Opera News articles from June 2000

Opera News archives from June 2000

LETTERS.
June 1, 2000... BASIC TRAINING At New England Conservatory we were delighted to read Wayman Chin's article about Barbara Quintiliani ["Singer's Diary: Standing out in a Crowd," April], one of our finest singers in recent years. Quintiliani is everything...

OPERA WATCH.
June 1, 2000... St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Opera brings War and Peace to London, Frittoli sings Mozart at Glyndebourne, The Tale of Genji bows in St. Louis GAIL ROBINSON, who has served as executive director of the NATIONAL COUNCIL AUDITIONS for the past...

ON THE BEAT.(Francesca Zambello)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2000... Zambello directs for Disney; Connecticut Grand Opera becomes a classroom for wayward students It doesn't take much to be labeled "controversial" in the still largely tradition-bound world of opera. CECILIA BARTOLI managed it when she sang...

A TWENTYSOMETHING AT THE OPERA PART II.
June 1, 2000... O.K.--so I loved the Met's production of Pagliacci and loathed Cavalleria Rusticana. To say why requires greater effort, so bear with me while I relive the evening. I arrived at Lincoln Center early and settled into my seat as soon as the...

RIGHT AND WRONG DIRECTIONS.(Peter Sellars, opera director)
June 1, 2000... are stage directors the guardian angels of opera-as-theater? Up until the mid-twentieth century, such a suggestion would have seemed, at best, hardly relevant to the essentials of opera or, at worst, just plain silly. In opera, after all, the...

Living Dangerously.(Interview)
June 1, 2000... At the Met, Graham Vick has brought a revisionist eye to twentieth-century masterpieces such as Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Moses und Aron. Now he looks forward to his next project for the company -- II Trovatore. It's a hectic Thursday...

The Guessing Game.
June 1, 2000... In the late-twentieth century, directors often treated to anew look at standard-rep operas that was, to borrow the early '80s catch-phrase, "totally rad." Who could really blame anyone for being a little confused about which opera was being...

BEST DIRECTOR NOMINATIONS.(Interview)
June 1, 2000... TOP SlNGERS OF TODAY AND YESTERDAY PICK THEIR FAVORITE REGISSEURS In opera, conventional wisdom has it, theatrical considerations traditionally rank a poor second to musical ones. But over the past few decades, the demand for opera as a...

Bark and Bite.
June 1, 2000... In the 1970s and early '80s, the brilliant, uncompromising John Dexter thrust the Metropolitan Opera into an era of theatrical excellence. ERIC MYERS looks back at one of the most influential personalities in the company's history ...

"HOMMAGE A JANE BATHORI: THE INSPIRING MUSE".(Review)
June 1, 2000... Dawn Upshaw [] "HOMMAGE A JANE BATHORI: THE INSPIRING MUSE" Songs by Debussy, Dutilleux, Honegger, Koechlin, Milhaud, Ravel, Roussel, Satie. Ducros, piano. Texts and translations. Erato 3984-27329-2. Don't be misled by the obscure...

D'ALBERT: Die Toten Augen.(Review)
June 1, 2000... D'ALBERT: Die Toten Augen [] Schellenberger, Chalker, Gjevang; Orth, Odinius, Buchner, Welker, Bar; Dresden Philharmonic, Weikert. Text and translation. CPO 999-692 (2) Although the virtuoso pianist Eugen d'Albert (1864--1932) wrote...

SULLIVAN: Princess Ida.(Review)
June 1, 2000... SULLIVAN: Princess Ida [] Wright, Melcher, Eddy Fox; Bernard, C. Swanson, Wilson, Christopher, Neer; Ohio Light Opera Company Chorus and Orchestra, Thompson. Texts. Newport Classic NPD 8565/2 (2) (Allegro, dist.) This new CD of Gilbert...

"LIEDER OF BRAHMS AND LISZT".(Review)
June 1, 2000... Thomas Quasthoff [] "LIEDER OF BRAHMS AND LISZT" Zeyen, piano. Texts and translations. Deutsche Grammophon 28946 31832 Thomas Quasthoff does not dazzle the listener with showy tricks of vocal control or ostentatious underlining of key...

"A DOI TENORI".(Review)
June 1, 2000... Bruno Boterf and Gilles Ragon [] "A DOI TENORI" Arias, duets and instrumental solos by Carissimi, Foggia, Frescobaldi, Kapsberger and Sances. With chamber ensemble: Moquet, Breedijck, J. S. Lima, Lusson, L. Stewart. Text and translations....

"HANDEL DEUTSCHE ARIEN".(Review)
June 1, 2000... Dorothea Roschmann [] "HANDEL DEUTSCHE ARIEN" Akadernie fur Abe Musik Berlin. Texts and translations. Harmonia Mundi 901689 The nine arias included here are the last that Handel wrote in his native German, and they remained unpublished...

R. STRAUSS: Die Agyptische Helena.(Review)
June 1, 2000... R. STRAUSS: Die Agyptische Helena [] Gwy. Jones, Coertse, Lilowa, Gruberova; Thomas, Glossop, Schreier; Chor, Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper, Krips. Notes and synopsis. Live performance December 5, 1970. RCA (Wiener Staatsoper Live) 74321...

R. STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier.(Review)
June 1, 2000... R. STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier [] Steber, Novotna, Berger, Glaz; Krenn, Baum, De Paolis: Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Reiner. Text and translations. Soria Series MET 23 (Limited edition release available from the Metropolitan...

DONIZETTI: L'Elisir d'Amore.(Review)
June 1, 2000... DONIZETTI: L'Elisir d'Amore [] Carosio; Monti, Gobbi Luise; Rome Opera Orchestra and chorus, Santini. Text and translation. With duets by Donizetti and Mascagni: Carosio, Zampighi; Symphony Orchestra, Sanzogno. Testament SBT2150 (2)...

"CARUSO 2000".(Review)
June 1, 2000... Enrico Caruso [] "CARUSO 2000" Arias and songs by Rossini, Meyerbeer, Halevy Flotow, Verdi, Massenet, Ponchielli, Puccini and Leoncavallo. Vienna Radio Symphony, Rabi. No texts. RCA 0RF-74321-69766 Back in the days of 78rpm records,...

"ARIE D'OPERA (1926-1932)".(Review)
June 1, 2000... Bianca Scacciati [] "ARIE D'OPERA (1926-1932)" Arias, duets, trios by Puccini Boito, Catalani Giordano, Mascagni Verdi, Ponchielli, Marchetti, Gomez. Unidentified orchestra(s) and conductors. Kiko Classic KC046. 2CD (2) (Qualiton, dist.)...

From Around the World: PARIS.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Mid-season in Paris brought successful performances of two seldom heard twentieth-century operas, Busoni's Doktor Faust at the Chatelet (Jan. 21) and Prokofiev's War and Peace at the Bastille (Feb. 18). Prokofiev didn't live to see a complete...

From Around the World: LONDON.(Review)
June 1, 2000... On February 16, English National Opera unveiled Mark-Anthony Turnage's new opera The Silver, Tassie, based on Sean O'Casey's 1928 play, before an audience that included many members of the U.K. musical establishment. Turnage -- who turns forty...

From Around the World: CARDIFF.(Review)
June 1, 2000... On February 11, Welsh National Opera presented a new production of Cosi Fan Tutte by the Spanish director Calixto Bieito at its home base, the intimate New Theatre in Cardiff. To a wide range of work in the spoken theater in his native country,...

From Around the World: VIENNA.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Willy Decker, director of the State Opera's new Lulu, which opened on February 12 (attended 15), already has presented the opera's reconstructed three-act version in Paris, but for this occasion he reverted to the two-act torso left by the...

From Around the World: MUNICH.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Gounod's Faust never has achieved the status in Germany that it has enjoyed throughout the rest of the world. There can be only one Faust, say the Germans, and he was created by Goethe. In order to prevent any confusion, Gounod's work usually...

From Around the World: NEW YORK CITY.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Not much of the twentieth century can be viewed through its operas. No other dramatic genre seemed so baffled by (or silent about) what happened around it, which is one reason to treasure Kurt Weill's The Eternal Road. After sixty-four years of...

From Around the World: VICTORIA, BC.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Despite burgeoning opera activity across Canada in recent decades, there has been a paucity of new mainstage works. Pacific Opera Victoria consequently received considerable attention in the national press with its premiere of Erewhon (Feb....

From Around the World: PHILADEPHIA.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Hungarian mezzo Lucia Schwartz made her American debut (Feb. 16) in the Opera Company of Philadelphia's production of Rossini's La Cenerentola. Schwartz is young, slender and a sufficiently mercurial stage presence to be believable as the...

From Around the World: CINCINNATI.(Review)
June 1, 2000... The Cincinnati College--Conservatory of Music, in conjunction with the National Opera Association's annual meeting, emphasizing Kurt Weill's music for the lyric stage, celebrated the centenary of his birth with a double bill of his operas Royal...

From Around the World: ST. PAUL.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Minnesota Opera presented Verdi's Macbeth, as staged by Jonathan Alver and starring James Morris in the title role (seen Feb. 26), in a production originally built by Opera New Zealand and performed for two weekends at the Ordway Center in...

CONCERT AND RECITALS: NEW YORK CITY.
June 1, 2000... The recital stage is just about the only vocal terrain over which Placido Domingo hasn't triumphed, and his January 30 Carnegie Hall recital debut, with pianist Daniel Barenboim, was a reminder that nobody can do everything. The afternoon...

OBITUARIES.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2000... VIVIAN FINE, Chicago, September 28, 1913 -- Bennington, Vermont, March 20, 2000 The composer was known best as a composer of ballet scores for such titans as Martha Graham and Jose Limon, but she also wrote the 1976 concert piece Meeting...

CHANGING VISIONS.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2000... Production values often are hailed as opera's salvation in a "visual age," but is anything in opera today so fragile as the relationship between stage directors and audiences? Despite simplistic talk about visual elements dominating musical...