Opera News articles from June 2003

Opera News archives from June 2003

Summer stars. (Viewpoint).(Editorial)
June 1, 2003... This issue of OPERA NEWS presents a strong argument for taking to the road--or air. There is more good music on offer in the U.S. this summer than ever before, and more frontline artists performing it. From Stern Grove, CA, to Cooperstown, NY,...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
June 1, 2003... In the fall of 1961, Leontyne Price was absent from the Met roster for three weeks, not "a few months" as stated in "Power Shortage" (March).

Opera watch.(Calendar)
June 1, 2003... 1. ANGELA DENOKE, Marguerite in San Francisco Opera's new La Damnation of Faust this month (June 10-July 3), spends the autumn in Europe, as the Marschallin at Staatsoper Berlin (Sept. 14-21) and as Jenufa at the Wiener Staatsoper (Sept....

On the beat: a wartime demonstration at The New Moon in New York; Mr. Jenkins builds his dream house; Adams trashes Pulitzer Prize Committee.
June 1, 2003... Since the Iraqi war has divided the world in historic ways, perhaps it should come as no surprise that it's created a few tiny ripples in the music business. SIMON KEENLYSIDE made headlines this spring when it was announced that he refused to...

Carolyn Betty. (Sound Bites).(Biography)
June 1, 2003... Carolyn Betty, who sings Vitellia in Wolf Trap's La Clemenza di Tito this month, is still in her mid-twenties, and she's already a veteran of the summer-festival scene, with five seasons at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and two at Wolf Trap to...

Queen of the desert: native New Mexican Susan Graham's long history with Santa Fe Opera includes numerous rejections, margaritas at the Guadalupe Cafe, and, believe it or not, water ballet. This summer, one of opera's favorite funny girls is back on home turf in Offenbach's rollicking La Belle Helene.(Interview)(Cover Story)
June 1, 2003... Susan Graham will be spending most of her summer in one of her favorite places in the world: Santa Fe, where she takes on the title role in Laurent Pellys production of La Belle Helene, Offenbachs riotous satire on the classical legend of...

The girls of summer.(profiles of several female opera singers and their opera roles in the summer of 2003)
June 1, 2003... These may be tough economic times, but this year's U.S. summer festivals promise an embarrassment of riches. The women are especially lucky: for Dawn Upshaw, Patti LuPone, Lauren Flanigan and many others, summer means a time to try out new and...

Mostly Mozart's makeover: in recent years, the venerable New York music festival has weathered some rough times, capped by last summer's crippling strike. Now, under new music director Louis Langree, it seems poised to make a fresh start.
June 1, 2003... The Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, the granddaddy of Americas themed summertime events, is about to open a new act in its history--which is fortunate, since the last one ended disastrously. The boyish forty-two-year-old French...

The Kirov's endless summer: the noted Russian company's packed three weeks at the Met include Kitezh, Semyon Kotko, Onegin and Macbeth.(Biography)
June 1, 2003... The Russians are coming back. For three weeks, starting on July 8, the Kirov Opera of St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre will return to the Metropolitan Opera for nineteen performances of five operas, plus a concert version of a sixth....

Letter from Des Moines.(Des Moines Metro Opera)
June 1, 2003... How flat. It's the most cliched and inescapable reaction imaginable as the taxi speeds along Highway 65/69 from the Des Moines Airport. As far as the eye can see, there are cornfields baking in the early-summer sun--a carpet of green, broken...

Summer landscape: an Opera News guide to the top U.S. summer festivals.(Calendar)
June 1, 2003... ARKANSAS * OPERA IN THE OZARKS AT INSPIRATION POINT (Inspiration Point Fine Arts Center, Eureka Springs, 479-253-8595; www.opera.org) June 20 Die Fledermaus. Also 22, 26 (Walton Arts Center), 29, July 3, 6, 10, 16, 19 June 21...

Back-to-school shopping. (Sight And Sound).(shopping for a stereo system for a teenager)(Buyers Guide)
June 1, 2003... Between commandeering the car radio and toting an MP3 player on the school bus, teenagers seem to be set for tunes on the go. But what if you'd like to get your teenager a stereo for his room at home or at college? With a hypothetical budget of...

Vivaldi: L'Olimpiade.(Sound Recording Review)
June 1, 2003... Invernizzi, Mingardo, Prina, Giordano, Kulikova; Novaro, Foresti; Concerto Italiano, Alessandrini. Text and translation. OPUS 111 0P 30316(3) Anyone who subscribes to Stravinsky's wisecrack about Vivaldi--that he wrote the same piece 600...

Bizet: Carmen.(Sound Recording Review)
June 1, 2003... Gheorghiu, Mula, Vidal, Cals; Alagna, Rivenq, Beuron, Hampson, Cavallier; Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Choeur "Les Elements," La Lauzeta, Choeur d'Enfants de Toulouse, Plasson. Text and translation. EMI Classics 57434 (3) ...

Handel: Rinaldo.(Sound Recording Review)
June 1, 2003... Genaux, Persson, Kalna; Zazzo, Rutherford, Dumaux, Visse; Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Jacobs. Text and translations. Harmonia Mundi 901796.98 (3) A new recording of Handel's Rinaldo would either have to out-do Decca's recent star-driven...

Mayr: Ginevra di Scozia.(Sound Recording Review)
June 1, 2003... Vidal, Barcellona, Piunti; Siragusa, Lazzara, Grassi, Orsolini; Orchestra and chorus of the Teatro Lirico "Giuseppe Verdi" Trieste, Severini. Text and translation. Opera Rara ORC 23 (Harmonia Mundi, dist.) The operas of Giovanni Simone...

Vivaldi: La Senna Festeggiante, Gloria e Imeneo.(Sound Recording Review)
June 1, 2003... Sampson, Summers, Semmingsen; Foster-Williams; The King's Consort, King. Texts and translations. Hyperion CDA67361/2 (2) Hard on the heels of Opus 111's recording of La Senna Festeggiante, billed as a "world premiere," comes this Hyperion...

Christopher Maltman.(Sound Recording Review)
June 1, 2003... "DEBUSSY SONGS" Martineau, piano. Texts and translations. Hyperion CDA6357 Britain's star baritone of the moment is in his early thirties and has a pleasant face and a torso that incites floods of fan mail every time he shows it off in...

Maria Bayo.(Sound Recording Review)
June 1, 2003... "CANCIONES ESPANOLAS" Songs by Toldra, Granados, Ravel, Montsalvatge, Guridi and Ovalle. Martineau, piano. Texts and translations. Naive V4933 Strictly speaking, the selections herein aren't all true "canciones espanolas." The liner notes...

Juliane Banse.(Sound Recording Review)
June 1, 2003... "SONGS OF DEBUSSY AND MOZART" Schiff, piano. Texts and translations. ECM New Series B0000192-02 There is no obvious reason to feature songs of Debussy and Mozart on the same disc, except that soprano Juliane Banse sings both exceptionally...

Kirsten Flagstad.(Grieg and Dorumsgaard Song Recital)(Dorumsgaard Songs and Arrangements)(Sound Recording Review)
June 1, 2003... "GRIEG & DORUMSGAARD SONG RECITAL" Philharmonia Orchestra, Braithwaite, Susskind, conds. Moore, piano. Translations. Testament SBT 1268 "DORUMSGAARD SONGS AND ARRANGEMENTS" Songs by J. S. Bach, C. P. E. Bach, Frank, Carissimi, Lohner and...

June on-line edition of Opera News.
June 1, 2003... DVD reviews of director Inga Levant's 2001 Strasbourg production of Korngold's Die Tote Stadt, with Angela Denoke, Birgitta Svenden, Torsten Keri and Stephan Genz; a new Bernstein Trouble in Tahiti, with Stephanie Novacek and Karl Daymond, from...

Giordano: Andrea Chenier.(Video Recording Review)
June 1, 2003... Casapietra; Corelli, Cappuccilli; Orch. & Chor. of RAI, Bartoletti. Hardy Classic Video HCD 4008 (VAI, dist.), 110 mins. Wherever lovers of twentieth-century tenorismo gather, Franco Corelli is praised for the size and fire of his voice. It...

Bellini: Norma.(Video Recording Review)
June 1, 2003... Caballe, Veasey; Vickers, Sininberghi, Ferrin. Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio di Torino G. Patane. VAI DVD 4229, 161 mins. English subtitles (optional) Every once in a while, a singer will turn in a performance that is...

Bellini: Norma: Anderson, Barcellona; Hoon, Abdrazakov; Verdi Festival Chorus, Europa Galante Orch., Biondi..(Video Recording Review)
June 1, 2003... TDK DVD DVS-OPNOR (Naxos, dist.), 163 mins. A spectacular Lucia earlier in her career, June Anderson now specializes in Norma, a role she has performed at venues including Chicago, Geneva, Paris and, as captured in this March 2001...

Monteverdi: Orfeo.(Video Recording Review)
June 1, 2003... A. Savall, Figueras, Mingardo; Zanasi, Bettini, Abete, Carnovich; Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Le Concert des Nations, J. Savall. BBC Opus Arte DVD OA 0843 D (Naxos, dist.), 140 mins. "Only the man who...

From around the world: New York City. (North America).(Met productions of Ariadne auf Naxos, Otello, and La Traviata)(Opera Review)
June 1, 2003... The Metropolitan's revival of Ariadne auf Naxos (heard March 28) had the polished, energized quality of a festival performance. Most of the principals had donned these same spangled shoes repeatedly since the Elijah Moshinsky production,...

From around the world: Baltimore. (North America).(Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk makes local appearance)(Opera Review)
June 1, 2003... As part of a seventeen-day celebration of the St. Petersburg tricentennial that had virtually all of Baltimore's arts organizations in a Russian mode, Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk made its first local appearance. Baltimore Opera's...

From around the world: Dallas. (North America).(Dallas Opera performs Don Giovanni)(Opera Review)
June 1, 2003... Dallas Opera ended its season triumphantly with Don Giovanni, designed by Carl Friedrich Oberle (originally for Houston Grand Opera), directed by Harry Silverstein and lit by Stephen Strawbridge. Rejecting unnecessary updating or cutely...

From around the world: Pittsburgh. (North America).(Elektra performed)(Opera Review)
June 1, 2003... Among Pittsburgh Opera's past six main-stage productions, five leading ladies canceled for reasons of illness or schedule conflicts. It was only a small surprise when Renate Behle withdrew from the tide role of Elektra, just as rehearsals were...

From around the world: San Diego. (North America).(San Diego Opera presents three works)
June 1, 2003... Between January and March, San Diego Opera presented three works of special interest. Beethoven's Fidelio kicked off the season on January 25. Though in many ways ideal for the title role, Danish soprano Eva Johansson experienced some...

From around the world: Paris. (International).(Perela, Uomo di Fumo has its world premiere)(Opera Review)
June 1, 2003... Perela, Uomo di Fumo (Man of Smoke), commissioned by l'Opera National de Paris and given its world premiere there this past winter, is the fourth opera by composer Pascal Dusapin (born 1955). The work is based on a metaphysical novel, Il Codice...

From around the world: Munich. (International).(Bavarian State Opera presents Alden's version of Gotterdammerung)(Opera Review)
June 1, 2003... After a controversial Siegfried, in which David Alden conceived the title character as a disoriented modern teenager, the Bavarian State Opera presented Alden's version of Gotterdammerung (March 9). In reducing the story to its most trivial...

From around the world: Amsterdam. (International).(Netherlands Opera presented Macbeth)(Opera Review)
June 1, 2003... In March, Netherlands Opera presented Macbeth, in a production by Luc Bondy created for the 1999 Edinburgh Festival. During the performance on March 22, Italian bass Andrea Silvestrelli, who had sung a solid Banco at earlier performances,...

Obituaries.(The opera world mourns the deaths of many of its greats)(Obituary)
June 1, 2003... FEDORA BARBIERI, Trieste, June 4, 1920--Florence, March 4, 2003 News of the death of Fedora Barbieri--one of the great Italian mezzos of the postwar era--came as something of a shock, for she was an exuberant personality, quick-witted and...

Dateline.(Upcoming Opera Performances)(Calendar)
June 1, 2003... METROPOLITAN OPERA (Parks concerts, 212-362-6000; www.metopera.org) June 10 Turandot (Puccini). Manhattan: Central Park, North Great Lawn. Gruber, Hong; Farina, Gradus; Colaneri June 11 Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti). Queens:...

A star danced. (Coda).(Vera Zorina, actress, dancer and director, dies)(Obituary)
June 1, 2003... "You know, I don't like to live in the past," said Vera Zorina in March by telephone from her home in Santa Fe. "I live absolutely in the present, and for the future." I was interviewing her for what was to be a lengthy profile in this issue of...