Opera News articles from March 2002

Opera News archives from March 2002

The politics of opera. (Viewpoint).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The Met's repertory this winter has been a showcase for what contemporary commentators might call "failed states," examples of civic incompetence or misfeasance that even the leaders of Argentina or Afghanistan might be challenged to match....

Education forum. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2002... In reference to Brooks Peters's sadly true article ["Diminuendo," Dec.], there are a number of educational programs struggling valiantly to address the issue of a dwindling opera audience. The Metropolitan Opera, of course, has a fine program...

Really Rossini? (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2002... Scholars try to avoid exaggeration: they provide information, cite sources and draw conclusions. Opera houses embrace exaggeration to sell tickets. That's fair enough. Still, some semblance of balance seems appropriate. More power to the...

Getting the facts straight. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2002... When I received my September issue with Drew Minter's review of the Mendelssohn Paulus I read that Felix Mendelssohn was "the privileged son of a renowned philosopher." Minter refers surely to Felix's grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn, whose son...

Corrections. (Letters).(Correction Notice)
March 1, 2002... Soprano Hei-Kyung Hong is from Kang Won Do, South Korea, not North Korea, as stated in the January broadcast pages. The EMI Idomeneo recording cited in Stephen Vasta's "What to Read and Hear" [January] is in Italian, not German, and...

Opera watch.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... 1. At the beginning of its current season, HOUSTON GRAND OPERA became the first opera company in the world to use permanent movie-theater-style screens to enhance the view of its stage for patrons. Dubbed "a communal set of opera glasses" by...

On the beat: Bartoli thrives on disc -- but not at the Met; Millo finds plenty in common with Adriana Lecouvreur.
March 1, 2002... Most of US prefer not to look, as the classical recording industry continues its horrifying downward spiral. Most of the artists who have managed to hang on to their big contracts are the ones deemed to have crossover potential, and there's...

Sound bites.(Russian soprano Anna Netrebko)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Anna Netrebko, who steps onstage this February to make her Metropolitan Opera debut as Natasha in War and Peace, is probably one of the few Met debutants who would describe the huge auditorium as "comfortable." The Russian soprano sang in the...

Londonderry heirs: Michael Dervan listen to a century's worth of Irish tenors.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... It takes a journey of some 3,000 miles across an ocean to find the origin of the particular aura evoked by "Irish tenors." The clue is the source of the ballads with which Irish singers from John McCormack down have lulled and charmed their...

Russian Prince: Baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky puts aside his beloved Verdi to take on the role of Andrei Bolkonsky in the Metropolitan Opera's first-ever War and Peace.(Interview)
March 1, 2002... Dmitri Hvorostovsky began his international career with a headline-making win at the 1989 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, in which the twenty-seven-year-old Siberian took top honors in a group of finalists that included Bryn Terfel and...

Epic proportions: responding to the darkest days of World War II with a burst of patriotic fervor, Seigei Prokofiev composed his grandest opera War and Peace. Laurel E. Fay tells how a masterpiece was born.
March 1, 2002... "And suddenly the sequence of these thoughts broke off, and Prince Andrei heard (without knowing whether it was a delusion or reality) a soft whispering voice incessantly and rhythmically repeating `piti-piti-piti' and then `ti-ti,' and then...

Extra Russian dressing: the daunting task of costuming the Metropolitan Opera's first-ever production of War and Peace.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Die Meistersinger requires more than 400 costumes. Prokofiev's War and Peace requires 1,200. Everyone in the Met's costume and wardrobe departments agrees: it's the biggest show they've ever worked on. As designed by Tatiana Noginova, even...

Hit parade: in 1981, a David Hockney-designed French triple bill became one of the biggest hits of the John Dexter era at the Metropolitan Opera. How will the Met recapture its magic in revival?
March 1, 2002... In 1917 the young dilettante Jean Cocteau received a commission from Sergei Diaghilev that sounded more like a dare: "Astonish me." Known in those days as "The Frivolous Prince" (the title of his first book of poems), Cocteau had not yet...

The original Miller's daughter.(opera Kabale und Liebe)
March 1, 2002... If you think, because you know Verdi's Luisa Miller, that you also know Schiller's play Kabale und Liebe which it is based, you are hugely mistaken. The play, usually translated as Intrigue and Love, is, despite certain awkwardnesses, a...

Broadcasts Metropolitan Opera.
March 1, 2002... Designer Santo Loquasto is a pack rat who loves to scrounge around New York looking for bargains. So it comes as no surprise that when he was given a specific budget of "$30 a yard" for the chorus members' costumes in Luisa Miller, he worked...

What to read and hear.
March 1, 2002... WAR AND PEACE Harlow Robinson's Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography (imminent in paperback, Northeastern) is the standard treatment of the composer's life; Robinson has also edited Selected Letters of Sergei Prokofiev (also Northeastern)....

Verdi: Arias. (Recordings).
March 1, 2002... VERDI: Arias [] Domingo; various assisting artists, orchestras and conductors. Texts and translation. DG 471 335-2 (4) This handsomely packaged compilation represents a triumph on several levels. First and foremost, it is of course a...

Mozart: Don Giovanni. (Opera and Oratorio).
March 1, 2002... MOZART: Don Giovanni [] Pieczonka, Schorg, Raimondi; Skovhus, Kerl, Girolami, Daniel, Monarcha; Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia, Hungarian Radio Chorus, Haldsz. Text. Naxos 8.660060-82 (3) In the decade since the Mozart bicentennial, at...

Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice. (Opera and Oratorio).
March 1, 2002... GLUCK: Orfeo ed Euridice [] Fink, Cangemi, Kiehr; RIAS-Kammerchor; Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Jacobs. Text and translations. Harmonia Mundi 901742.43 (2) Rene Jacobs began making waves as a conductor with his sharp, dramatic...

Puccini: Madam Butterfly (in English). (Opera and Oratorio).
March 1, 2002... PUCCINI: Madam Butterfly (in English) [] C. Barker, Rigby; P. C. Clarke, Yurisich; Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Philharmonia Orchestra, Abel. Text. Chandos CHAN 3070 Chandos's recent Ernani in English sounded formal and stilted, but this...

Handel: Messiah. (Opera and Oratorio).
March 1, 2002... HANDEL: Messiah [] Dawson, Heaston, Ko,end, Hellekant; Asawa, Ainsley, Smythe, Bannatyne-Scott; Choeur des Musiciens du Louvre, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski. Text DG Archiv 299 471 341-2 Hold onto your hats. In the world of...

Verdi: Messa da Requiem. (Choral and Song).
March 1, 2002... VERDI: Messa da Requiem [] Gheorghiu, Barcellona; alagna, Konstantinov; Berliner Philharmoniker, Swedish Radio Chorus, Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Orfeon Donostiarra, Abbado. EMI 57168 Verdi's magnificent Messa da Requiem, like his Don...

"Verdi Arias". (Recital).(Review)
March 1, 2002... Barbara Frittoli [] "VERDI ARIAS" With Abdrazakov; London Symphony Orchestra, C. Davis. Erato 8573-85823-2 It's misleading to begin a sampling of Barbara Frittoli's Verdi with her performance of Elisabetta's aria from Don Carlo. This...

"Wagner: Scenes and Arias". (Recital).(Review)
March 1, 2002... Bryn Terfel [] "WAGNER: SCENES AND ARIAS" Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Abbado DG 471348-2 In the decade since Bryn Terfel first launched his international career, the subject of Wagner has trailed him like a floating question mark....

"American Anthem". (Recital).(Review)
March 1, 2002... Denyce Graves (and others) [] "AMERICAN ANTHEM" Songs and hymns by Scheer, Ward, Key, Copland, Thomson, Berlin, Gold, Malotte, others RCA Red Seal 09026-6888-2 With her televised appearance at Washington D.C.'s National Cathedral...

"Wagner Portrait". (Recital).(Review)
March 1, 2002... Robert Dean Smith [] "WAGNER PORTRAIT" Excerpts from Die Meistersinger, Die Walkure, Parsifal, Tannhauser, Rienzi and Lohengrin. Slovak Radio Symphony of Bratislava, Anguelou. Arte Nova Classics 74321 811762 With Ben Heppner, Johan...

Bellini: I Puritani. (Historical).
March 1, 2002... BELLINI: I Puritani [] Sills; Gedda, L. Quilico, Plishka; Ambrosian Opera Chorus, London Philharmonic, Rudel. 1973. Text and translation. DG 289 471 207-2(3) In the 1970s, when this recording was originally released, it represented a...

Smetana: the Bartered Bride. (Historical).
March 1, 2002... SMETANA: The Bartered Bride [] Nordenova, Krasova, Pixova, Hordkovd; Toms, Otava, Pollert; Chorus and Orchestra of the National Opera of Prague, Ostrcil 1933. No texts. Naxos 8.110098-99 Smetana's The Bartered Bride (Prodana Nevesta)...

Met Stars Sing Puccini. (Historical).(Review)
March 1, 2002... Met Stars Sing Puccini [] Arias and scenes. Texts and translations. Met 242 Pity the poor souls who put together the Met Stars Sing Puccini compilation. Limited to selections from the BMG and EMI catalogues, they were unable to include...

March online edition of Opera news.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... New recordings of Piccinni's Roland and Paisiello's Don Chisciotte from Dynamic; recitals by Mitsuko Shirai, Janet Baker and Evelyn Lear; Bumbry, Bergonzi, Carlyle and Vickers in 1968 Colon Cav/Pag. NORTH AMERICA: Kasarova's Romeo in...

New York City. (North America).(Die Meistersinger, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Lilith)
March 1, 2002... The chief virtue of the Met's dazzling but debatable new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten, which opened on December 13, is that it presents, for the first time here, every note and word of Richard Strauss's score and Hugo yon Hofmannsthal's...

Dallas. (North America).(Therese Raquin)
March 1, 2002... Always more conservative than David Gockley's Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera deserves credit for its second opera of the season, Tobias Picker's Therese Raquin, only the second world premiere in the company's forty-five-year history....

Chicago. (North America).(Billy Budd)
March 1, 2002... Nineteen years after the world premiere of Billy Budd, Lyric Opera of Chicago mounted the first professional American stage production of Benjamin Britten's opera in 1970, with Theodor Uppman in the title role he created. It's taken three...

San Francisco. (North America).(The Merry Widow, Falstaff, Jenufa)
March 1, 2002... Within five minutes of the opening skirmish in San Francisco Opera's attack on The Merry Widow, its new script had touched upon such non-Pontevedrian matters as rolling blackouts and mutual funds. Such were the with-it fancies of playwright...

Boston. (North America).(Resurrection)
March 1, 2002... The prospect of Tolstoy's visionary novel Resurrection, set to music by Tod Machover -- director of M.I.T.'s Center for Future Arts, Opera of the Future/Hyperinstruments Group and Things That Think and Toys of Tomorrow consortia -- might...

Ann Arbor. (North America).(Orfeo ed Euridice)
March 1, 2002... Ann Arbor has a love affair going with Ewa Podles. Having jumped in as an unknown replacement for Cecilia Bartoli in a thunderously received 1997 recital here, the magnificent Polish contralto has returned several times in recital and oratorio...

Detroit. (North America).(Anoush)
March 1, 2002... In a compliment to Detroit's large Armenian population, Michigan Opera Theatre presented a vibrant new production of the folk opera Anoush by Armen Tigranian. The work was composed in 1912, to a libretto based on a poem by Hovhaness Toumanian....

Los Angeles. (North America).(Moses und Aron, The Merry Widow)
March 1, 2002... For all its reputed stronghold on Tomorrowland's cutting edge, Los Angeles maintains a tidy scrapbook of its remarkable, unlikely past. Lately, for example, its musical establishment has enjoyed a fine nostalgic wallow in memories of the days...

Milan. (International).(performances at La Scala)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Sometimes opera becomes poignantly autobiographical for performers. At the second of Placido Domingo's performances as Verdi's Otello at La Scala (Dec. 11), his still-burnished voice failed him completely during the Moor's farewell to his...

London. (International).(Royal Opera performance)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The "new" production of Parsifal presented by Royal Opera on December 8 was in essence quite old: Klaus Michael Gruber's staging, on which he was assisted by Ellen Hammer, is a co-production with Madrid, based on a version that originated in...

Berlin. (International).(Deutsche Oper Berlin performances)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... To add color to Deutsche Oper's Verdi repertoire, which currently consists of eleven works, the company presented the composer's Requiem, staged by painter-director-designer Achim Freyer. Opening night (Nov. 3) began with breathtaking images --...

Letter from Dublin.
March 1, 2002... There was a time, not so many years ago, when Dublin seemed one of the most elusive of major European cities. My first visit there occurred during the spring of 1990. Although I had a pleasant time strolling in St. Stephen's Green, admiring the...

Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen. (Video).
March 1, 2002... WAGNER: Der Ring des Nibelungen Jones, Altmeyer, Schwarz, Killebrew, Reppel, Wenkel, Sharp, Gramatzki, Schiml, Schnaut, Clarke, Middleton, Glauser; Mclntyre, Hofmann, Jung, Becht, Zednik, Hubner, Salminen, Mazura, Pampuch; Orchestra and...

Puccini: His International Art. (Books).
March 1, 2002... Puccini: His International Art by Michele Girardi; trans. Laura Basini University of Chicago Press, 530 pp. $65 The Puccini bookshelf has not lacked for distinguished entries in recent years -- one thinks of William Weaver and Simonetta...

German Opera: from the Beginnings to Wagner. (Books).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... German Opera: From the Beginnings to Wagner by John Warrack Cambridge University Press, 447 pp. $64.95 Starting from "Sixteenth--Century Beginnings," this readable but definitely scholarly book leads the reader on a long hike through the...

Your speaker's voice. (Sight and Sound).(selecting audio speakers)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Suppose had to sing Mimi one moment, Rodolfo the next -- then change into a trombone, a fiddle or maybe a whole orchestra. Impossible? It's what your loudspeakers do. They must impersonate all the voices and instruments in the music you listen...

Obituaries.(Obituary)
March 1, 2002... MARTHA MODL, Nuremberg, March 22, 1912 -- Stuttgart, December 16, 2001 Martha Modl wasn't just an emblematic Wagnerian soprano in postwar Germany. She also happened to be a singing actress of unique force and rare independence, an artist...

Dateline.(schedule of opera performances)
March 1, 2002... METROPOLITAN OPERA (Metropolitan Opera House, 212-362-6000; www.metopera.org) Mar. 1 Rigoletto (Verdi). Swenson, Graves; Pons, Alvarez, Lloyd; Guidarini, Schenk/Thomas, Brown Mar. 2m War and Peace (Prokofiev). BROADCAST: SEE PAGE 40...

Old songs resung. (Coda).
March 1, 2002... I spent most of a recent long holiday weekend reliving my youth, courtesy of Decca Music Group. No, Decca hasn't developed a new time-travel machine, mind-expanding potable or rejuvenating cream. It was Decca's new series of multimedia CDs, The...