Opera News articles from March 2005

Opera News archives from March 2005

The music man.(Viewpoint. Placido Domingo.)
March 1, 2005... Placido Domingo's ability' to know what he wants--and then get it--is remarkable. Just check the record. Domingo's first OPERA NEWS cover story, on March 26, 1977, marked the tenor's first Met broadcast of Andrea Chenier. Back then, the...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
March 1, 2005... Christine Binder designed the lighting for Lyric Opera of Chicago's Aida, not Jennifer Tipton, as stated in In Review (Jan.). Because of an editing error, the review of Denyce Graves's CD, French Opera Arias (Recordings, Feb.), did not...

Opera watch.
March 1, 2005... 1. Oil December 6, KARITA MATTILA accepted MUSICAL AMERICA's "Musician of the Year" award at Carnegie Hall's Rohatyn Room. Other MA honorees included ARVO PART, named "Composer of the Year," and violinist CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF, cited as...

Lucerne festival, Ostern: March 12-20, 2005.
March 1, 2005... Lucerne is often referred to as the essence of Switzerland--and rightly so. With its extensive spectrum of cultural activities and numerous opportunities of shopping experience and culinary delights, Lucerne embodies the microcosm of...

On the beat: Dunleavy is feted by the Irish: Richard Tucker Gala suffers a seriously off year; Fleming goes over the rainbow--way over--for the Kennedy Center Honors.
March 1, 2005... MARY DUNLEAVY has been developing a solid reputation in recent seasons for roles ranging from the Queen of the Night to Thais to Violetta to the Contessa di Folleville in II Viaggio a Reims. Less well-known is the enormous pride she takes in...

Sound bites.(Sarah Coburn)
March 1, 2005... Sarah Coburn might leave an interviewer with the impression that she has an inferiority complex about her head. Maybe it's the way she suddenly spouts her hat size in mock pride ("Seven and three-eighths!"), or maybe it's how she...

The sun never sets: now in the fifth decade of his professional life, Placido Domingo shows no sign of slowing the pace of his multi-dimensional career. Quite the opposite: the shaky state of the music business seems to have filled him with a new urgency.
March 1, 2005... It's just after midnight, and the joint is jumping at the Washington, D.C. residence of the Spanish Ambassador to the U.S., Carlos Westendorp. The sleek, swanky contours of the vast downstairs dining room--and several adjoining rooms, as well...

What goes up must come down: for years, Rossini's Rosina was the property of some prominent high-flying sopranos. Now it's been returned to mezzo territory. Peter G. Davis examines the role's unusual performance history.
March 1, 2005... Adelina Patti was nineteen and already well on her way to stardom when she was introduced to Rossini at his celebrated Paris salon in 1862. Their meeting, as recounted by Camille Saint-Saens, himself only twenty-six at the time, inspired a...

The Violeta hour: Matthew Gurewitsch on the art of Violeta Urmana, who straddles the soprano-mezzo divide and puts her individual stamp on everything she sings.
March 1, 2005... To date, audiences at the Metropolitan Opera have experienced Violeta Urmana only as Kundry, the shape-shifting seductress of Wagner's Parsifal. This month brings the chance to catch up on two other of her signature roles--Verdi's conniving...

Reinventing Vienna: why the Marschallin's city bears little resemblance to Maria Theresa's.
March 1, 2005... Vienna, during the early years of the reign of Maria Theresa"--this is how librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal sets the scene for his masterpiece, Der Rasenkavalier. It is tempting to identify the models that might have inspired him and his friend...

Doubting Thomas: once part of the operatic mainstream, Ambroise Thomas's Mignon is now a lavender-scented relic. As Opera Orchestra of New York prepares to revive the work at Carnegie Hall, Julius Rudel casts a cold eye on this once-popular confection.
March 1, 2005... In its November 25, 1871, review of the New York premiere of Ambroise Thomas's opera Mignon, which took place at the Academy of" Music in Brooklyn, The New Fork Times critic wrote, "From the uninterrupted attention bestowed upon the...

Song of exile: with many successful concert works behind him, composer Richard Danielpour emerges with his first opera--Margaret Garner, a setting of Toni Morrison's dramatic text.(Interview)
March 1, 2005... At age forty-nine, Richard Danielpour is making his debut as an opera composer, with Margaret Garner, which receives its world premiere at Michigan Opera Theatre in May. The new work is based on a libretto by Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison and...

Letter from Amsterdam.
March 1, 2005... Arriving by train at the height of the evening rush hour at Amsterdam's Central Station, as I did, may not be the easiest introduction to this bustling city. One quickly learns to take extreme care stepping into the street or risk getting...

Il Barbiere di Siviglia.(Metropolitan Opera)
March 1, 2005... BROADCAST OF MARCH 12, 2005, 1:30 P.M. THE METROPOLITAN OPERA INTERNATIONAL RADIO NETWORK THE 2004-05 METROPOLITAN OPERA BROADCAST SEASON IS MADE POSSIBLE BY GENEROUS GRANTS FROM THE ANNENBERG FOUNDATION AND THE VINCENT A. STABILE...

Don Carlo.(Metropolitan Opera)(Opera Review)
March 1, 2005... BROADCAST OF MARCH 19, 2005, 1:00 P.M. THE METROPOLITAN OPERA INTERNATIONAL RADIO NETWORK THE 2004-05 METROPOLITAN OPERA BROADCAST SEASON IS MADE POSSIBLE BY GENEROUS GRANTS FROM THE ANNENBERG FOUNDATION AND THE VINCENT A. STABILE FOUNDATION...

The casts.(meshed briefs)
March 1, 2005... Katarina Karneus (Rosina), a native of Jarfalla, Sweden, sang Orlofsky in Frankfurt's Fledermaus in February. The mezzo, who made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Varvara in Kata Kabanova, in 1999, takes on Countess Geschwitz in Lulu for...

Cavalleria Rusticana.(Metropolitan Opera)(Pagliacci)(Opera Review)
March 1, 2005... BROADCAST OF MARCH 26, 2005, 1:30 P.M. THE METROPOLITAN OPERA INTERNATIONAL RADIO NETWORK THE 2004-05 METROPOLITAN OPERA BROADCAST SEASON IS MADE POSSIBLE BY GENEROUS GRANTS FROM THE ANNENBERG FOUNDATION AND THE VINCENT A. STABILE...

Der Rosenkavalier.(Metropolitan Opera)(Opera Review)
March 1, 2005... BROADCAST OF APRIL 2, 2005, 12:30 P.M. THE METROPOLITAN OPERA INTERNATIONAL RADIO NETWORK THE 2004-05 METROPOLITAN OPERA BROADCAST SEASON IS MADE POSSIBLE BY GENEROUS GRANTS FROM THE ANNENBERG FOUNDATION AND THE VINCENT A. STABILE...

Chicago.(North America)(A Wedding)(Opera Review)
March 1, 2005... Contemporary composers are often charged with having forgotten about melody--and about comedy. William Bolcom demonstrates expertly that he remembers both in his new opera, A Wedding, given its world premiere at Lyric Opera of Chicago on...

New York City.(North America)(Kata Kabanova)(Les Conies d'Hoffmann)(Opera Review)
March 1, 2005... Musically speaking, the Met's December 17 revival of the 1991 production of Kata Kabanova proved pretty much a triumph across the board. Ultimate credit goes to the accomplished Jiri Belohlavek, founder of the Prague Philharmonia, making his...

Dallas.(North America)(Opera Review)
March 1, 2005... It takes about three hours to get to Cinderella's "Nacqui all'affano.... Non piu mesta" at the end of La Cenerentola, and whether you think it's worth waiting for this show-stopper depends on how you feel about Rossini's 1817 comic opera. For...

London.(International)(Das Rheingold, Covent Garden)(Opera Review)
March 1, 2005... At Covent Garden, a new Ring cycle began on December 19 when Antonio Pappano brought his baton down to trawl the lowest depths of the orchestra for the opening notes of Das Rheingold. Throughout the prelude and on into the lengthy, multifaceted...

Leeds.(International)(One Touch of Venus)(Theater Review)
March 1, 2005... Despite One Touch of Venus's impressive Broadway launch in 1943--directed by Elia Kazan, choreographed by Agnes De Mille, with Mary Martin in the lead, it ran for nearly two years--the show has thus far made few waves on this side of the...

Barcelona.(International)(Opera Review)
March 1, 2005... Catalans adore Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), the architectural genius who changed the face of Barcelona. At the turn of the last century, Gaudi was part of an ebullient generation of sculptors, painters, architects, masons, furniture designers and...

Brussels: International.(Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream)(Opera Review)
March 1, 2005... David McVicar scored a win for the Monnaie with an accessible, inspired and altogether disarming production of Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream (seen December 17). McVicar created theatrical magic while unfolding the plot most...

Amsterdam.(International)(Lucio Silla, Netherlands Opera)(Opera Review)
March 1, 2005... Mozart would have had a hard time recognizing the characters of his Lucio Silla in the production of his opera by Jossi Wider and Sergio Morabito at Netherlands Opera. Mozart's heroic Roman general became a decadent, slightly alcoholic...

March online edition of Opera News.(International)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
March 1, 2005... NORTH AMERICA: Met revivals of Barbiere and Turandot; The Little Prince returns to HGO; Florida Grand Opera's Paul Bunyan; Albert Herring in Toronto; Rake's Progress in Oakland. INTERNATIONAL: La Scala reopens with Europa Riconosciuta;...

Paul Bowles: a Life.(book)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Paul Bowles: A Life. by Virginia Spencer Carr Scribner, 432 pp. $35 It's hard to get a grip on Paul Bowles. In preparing this authorized biography of the free-spirited author, composer, translator, poet and critic (who lived from 1910 to...

Gustav Mahler: Letters to his Wife.(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Gustav Mahler: Letters to his Wife Revised and translated by Antony Beaumont Cornwell University Press, 431 pp. $40 It has always been something of a challenge for those steeped in Mahleriana to distinguish fact from fiction when it comes...

Christian Gerhaher.(Sound Recording Review)
March 1, 2005... Christian Gerhaher * "Diehterliebe" and other songs by Schumann. Huber, piano. Texts and translations. RCA Red Seal (BMG) 58995 Robert Schumann's song cycles come in and go out of fashion. An opportunity to revisit the once ubiquitous...

Wagner: Der Fliegende Hollander.(Sound Recording Review)
March 1, 2005... WAGNER: Der Fliegende Hollander * Weber, Schroder; Stensvold, Durmuller, Seli, van Rensburg; WDR Rundfunkchor Koln, Prager Kammerchor, Cappella Coloniensis, Weil. Text and translation. Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 82876 64071 2 Wagner was a...

Verdi: Un Ballo in Maschera (in English).(video)(Video Recording Review)
March 1, 2005... VERDI: Un Ballo in Maschera (in English) * Patterson, Richardson, Grove, O'Neill, Miehaels-Moore, Purves, Sherratt, Wood; Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Parry Text, notes. Chandos CHAN 3116 (2) Most translators...

Vivaldi and others: Andromeda Liberata.(Sound Recording Review)
March 1, 2005... VIVALDI and others: Andromeda Liberata Kermes, Beranova, Bonitatibus; Cencic, Tucker; Venice Baroque Orchestra, Marcon. Text and translations. Archiv B0003456-02 Only a single aria in Andromeda Liberata is attributed with certainty to...

Wagner: Der Fliegende Hollander (in English).(video )(Video Recording Review)
March 1, 2005... WAGNER: Der Fliegende Hollander (in English) Stemme, Bardon; Tomlinson, Begley, Wedd, Halfvarson; London Philharmonic Orchestra and Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Parry. Text. Chandos CHAN 3119 (2) Here's a middling entry in Chandos's...

Ian Bostridge.(Sound Recording Review)
March 1, 2005... Ian Bostridge SONGS by Debussy. Faure, Poulenc. Belcea Quartet; Drake, piano; Bosch, double bass. Texts and translations. EMI Classics 57609 Ian Bostridge's voice defies characterization as simply a tenor, having the flexible range and...

Werner Gura.(sound recording)(Sound Recording Review)
March 1, 2005... Werner Gura "SCHONE WIEGE MEINER LEIDEN" Songs by Clara and Robert Schumann, Brahms. Berner, piano. Texts and translations. Harmonia Mundi HMC 901842 The relationship between Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms is endlessly...

Maria Chiara.(Sound recording, Decca 475 6250 (2))(Sound Recording Review)
March 1, 2005... Maria Chiara "THE DECCA RECITALS" Vienna Volksoper, Royal Opera House and National Philharmonic Orchestras, K. H. Adler, Santi, conductors. No texts. Decca 475 6250 (2) Maria Chiara, a soprano from the Veneto, enjoyed a substantial and...

Rossini: Il Viaggio a Reims.(opera video)(Video Recording Review)
March 1, 2005... ROSSINI: Il Viaggio a Reims De la Merced, Cantarero, Bayo, Rassmussen, Tarver, Bros, Odena, Dara, Ulivieri, Orfila; Gran Teatro del Liceu, Lopes-Cobos. Production: Belbel. TDK DVD DVUS-OPVAR (Naxos, dist.), 164 min., subtitled ...

Handel: Agrippina.(opera video)(Video Recording Review)
March 1, 2005... HANDEL: Agrippina Gens, Perruche; Jaroussky, Gregoire, Smith, Buet, La Grand Ecurie et la Chambre du Roy, Malgoire. Production: Fisbach. Dynamic DVD 33431 (Qualiton, dist.), 172 mins., subtitled Arch, stylized and relentlessly...

Anna Netrebko: the Woman, the Voice.(opera video)(Video Recording Review)
March 1, 2005... Anna Netrebko: The Woman, The Voice Arias from Faust, La Boheme, Don Giovanni, La Sonnambula, Rusalka (music videos); scenes from La Traviata (Bavarian State Opera; Vienna State Opera), Ruslan and Lyudmila (Kirov Opera); sound clips,...

Giordano: Fedora.(opera video)(Video Recording Review)
March 1, 2005... GIORDANO: Fedora Freni, Arteta; Domingo, Croft, Thibaudet; Metropolitan Opera, R. Abbado. Production: de Tomasi. Deutsche Grammophon DVD B0003027-09 What would opera fans give for a video of Marcella Sembrich's Met farewell in 1909?...

Verdi: Il Trovatore.(opera video)(Video Recording Review)
March 1, 2005... VERDI: Il Trovatore Kabaivanska, Cossotto; Domingo, Cappuccilli, van Dam; Wiener Staatsoper, Karajan, 1978. Production: Karajan. TDK DVD DVUS-CLOPIT (Naxos, dist.), 151 mins., subtitled This is a rip-snorting, old-fashioned Trovatore,...

Opera autographs: from the metropolitan opera guild.(Buyers Guide)
March 1, 2005... The Metropolitan Opera Guild is again proud to offer a collection of rare autographs of great singers of opera. These unique collectibles are beautifully presented in handsome gilt wood frames with archival matting. Each is authenticated by The...

Giuseppe Campora.(Obituaries)(Obituary)
March 1, 2005... GIUSEPPE CAMPORA Tortona, Italy, September 30, 1923--December 5, 2004 Active in the lyric Italian repertory in Europe and in the U.S. for more than twenty-five years, the tenor made his 1949 professional debut as Puccini's Rodolfo in...

Elena Souliotis.(Obituaries)(Obituary)
March 1, 2005... ELENA SOULIOTIS Athens, May 28, 1943--Florence, December 4, 2004 Seldom do artists begin a career with the extraordinary promise of an Elena Souliotis, but the soprano's swift, spectacular rise--and steep, almost immediate...

Alicia Markova.(Obituaries)(Obituary)
March 1, 2005... ALICIA MARKOVA London, December 1, 1910--Bath, December 2, 2004 The first British-born ballerina to attain international stardom, Markova made her debut at the age of fourteen with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. A dancer whose...

Dateline.(Calendar)
March 1, 2005... METROPOLITAN OPERA (Metropolitan Opera House, 212-362-6000; www.metopera.org) Mar. 1 Samson et Dalila (Saint-Saens). Graves; Cura, Lafont; de Billy, Moshinsky, Hudson Mar. 2 Nabucco (Verdi). Guleghina, White; Putilin, Burchuladze,...

Season to taste.(Coda)
March 1, 2005... For me, Pelleas ct Melisande is the quintessential "bleak midwinter" opera. On a foggy, frozen evening in the middle of February can you imagine music any more perfect than Debussy's? Listening to this season's Met broadcast, I sit transfixed...