Opera News articles from January 1998

Opera News archives from January 1998

The voice of the father: my Boris Godunov. (the tragic figure was once an obsession for a fatherless girl)
January 3, 1998... Every now and then, for nostalgia's sake, I reach for the oldest record on my shelf, an RCA Victor Treasury of Immortal Performances LP, its purple-and-gold sleeve patched and repatched with yellowed Scotch tape. On the back of the jacket, the...

First bass. (Samuel Ramey, opera singer)(Cover Story)
January 3, 1998... Samuel Ramey, the most recorded bass in history, lives in the same Central Park West building as Barbra Streisand. One inevitable day, the elevator door opened and there she was with a mutual acquaintance, who introduced her to Sam. As they...

Learning from Britten. (the operas of Benjamin Britten)
January 3, 1998... One of the great achievements of the Levine years at the Met has been the introduction of so many Benjamin Britten operas into the repertory. Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Death in Venice have taken their rightful...

Russian evolution: tenor Sergej Larin savors the varied aspect of his career. (able to sing many roles from 'Boris Godunov')(Brief Article)
January 3, 1998... Not many other tenors currently singing Calaf an Don Jose in the world's major opera houses would describe Grigori as "one of my most important roles," but then, Sergej Larin is an uncommonly serious artist. This is not to suggest that he is...

Up from Houston: many of today's rising stars got their start at Houston Opera Studio.
January 3, 1998... Houston is a behemoth of a city, stretching outward and upward, its high-rises of mirrored glass and steel jutting up like angular chessmen from vast, sprawling flatlands, its labyrinthine freeways coursing out in loops and swirls from its...

Going to the opera with Joyce Carol Oates. (author/librettist)
January 3, 1998... Joyce Carol Oates sits back and surveys the appetizer just placed in front of her -- tuna carpaccio, surmounted by an elaborate construction of vegetables and baked goods. "My!," she breathes, her eyebrows slightly raised as she tilts her head...

Boris Godunov. (Broadcast of January 3, 1997)(includes related articles)
January 3, 1998... THE CAST (in order of vocal appearance) Nikitich bass, Richard Vernon Mitiukha bass, Hao Jiang Tian Schelkalov baritone, Alan Held Prince Shuisky ten., Constantin Pluzhnikov Boris Godunov bass, Samuel...

Peter Grimes. (Broadcast of January 10, 1997)(includes related articles)
January 3, 1998... THE CAST (in order of vocal appearance) Hobson bass, Daniel Sumegi Swallow bass, James Courtney Peter Grimes tenor, Philip Langridge Mrs. Sedley mezzo, Judith Christin Ellen Orford soprano, Carolyn James Dr....

Sound bites: Mary Mills. (opera soprano sings roles from a variety of operas including 'Louise,' 'Dangerous Liaisons.' and 'Incoronazione')
January 3, 1998... "I've been onstage for a lot of accidents," laughs soprano Mary Mills. One of the most memorable occurred during her debut season with San Francisco Opera, when -- right at the start of Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria -- the...

Rimsky-Korsakov: The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh.(Elena Prokina, Viktoria Lukianetz, Alexandra Durseneva, Sergei Naida, Vladimir Galouzine, Russian Academy Chorus, Sofia Chamber Chorus, Vienna Symphony, Vladimir Fedoseyev)
January 3, 1998... Prokina, Lukianetz, Durseneva; Naida, Galouzine, Daniliuk, Isumov; Russian Academy Chorus, Sofia Chamber Chorus Vienna Symphony, Fedoseyev. Libretto & translation. Koch Schwann 3-1144 (2) This recording of a live production at the 1995...

Meyerbeer: L'Etoile du Nord.(Elizabeth Futral, Vladimir Ognev, Wladimir Jurowski)
January 3, 1998... Futral, Takova, Rasmussen, Cigna; Hall, Florez, Lee, Maltman, Ledesna, Ognev, Bernardi; Wexford Festival (1996), Jurowski. Libretto & translation. Marco Polo 8-223329 (3) Giacomo Meyerbeer categorized his three-act L'Etoile du Nord (Opera...

Menotti: The Medium.(Joyce Castle, Patrice Michaels Bedi, Diane Regains, Peter Van de Graaf, Chicago Opera Theatre, Lawrence Rapchak)
January 3, 1998... Castle, Bedi, Ragains, Landis; Van De Graaff; Chicago Opera Theater, Rapchak. Libretto. Cedille 90000-034 Gian Carlo Menotti's mini-shocker about a phony spiritualist is the second most performed opera in the English language -- the first,...

Britten: Spring Symphony.(Alison Hagley, Catherine Robbin, John Mark Ainsley, Monteverdi Choir, Philharmonia Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner)
January 3, 1998... Hagley, Robbin; Ainsley; Monteverdi Choir, Philharmonia Orchestra, Gardiner. DG 453433 In addition to his well-known Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Benjamin Britten wrote, so to speak, more than one "Grown-up's Guide to the...

Szymanowski: Songs with Orchestra.(Jadwiga Gadulanka, Anna Malewicz-Madej, Ryszard Minkiewicz, Polish State Philharmonic, Karol Stryja)
January 3, 1998... Gadulanka, Zagorzanska, MalewiczMadel; Minkiewicz; Polish State Philharmonic (Katowice), Stryja. Naxos 8-553688 The most successful item in this erratic collection -- a budget transfer of a 1990 Marco Polo release -- is the cycle Three Songs...

Szymanowski: Stabat Mater/Veni Creator/Litany to the Virgin Mary/Demeter/Penthesilea.(Jadwiga Gadulanka, Anna Malewicz-Madej, Andrzej Hiolski, Polish State Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra, Karol Stryja)
January 3, 1998... Gadulanka, Zagorzanka, Owsinka, Szostek-Radkowa, Malewicz-Madej; Hiolski; Polish State Philharmonic Chorus & Orchestra, Stryja. No texts. Naxos 8-553687 This generous one-CD compendium includes five of Karol Szymanowski's works for voices...

An Italian Songbook: Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini(Cecilia Bartoli)
January 3, 1998... Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini. Levine (piano). Texts & translations. London 455513 Cecilia Bartoli shines her trademark megawatt charm on London's album of bel canto songs, abetted by the glistening keyboard partnership of James Levine. As...

Rossini Recital.(Michele Pertusi)
January 3, 1998... Accademia Farnese, Casadei. No texts. Mondo Musica 90061 Cecilia Bartoli shines her trademark megawatt charm on London's album of bel canto songs, abetted by the glistening keyboard partnership of James Levine. As always with Bartoli,...

Bel Canto Arias.(Sumi Jo)
January 3, 1998... Bellini, Donizetti, Ricci, Rossini. English Chamber Orchestra, Carella. Texts & translations. Erato 17580 Sumi Jo acquits herself with distinction in this bel canto recital, sparking some coloratura war horses with brains, fresh timbre and...

Rossini Recital.(Mariella Devia)
January 3, 1998... Teatro Comunale (Bologna), Carella. Texts & translations. Bongiovanni 2524 Sumi Jo acquits herself with distinction in this bel canto recital, sparking some coloratura war horses with brains, fresh timbre and fiendishly difficult...

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor.(Mariella Devia, Jose Bros, Roberto Frontali, Zubin Mehta)
January 3, 1998... Devia, Scano; Bros, Berti, Frontali, Colombara, Lefebvre; Florence May Festival, Mehta (1996). Fone 96F-V6 (2) Maestro Zubin Mehta tries to get the blood flowing through this Lucia's veins, but the performance refuses to come to life....

Sole Amore: Puccini Arias and Songs.(Kiri Te Kanawa)
January 3, 1998... Lyons Opera Nagano; Vignoles (piano). Texts & translations. Erato 0630-17071 Kiri Te Kanawa's voice may have lost some of its luxurious plushness, but throughout Sole e Amore, her new recital of Puccini arias and songs, the soprano...

Bel Canto Arias.(Eva Mei)
January 3, 1998... by Bellini, Donizetti Rossini. Munich Radio Orchestra, Kovacs. Texts & translations. RCA 09026-68525 This attractive lyric soprano, well established in several European theaters, will find new partisans via RCA's well-chosen program. Though...

Wagner, Strauss.(Elisabeth Meyer-Topsoe)
January 3, 1998... Copenhagen Philharmonic, Bihlmaier. Texts & translations. Kontrapunkt 32249 Leonie Rysanek GIORDANO, MASCAGNI, PUCCINI, VERDI. Met/Rome Opera, Basile/Serafin/ Leinsdorf: No texts. RCA 09026-68920 Danish soprano Elisabeth Meyer-Topsoe,...

Music from the Court of St. Petersburg.(Iana Ivanova, Orpharion Ensemble)
January 3, 1998... VOL. II: songs and chamber music by Bortniansky, Teplov, Kozlovsky, Kurakina, Siniavina, Ivanova, etc. Ivanilova; Orpharion Ensemble. Translations only Opus 111 30-179 The delicate eighteenth-century songs and chamber pieces on the...

Songs by the Mighty Handful.(Sergej Larin, Elena Bekova)
January 3, 1998... Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui, Borodin, Balakirev, Mussorgsky. Lann; Bekova (piano). Texts & translations. Chandos 9547 The delicate eighteenth-century songs and chamber pieces on the Orpharion Ensemble disc, despite their Russian provenance, are...

Songs by Tchaikovsky.(Ilya Levinsky)
January 3, 1998... VOL. III. Levinsky; Skigin (piano). Text & translation. Conifer 51268 The delicate eighteenth-century songs and chamber pieces on the Orpharion Ensemble disc, despite their Russian provenance, are Italian and French in flavor often using...

Songs: The Russian Soul.(Paul Plishka)
January 3, 1998... Medtner, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky Hrynkiw (piano). Translations only Dinemec DCCD-016 This disc is a fitting footnote to the thirty-year Met career of bass Paul Plishka. Its novelty is a group of five songs by...

Giordano: Andrea Chenier.(Michele Lebris, Alain Vanzo, Robert Massard)
January 3, 1998... With Lebris, Massard, O.R.T.F., Sebastiani (1970). No libretto. INA Institut National de l'Audiovisuel DPV30-9012 (2) Alain Vanzo was greatly admired in France and by collectors, especially of live performances, his commercial records being...

Meyerbeer: Le Huguenots.(Alain Vanzo, Robert Massard)
January 3, 1998... With Massard et al., cond. Gallois (1976). No libretto. DPV30-9009 (3) Alain Vanzo was greatly admired in France and by collectors, especially of live performances, his commercial records being few (he did record a fine Laime with Joan...

Leoncavallo: La Boheme.(Alain Vanzo)
January 3, 1998... Cond. Bonavolonta (1975). No libretto. DPV30-9010 Alain Vanzo was greatly admired in France and by collectors, especially of live performances, his commercial records being few (he did record a fine Laime with Joan Sutherland and Gounod's...

Arias.(Georges Thill)
January 3, 1998... Bongiovanni 1145 With his naturally gorgeous timbre, pellucid diction and elegant style, Georges Thill was a huge star in the French opera empire between the two World Wars. He also made movies and numerous records, dominated the radio and...

Massenet: Werther.(Georges Thill)
January 3, 1998... Vallin, Feraldy; Opera Comique, Cohen (1931). No libretto. Arkadia 78034 (2) With his naturally gorgeous timbre, pellucid diction and elegant style, Georges Thill was a huge star in the French opera empire between the two World Wars. He...

Complete Gramophone Recordings 1901-1908.(Maurice Renaud)
January 3, 1998... 1901-08. No texts. Marston 52005 (2) Regarded as one of the greatest singers at the turn of the last century, Maurice Renaud has always been prized by record collectors. His was a subtle art, which must have benefited enormously from the...

Massenet: Manon.(Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, New York, New York)
January 3, 1998... The Metropolitan Opera revival of Manon (seen Sept. 26), staged by Peter McClintock in the Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production, was distinguished by Renee Fleming's warm, lyrically generous heroine. This was a case of casting against type -- the...

Rossini: La Cenerentola.(Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, New York, New York)
January 3, 1998... La Cenerentola, a Met first (seen Oct. 24), enlisted designer Maurizio Balo and director Cesare Lievi, who modernized the period and relied heavily on slapstick respectively. Angelina (the Cinderella figure) is a signature role of Cecilia...

Wagner: Tannhauser.(Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, New York, New York)
January 3, 1998... The revival of Tannhauser (seen Oct. 30) brought back the glowing pictorialism of Gunther Schneider-Siemssen's sets -- a style out of fashion nowadays, but on target for Wagner's Gothic morality tale. Bryn Terfel's eloquent Wolfram was a...

Offenbach: Les Contes d'Hoffmann.(Lebanon Opera House, Lebanon, New Hampshire)
January 3, 1998... Opera North's six-week summer training program culminates in performances of a complete opera that combines the talents of apprentices and professionals. In 1997's Les Contes d'Hoffmann at the tiny Lebanon Opera House (Aug. 12), soprano Faith...

Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex.(Hummingbird Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
January 3, 1998... Repeating last year's pattern, Canadian Opera Company launched its season with a bold presentation of a twentieth-century work, staged by an artist recruited from the world of film. Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex was offered (Sept. 27 at Hummingbird...

Puccini: Turandot.(Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
January 3, 1998... Playing in repertory with the Stravinsky was Puccini's Turandot (Oct. 2), a co-production shared by many companies. Intelligently staged by James Robinson in effective minimalist designs -- sets by Anita Stewart, costumes by Anna Oliver,...

Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice.(Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
January 3, 1998... Opera Atelier, which specializes in baroque recreations, presented Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (Oct. 29 at Royal Alexandra Theatre) in a handsome, dignified, albeit cool production. Leading the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir,...

Puccini: Tosca.(Syracuse, New York)
January 3, 1998... Syracuse Opera fielded a strong trio for its October 19 Tosca. Under the dynamic direction of Richard McKee, who also rendered a delightfully whimsical cameo appearance as the Sacristan, this Tosca delivered the vocal and dramatic goods almost to...

Mozart: Idomeneo.(Chicago, Illinois)
January 3, 1998... Bulgarian-born Swiss mezzo Vesselina Kasarova fulfilled all the expectations that preceded her North American debut here on October 15. Idamante in Idomeneo was chosen shrewdly to display what is admirable about her voice, temperament and...

Verdi: Nabucco.(Chicago, Illinois)
January 3, 1998... On September 20, Nabucco, returning after an absence of thirty-four years, opened the company's forty-third season in a new production. Artistic director Bruno Bartoleffi, sole veteran of the previous production still active at Lyric, made his...

Britten: Peter Grimes.(Chicago, Illinois)
January 3, 1998... Ben Heppner's first U.S. performance as Peter Grimes (Oct. 3) brought him a triumph as resplendent as that enjoyed twenty-three years earlier on this stage, in the same Britten role, by another Canadian heroic tenor, Jon Vickers. Vocally and...

Verdi: Il Trovatore.(New Orleans, Louisiana)
January 3, 1998... New Orleans Opera gathered a strong cast of spinto voices for its October II Trovatore. In her company debut, mezzo Irina Mishura met the challenges of Azucena head-on, using her powerful instrument with discrimination and producing dramatically...

Donizetti: Linda di Chamounix.(Vienna State Opera, Vienna, Austria)
January 3, 1998... The Donizetti bicentenary, and the fact that Edita Gruberova already had sung the title role elsewhere, were reasons enough for the State Opera to schedule Linda di Chamounix, written for Vienna, as the first premiere of the new season (in...

Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro.(Tel Aviv, Israel)
January 3, 1998... For its season-opener, New Israeli Opera offered a fresh staging of Le Nozze diFigaro (seen Oct. 7) by Robert Carsen, who stressed the opera's serious elements. This approach, highly convincing in Act III, with an especially superb staging of the...

The Twisted Music: Musicians and Their Music in the Third World.
January 3, 1998... by Michael H. Kater Oxford University Press, 328 pp. $35 Just months after coming to power, the Nazis ousted Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter and several other "non-Aryans" from their podiums, setting off outraged protests from abroad, led by...

Dear Paul Dear Ned: The Correspondence of Paul Bowles and Ned Rorem.
January 3, 1998... Introduction by Gavin Lambert Elysium Press (N. Pomfret, VT), 141 pp. $150 They make an odd couple, Bowles and Rorem. The composer-turned-fiction-writer is cool, detached, clinical in his descriptions, emotionally a cipher. The...

Fantastic Opera: The Great Operas Illuminated.(Brief Article)
January 3, 1998... by John Martinez and E Paul Driscoll Harry Abrams, 64 pp. $19.95 Artist John Martinez and writer F. Paul Driscoll have joined forces to create this lush, decadent valentine to opera. A contemporary throwback to the age of the illuminated...

Opera: A Listener's Guide.(Brief Article)
January 3, 1998... by Jack Sacher Schirmer Books, 511 pp. illus. $29.95 This is one of the most interesting yet maddening books on opera I've read,in decades. Its core -- minutely detailed musical, dramatic, historical, social and philosophical explorations of...

Songs by Borodin and Dargomyzhsky.(Sergei Leiferkus)
January 3, 1998... Leiferkus; Skigin (piano). Texts & translation. Conifer 51275 The delicate eighteenth-century songs and chamber pieces on the Orpharion Ensemble disc, despite their Russian provenance, are Italian and French in flavor often using piquant...

Margaret Harshaw. (mezzo and dramatic soprano of Wagnerian and other opera)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
January 3, 1998... Narbeth, Pennsylvania, May 12, 1909 -- Libertyrille, Illinois, November 7, 1997 From her debut as the Second Norn in Gotterdammerung on March 15, 1942, to her farewell appearance as Ortrud in Lohengrin on March 10, 1964, Margaret Harshaw...

Mad men. (insanity in operatic male characters such as Tsar Boris in 'Boris Godunov')(Coda:)(Brief Article)(Column)
January 3, 1998... Male and female opera characters go insane in very different ways. When heroines lose their mind, it is because they have lost a fiance or lover. Men in opera, as the "stronger" sex, bring on madness through misdeeds of their own, through...

Auden in opera: the libretto as poetic style. (W.H. Auden)
January 17, 1998... From the Late 1940s until his death in 1973, W. H. Auden worked actively and enthusiastically as an opera librettist. In the history of opera, no poet of equal genius identified himself so closely with lyric theater. Not even Hugo von...

The rake decoded. ('The Rake's Progress' with music by Igor Stravinsky and libretto by W.H. Auden: includes a chronology of Stravinsky at the opera from 1947-1950)
January 17, 1998... The libretto for Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, conceived by Wystan Auden in collaboration with the composer and executed by Auden and his companion Chester Kallman, is more than a dramatic narrative: it clearly means to mean something, and...

Transplant specialist: in his new Met production, Jonathan Miller has relocated 'The Rake's Progress' to the period of its creators. (includes related article on opera stage lighting expert Jennifer Tipton)
January 17, 1998... There's an industry joke about Jonathan Miller in which the doctor/director finds himself at a medical impasse in a hospital ward. "It's not working," he says of a procedure gone awry. "Quick! Move it to the eighteenth century." And before...

Midnight chill: the harpsichord's timbre makes all the difference in the graveyard scene of 'The Rake's Progress.'(Brief Article)
January 17, 1998... Nick Shadow plays a game of cards with Tom Rakewell -- and the price is Tom's soul. This is the graveyard scene of The Rake's Progress, and it provide the emotional nexus of the entire work. The first part of the scene is a traditional...

Rags to riches: while other operatic versions of the Cinderella story have languished, Rossini's has become a repertory staple. (Gioachino Rossini's 'La Cenerentola')
January 17, 1998... Whether you first learned the fairy tale of Cinderella and her Prince Charming in Charles Perrault's version or in the one by the Brothers Grimm, it's hard to imagine childhood without it Marion Rolfe Cox, a nineteenth-century folklorist...

Getting Rossini right. (Philip Gossett, dean of Humanities at the Univ of Chicago, is the foremost expert on composer Gioacchino Rossini)(Brief Article)
January 17, 1998... For Philip Gossett, getting Rossini right isn't just a job, it's an obsession. Gossett, dean of humanities at the University of Chicago, is among the world's foremost authorities on the composer. The Princeton-educated musicologist also serves...

The Rake's Progress. (Broadcast of January 17, 1998)(includes related articles)(Cover Story)
January 17, 1998... THE CAST (in order of vocal appearance) Anne Trulove soprano, Dawn Upshaw Tom Rakewell tenor, Jerry Hadley Trulove bass, David Pittsinger Nick Shadow bass, Samuel Ramey Mother Goose mezzo, Jane...

La Cenerentola. (broadcast of January 24, 1998)(includes related articles)
January 17, 1998... THE CAST (in order of vocal appearance) Clorinda soprano, Korliss Uecker Tisbe mezzo, Patricia Risley Angelina mezzo, Jennifer Larmore Alidoro bass-baritone, Michele Pertusi Don Magnifico bass,...

Verdi: I Lombardi.(June Anderson, Patricia Racette, Jane Shaulis, Richard Leech, Luciano Pavarotti, Ildibrando D'Arcangelo, Samuel Ramey, Metropolitan Opera, James Levine)
January 17, 1998... The hero of this Lombardi is James Levine, whose coruscating musicality cuts through the convoluted sprawl of Temistocle Solera's libretto to give Verdi's fourth opera genuine dramatic urgency. The Met forces all catch Levine's fire, from the...

Mendelssohn: Elijah.(Renee Fleming, Bryn Terfel, Matthew Munro, John Mark Ainsley, Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Paul Daniel)
January 17, 1998... The hero of this Lombardi is James Levine, whose coruscating musicality cuts through the convoluted sprawl of Temistocle Solera's libretto to give Verdi's fourth opera genuine dramatic urgency. The Met forces all catch Levine's fire, from the...

Handel: Arias.(Bryn Terfel, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras)
January 17, 1998... Bryn Terfel's triumphant Elijah and Paul Daniel's incisive conducting key this magisterial performance of Mendelssohn's most famous oratorio. The Welsh baritone is a wonderful Elijah, whose reply to the grieving Widow ("Give me thy son!") is...

Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream.(Sylvia McNair, Angelika Kirschlager, Kenneth Branagh, Senff Chorus, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Claudio Abbado)
January 17, 1998... This is one of the better efforts at presenting Mendelssohn's incidental music concisely in its dramatic context, with the score pruned to favor the fairies' doings at the expense of the bumptious "mechanicals." Claudio Abbado leads with a...

Haydn: La Canterina.(Ingrid Kertesi, Andrea Ulbrich, Antal Pataki, Jozsef Mukk, Capella Savaria, Pal Nemeth)
January 17, 1998... Like Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona, Haydn's La Canterina is an intermezzo -- in this case meant for festival performance at the Eisenstadt royal court, rather than between acts of an opera seria. Haydn pushes the accepted boundaries of the...

Testoni: Alice.(Alessandra Ruffini, Patrizia Orciani, Roberto de Candia, Bruno de Simone, Daniele Callegari)
January 17, 1998... Not an opera for the kiddies. Lewis Carroll's story has long been considered a tale as much for adults as for children, and Giampaolo Testoni's work, recorded live in Palermo in 1993, decidedly takes that tack. This is full-blown, agitated,...

Massenet: Werther.(Anne Sofie Von Otter, Dawn Upshaw, Jerry Hadley, Gilles Ragon, Gerard Theruel, Jean-Marie Fremeau, Opera de Lyons, Kent Nagano)
January 17, 1998... To an opera usually played as sentimental romance, Kent Nagano's cool, taut pacing restores tragic irony, establishing the unconventional love of Werther and Charlotte as a transcendent union of mind and spirit. This lean, muscular, modernist...

Canteloube: Chants d'Auvergne.(Dawn Upshaw, Opera de Lyons, Kent Nagano)
January 17, 1998... To an opera usually played as sentimental romance, Kent Nagano's cool, taut pacing restores tragic irony, establishing the unconventional love of Werther and Charlotte as a transcendent union of mind and spirit. This lean, muscular, modernist...

Emmanuel: Chansons Bourguignonnes.(Dawn Upshaw, Opera de Lyons, Kent Nagano)
January 17, 1998... To an opera usually played as sentimental romance, Kent Nagano's cool, taut pacing restores tragic irony, establishing the unconventional love of Werther and Charlotte as a transcendent union of mind and spirit. This lean, muscular, modernist...

Massenet: Werther. (excerpts)(Germaine Cernay, Charles Friant, Roger Bourdin)
January 17, 1998... These two issues will be welcome to lovers of the classic French singing style that has died out since World War II. Germaine Martinelli (nee Jobert), whose recordings were little distributed abroad, is that rarity among French artists, a...

Arias, Songs.(Germaine Martinelli)
January 17, 1998... These two issues will be welcome to lovers of the classic French singing style that has died out since World War II. Germaine Martinelli (nee Jobert), whose recordings were little distributed abroad, is that rarity among French artists, a...

Complete Pathe-Art Recordings.(Ninon Vallin)
January 17, 1998... These forty-three sides on the exotic Pathe-Art label were made when the great French soprano was in her prime, and many are among the rarest of her 400 or so records. The first three, which may exist only in single copies, are the...

Massenet: Manon.(Montserrat Caballe, John Alexander, Louis Quilico, Thomas Paul, New Orleans Opera, Knud Andersson)
January 17, 1998... The New Orleans Manon suffers from brutal cuts, including the prelude and entire Cours la Reine scene. Manon's gavotte makes an unwelcome appearance in the Hotel de Transylvanie scene, where it replaces the exciting quartet. Too bad, because...

Thomas: Mignon.(Verdad Luiz Guajardo, Giulietta Simionato, Giuseppe di Stefano, Cesare Siepi, National Opera of Mexico, Guido Picco)
January 17, 1998... The New Orleans Manon suffers from brutal cuts, including the prelude and entire Cours la Reine scene. Manon's gavotte makes an unwelcome appearance in the Hotel de Transylvanie scene, where it replaces the exciting quartet. Too bad, because...

Puccini Arias.(Jose Cura, Philharmonia Orchestra, Placido Domingo)
January 17, 1998... Like Cecilia Bartoli, Jose Cura had a career well under way before breaking into the big time. Now in his mid-thirties, the Argentine-born tenor has sung opera from 1993 onward in several Italian and U.S. cities, London, Paris, Melbourne and...

Mozart Arias.(Kathleen Battle, Metropolitan Opera, James Levine)
January 17, 1998... This CD was recorded in a warm, resonant, comforting venue that would fight even a singer with the clearest diction -- which Kathleen Battle is not. Partly because her words have no bite, in thirteen excerpts from eight Mozart operas she...

My Native Land.(Jennifer Larmore, Antoine Palloc)
January 17, 1998... Jennifer Larmore confirms her reputation as an artist of rare intelligence, spirit and skill. The mezzo includes concert classics (Barber's "Sure on This Shining Night," four of Copland's Old American Songs), as well as neglected gems (Lora...

Schubert Night Songs.(Julianne Baird, Andrew Willis)
January 17, 1998... Soprano Julianne Baird and pianist Andrew Willis mix lieder with several of the composer's Moments Musicaux. Both artists deliver the goods with taste and care, providing especially glowing accounts of "Das Zugenglocklein" and "Nachtviolen" on...

Schubert: Winterreise.(Julianne Baird, Andrew Willis)
January 17, 1998... Soprano Julianne Baird and pianist Andrew Willis mix lieder with several of the composer's Moments Musicaux. Both artists deliver the goods with taste and care, providing especially glowing accounts of "Das Zugenglocklein" and "Nachtviolen" on...

Handel Arias and Duets.(Catherine Bott, Emma Kirkby, Brandeburg Consort, Roy Goodman)
January 17, 1998... Billed as The Rival Queens, Hyperion's CD tries to suggest the bitter rivalry between Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni, for whom these operas were written. What emerges instead is a pleasant, ladylike recital, vigorously supported by Roy...

Arias.(Leyla Gencer)
January 17, 1998... Myto's second Gencer album is drawn from adequate-sounding sources, apart from the vague, low-powered Trittico selections. Since the soprano made no studio recordings, it was not until Italian airchecks began circulating that many opera-lovers...

Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress.(Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, New York, New York)
January 17, 1998... To adjust The Rake's Progress to the era of its creators, Jonathan Miller has staged the new Met production in the era of the Model A Ford Gate twenties to early thirties). Fortunately, this choice -- odd for an opera so deliberately conceived...