rely mainly on Argentine singers. Given the good quality of many of them and the excellence...

Hamburg. (International).(Der Rosenkavalier)
August 1, 2002... Der Rosenkavalier is one of few works of the standard repertoire to remain largely untouched by the Regietheater movement. Most productions still resemble the Dresden world premiere in 1911, with beautiful Rococo rooms and costumes--and without...

Brooklyn. (North America).(Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria)(La Favola d'Orfeo)(L'Incoronazione di Poppea)
August 1, 2002... The Brooklyn Academy of Music trilogy of Claudio Monteverdi's surviving operas began auspiciously with six performances of Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria (seen April 8) at the BAM Harvey Theater. A co-production of four European theaters, this...

New York City. (North America).(A Midsummer Night's Dream)
August 1, 2002... In 1996, thirty-six years after its world premiere at the Aldeburgh Festival, Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream finally arrived on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. The innovative production, designed by Antony McDonald in a...

San Diego. (North America).
August 1, 2002... "More laughs than Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles" was the hyperbolic claim of a local KPBS-FM announcement promoting San Diego Opera's recent "Wild West" production of Gaetano Donizetti's Don Pasquale. Two groups were thereby offended: Brooks...

Denver. (North America).
August 1, 2002... Hansel in blue jeans and bright red tennies, curled up in front of the family TV. A Witch sporting sunglasses and Doris Day house-dress, pedaling madly about on a Schwinn bike. Her hut topped by a red-licorice roof supporting a flashing-light...

Toronto. (North America).
August 1, 2002... Four months after staging Antonio Sartorios Giulio Cesare in Egitto (1676), Canadian Opera Company offered Handel's pared-down version of the same Bussani libretto (adapted by Nicola Francesco Haym). Two young singers from COC Ensemble reprised...

Obituaries.(Obituary)
August 1, 2002... ROBERT C. MARSH, Columbus, OH, 1924-New Glarus, WI, May 12, 2002 Classical-music critic of the Chicago Sun-Times for more than thirty years until his retirement in 1991, Marsh was completing a history of opera in Chicago at the time of his...

Luciano Pavarotti in Recital.
August 1, 2002... [] Selections by Bizet, Bononcini, Caldara, de Curtis, di Capua, Donizetti, Gluck, Schubert, Tosti, Puccini Verdi. Magiera, piano. Recorded live at the Teatro Petruzzelli, Bari, Italy, 1984. Texts and translations. VAI DVD 4214, 78 mins. ...

Handel: Alcina.
August 1, 2002... [] Naglestad, Coote, Schneiderman, Smith, Mahnke; Romei, Erbeck, Gerger; Stuttgart Staatsorchester, Hacker, 1999. Arthaus Musik DVD 100 339, 159 mins. In this production from Stuttgart (scheduled to arrive at San Francisco with much the...

Dateline.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... ASH LAWN-HIGHLAND OPERA (Boxwood Gardens, Charlottesville, VA, 434-293-4500; http://monticello.avenue.org) Aug. 2 La Cenerentola (Rossini). Also 4, 11, 16 Aug. 3 Kiss Me, Kate (Porter). Also 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17 Aug. 7 La Traviata...

Acting lessons. (Coda).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... "He's a great singer but a bad actor." You hear it all the time at intermissions and see it all the time in print. In opera circles, "acting" is commonly spoken of as a component of performance that's separate from "singing." Since "singing"...