Opera News articles from May 2000

Opera News archives from May 2000

KEEP YOUR EYE ON ... THE GERMAN WING.
May 1, 2000... The German-speaking world offers opera performers a wealth of theaters in which to hone their art. Many native singers never have to travel far from home to have a fulfilling career. This month we introduce ten singers who are already well...

ON THE BEAT.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... LuPone sings her first Sondheim role, with the New York Philharmonic; James King celebrates his diamond birthday The New York Philharmonic's seventieth-birthday present to STEPHEN SONDHEIM is a run of concert performances, on May 4, 5 and...

Vital Signs.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... One thing is clear: he's not doing it for the money. He owns a hotel with an award-winning restaurant in the tourist magnet of Busseto, Verdi's hometown. He is a renowned teacher and the founder of a vocal academy with a long waiting list to...

RETURN TO BERLIN.
May 1, 2000... ON HER LATEST VISIT, JAN MORRIS DISCOVERS A CITY CAUGHT IN THE SWEEP OF GLOBALIZATION The ghosts have gone. Last time I stayed at the Adlon Hotel in Berlin, early 1950s, only one shabby wing of it survived, forlorn in a sea of rubble, but...

BERLIN: A GUIDE FOR VISITING OPERAGOERS.
May 1, 2000... Orientation There's hardly a trace left of the wall that used to divide the two sectors of Germany's capital, but the former East and West Berlins have retained distinct flavors. And ex-East Berlin has stolen a lot of the West's thunder....

BERLIN BETWEEN THE WARS: Myth and Reality.
May 1, 2000... Berlin between World War I and World War II is one of those mythical periods in the history of human civilization, comparable to Periclean Athens or Renaissance Florence, or perhaps the Vienna of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. It is a...

PLEASURE DOMES.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... The "Prussian Versailles" is a small town... sixteen miles southwest of Berlin. Visitors to Berlin should consider a day trip to Potsdam, which encapsulates Prussian history in a way that the shattered capital never will. Sometimes called...

More Than Skin Deep.(opera soprano Frida Leider)
May 1, 2000... Frida Leider (1888-1975) was "an adored singer." John Steane's declaration (in The Grand Tradition) reflects not only the public's deep affection for the great German soprano but the fact that she enjoyed the highest respect and admiration of...

BARENBOIM IN BERLIN.(Interview)
May 1, 2000... Construction is the big story of Berlin in the year 2000. Visitors to the city are astounded by the cranes in the Potsdamer Platz, their profusion and the crazy tracery of their silhouettes against the skyline. The architecture of the reborn...

Winterreise.
May 1, 2000... A TALK WITH HANS HOTTER "Fremd bin ich eingezogen..." The city is wrapped in a hush of whiteness. Snow has fallen overnight, and now, at ten, there are so few cars that the streets of Munich retain the early quiet of dawn. The taxi...

VOICES OF SUMMER.
May 1, 2000... AN OPERA NEWS GUIDE TO THE TOP EUROPEAN FESTIVALS Bach is omnipresent in Europe's musical landscape in 2000. In commemoration of the 250th anniversary of his death, the composer's works are sprinkled reverentially in programs of all but the...

Mountain Masters.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Switzerland's Verbier Festival and Academy Until a few years ago, only avid skiers knew about an exclusive resort called Verbier, tucked in the unspoiled Valais district of Switzerland, some 5,000 feet above Lake Geneva. And even these...

EOTVOS: Three Sisters.(Review)
May 1, 2000... EOTVOS: Three Sisters [] Aubin, Kagan-Aley, Riabets, Boyce, Aloft, Schagidullin, Storojev, Drabowicz, Henschel Sedov, P. Hall; Orchestre de l'Opera de Lyon, Nagano. Text and translation. DG 459 694-2 There have been a few (largely...

BEETHOVEN: Fidelio.(Review)
May 1, 2000... BEETHOVEN: Fidelio [] Meier, Isokoski; Domingo, Gura, Struckmann, Pape, Youn, Hager; Chorus of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim. Libretto and translations. Teldec 3984-25249-2 If, heaven forbid, the score...

BELLINI: I Capuleti e i Montecchi.(Renata Scotto )(Review)
May 1, 2000... BELLINI: I Capuleti e i Montecchi [] Hong, Larmore; Groves, R. Lloyd, Aceto; Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus, Runnicles. Text and translation. Teldec 3984-21472-2 Long obscured in the shadows of his "big three" (Norma, La...

BRETON: La Dolores.(Review)
May 1, 2000... BRETON: La Dolores [] Matos, Pierotti; Domingo, Beltran, Baquerizo, Lanza, Palatchi, Calderon. Cor del Gran Teatre del Liceu, Orquestra Simfonica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, Ros Marba. Decca 466 060-2 Thomas Breton hoped that...

ROSSINI: Otello.(Review)
May 1, 2000... ROSSINI: Otello [] Futral, Shkosa; Ford, Matteuzzi, D'Arcangelo, Lopera; Geoffrey Mitchell Choir; Philharmonia Orchestra, Parry. Opera Rara ORC 18-3 (Harmonia Mundi, dist.) Otello (1816) was the second in the series of opere serie the...

TORREJON Y VELASCO: La Purpura de la Rosa.(Review)
May 1, 2000... TORREJON Y VELASCO: La Purpura de la Rosa [] Malafronte, Hargis, Banditelli, delmar Fernandez Doval; O'Dette, guitar, Douglass, violin; The Harp Consort, Lawrence-king. Text and translations. Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472 77355 2 (BMG,...

"DIAMONDS IN THE SNOW".(Review)
May 1, 2000... Barbara Bonney [] "DIAMONDS IN THE SNOW" Songs by Grieg, Sibelius and Stenhammar; Pappano, piano. Texts and translations. Decca 289 466 762-2 The considerable interpretive gifts of Barbara Bonney are on display in the last song of her...

MAHLER:Symphony No. 4; BERG: Seven Early Songs.(Review)
May 1, 2000... Barbara Bonney [] MAHLER: Symphony No. 4; BERG: Seven Early Songs Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chailly. Texts and translations. Decca 289 466 720-2 The considerable interpretive gifts of Barbara Bonney are on display in the last song of...

LAS LOCAS POR AMOR.(Review)
May 1, 2000... Christiane Oelze [] "LAS LOCAS POR AMOR" Songs by Debussy, Granados, Wolf, Mompou, and Turina. With R. Jansen, piano. Texts and German translations only. Berlin Classics 0011892 BC (Qualiton, dist.) This is a most engaging recital....

MAHLER: Das Lied yon der Erde.(Review)
May 1, 2000... MAHLER: Das Lied von der Erde [] Domingo, Skovhus; Los Angeles Philharmonic, Salonen. Text and translations. Sony Classical SK 60646 Sony Classical's new Das Lied von der Erde commands attention both because Placido Domingo sings...

BERLIOZ: Requiem; Five sacred pieces.(Review)
May 1, 2000... BERLIOZ: Requiem; Five sacred pieces [] Ainsley; Choeur et Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Dutoit. Texts and translations. Decca 289 458 921-2 It has been said that early recordings of the Berlioz Requiem, with its massive...

DURUFLE: Requiem; Messe "cum jubilo"; Motets.(Review)
May 1, 2000... DURUFLE: Requiem; Messe "cum jubilo"; Motets [] Von Otter; Hampson; Alain, organ; Orfeon Donostiarra, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, Plasson. Texts and translations. EMI Classics 5 56878 2 It has been said that early recordings of...

STRAUSS: Salome.(Review)
May 1, 2000... STRAUSS: Salome [] Cebotari, Hongen; Rothmuller, Patzak, Friedrich, Weber; Vienna State Opera (live at Covent Garden), Krauss, 1947. No texts. [Bonus tracks: Cebotari et al. in excerpts from Arabella, Der Rosenkavalier, Madama Butterfly,...

THE EARLY RECORDINGS.(Review)
May 1, 2000... Gerard Souzay [] "THE EARLY RECORDINGS" No texts or translations. Dutton Laboratories CDLX 7036 (Harmonia Mundi, dist.) The last time I heard baritone Gerard Souzay sing, there was nothing left. It was in October 1990, at the 92nd...

VERISMO SOPRANO.(Review)
May 1, 2000... Eugenia Burzio [] "VERISMO SOPRANO" Italian opera arias. 1905-16. Piano and orchestra accompaniment, various conductors. Marston 52020-2 (Harmonia Mundi, dist.) The latest Marston reissue, a double-CD set of the acoustic 78s of the...

"AIDA.(Review)
May 1, 2000... [] "AIDA TOLD BY LEONTYNE PRICE" Price, Bumbry; Domingo, Milnes, Raimondi; John Alldis Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Leinsdorf. Leontyne Price, narrator. No libretto. BMG Classics 09026-63542-2 Ten years ago, Leontyne Price published a...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: NEW YORK CITY.(Review)
May 1, 2000... Franz Lehar's Die Lustige Witwe, best known hereabouts as The Merry Widow, made its Metropolitan Opera debut on February 17, in a new English translation by Martin Crimp. Over the past century, Franz Lehar's irrepressible score has worked its...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: WASHINGTON, D.C.(Review)
May 1, 2000... By mid-season, Washington Opera's standards seemed variable. But two February productions, Handel's Giulio Cesare and Puccini's Tosca, showed the company on a necessary drive toward consistency, more focused in intention, more clear in...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: HOUSTON.(production of 'Tristan and Isolde' by Houston Grand Opera)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Houston Grand Opera and Houston Symphony conductor laureate Christoph Eschenbach waited forty-five and sixty years, respectively, to essay Wagner's Tristan und Isolde for the first time, so can be forgiven the temptation to linger over the...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: SEATTLE.(Seattle Opera performance of Boris Godunov')(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Seattle Opera's fine Boris Godunov (Jan. 29) was, according to assistant conductor/music administrator Philip Kelsey, "essentially the 1872 version, minus the Polish and Kromy scenes, plus the St. Basil one." Anxious to preserve the powerful...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: SAN DIEGO.(performance of 'Il Trovatore'' by San Diego Opera)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... San Diego Opera's thirty-fifth season got off to a surprisingly strong start with two tricky-to-stage masterpieces -- Verdi's Il Trovatore and Wagner's Lohengrin. Neither work is easy to cast successfully these days, even at the world's top...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: COSTA, MESA, CA.(performance of 'Le Nozze de Figaro' by Opera Pacific)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... With the insertion of two or three intermissions, Mozart's Le Nozze de Figaro is long enough to make jaded operagoers jam the exits before the Act IV garden scene. But with one twenty-five-minute intermission, a few standard cuts, some cleverly...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: RICHMOND.(performance of 'Rodelinda' by Virginia Opera)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Virginia Opera's February production of Handel's Rodelinda, directed by Lillian Garrett-Groag, treated this 1725 opera seria as soap opera, set in the genteel antebellum South -- a tale of family rivalries, of confident, cigar-smoking men...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: MUNICH.(Bavarian State Opera performance of 'Ariodante')
May 1, 2000... It took 265 years for Handel's Ariodante to reach Munich. After the Bavarian State Opera's enormously successful first evening, January 17, one can only wonder why. The work, though basically a succession of impressive arias, is full of...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: BERLIN.(performance of 'Griselda' in Germany)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... It's hard for a modern audience to relate to -- or even put up with -- the story of Scarlatti's Griselda (1721), which opened at the Staatsoper on January 30 in a dull, uninspired staging by Stephen Lawless. In the beginning, King Gualtiero...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: DRESDEN.(Saxon State Opera performance of 'Die Csardasfurstin')(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... It was the biggest scandal in the history of Saxon State Opera. More than once during opening night (Dec. 29) of Emmerich Kalman's Die Csardasfurstin, the shouting, booing and whistling of the audience grew so loud that one could not hear the...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: LEIPZIG.(Leipzig Opera performance of 'Macbeth')(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... With Verdi's Macbeth (seen Dec. 10) Leipzig Opera confirmed its reputation as one of Germany's most exciting companies. Andreas Homoki, who will take over Berlin's Komische Oper as chief director in 2002, interpreted the piece as a parable on...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: LONDON.(opera productions at the redesigned Royal Opera House)
May 1, 2000... Potentially one of the most valuable features of the redeveloped Royal Opera House is the inclusion of an entirely new auditorium -- the Linbury Studio Theatre -- designed for smaller-scale productions. With a capacity of 420, this underground...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: MILAN.(opera)(Brief Article)(Review)
May 1, 2000... La Scala's latest revival of Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur had a somewhat routine feel to it, in spite of a distinguished cast. On February 1, Roberto Rizzi Brignoli (who replaced Bruno Bartoletti) conducted securely without inspiring either the...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: ZURICH.(Review)
May 1, 2000... With Cosi Fan Tutte (Feb. 20) as the crowning finale of its Mozart-da Ponte trilogy, Zurich Opera presented a model production that once again combined the efforts of conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, director Jurgen Flimm and designers Erich...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: WARSAW.(Rossini's Tancredi by the National Opera in Warsaw)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Polish contralto Ewa Podles returned to the National Opera in Warsaw for the title role in Rossini's Tancredi on January 30. She was probably the main drawing card, but the new production proved to be much more than just a show built around a...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: BUDAPEST.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... In January, the Hungarian State Opera launched an observance of the centenary of Verdi's death a year early with a festival that included performances of La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Otello, Aida, Un Ballo in Maschera, Rigoletto and the Requiem....

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: TEL AVIV.(Brief Article)(Review)
May 1, 2000... In July 1923, only five years after World War I, with the British barely established as new rulers in Palestine, conductor Mark Golinkin (1875-1963) founded the short-lived Palestine Opera in an impoverished immigrant community of 40,000. The...

Renata Tebaldi.(Review)
May 1, 2000... Renata Tebaldi [] Historic telecasts from the Bell Telephone Hour series, color. Arias from Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Adriana Lecouvreur, Cavalleria Rusticana, La Gioconda. VAI VHS 69701, 30 mins. This riveting video, short as it is,...

Shostakovich: A Life.(Review)
May 1, 2000... Shostakovich: A Life by Laurel E. Fay Oxford Univ. Press, 45 8pp. $35 Only with the end of Soviet Communism has it been possible for scholars to attempt first biographies of Dmitri Shostakovich and Igor Stravinsky, now that they have...

OBITUARIES.(Obituary)
May 1, 2000... PABLO ELVIRA, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sept. 24, 1937 -- Bozeman, Montana, Feb. 5, 2000 Born into a musical family -- his father was a dance-orchestra leader -- Elvira began his career as a jazz trumpeter. In 1966, Elvira began teaching at...

MY FAVORITE NIGHT AT THE OPERA.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... I only went because my singing teacher made me. "You must hear her," he commanded, when I rebelled against the suggestion. I hadn't liked opera much (Wagner in particular), and I wanted to sing Broadway. But my teacher insisted: "She will show...

MAY ONLINE EDITION OF OPERA NEWS.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... A verismo collection; rarities by Wolf-Ferrari, Dukelsky and Victor Herbert; Licia Albanese in a stereo La Boheme from New Orleans; recitals by Ponselle and Curtin; Naxos launches a new Schubert series.

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: BOLOGNA.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... The orchestra of the Teatro Comunale has often performed impressively in recent years, but rarely has it sounded so well-tuned, finely blended and finished in filigree-work as in Pelleas et Melisande, led by Vladimir Jurowski. On February 13,...

Stravinsky: A Creative Spring: Russia and France, 1882-1934.(Review)
May 1, 2000... Stravinsky: A Creative Spring: Russia and France, 1882-1934 by Stephen Walsh Knopf, 700 pp. $35 Only with the end of Soviet Communism has it been possible for scholars to attempt first biographies of Dmitri Shostakovich and Igor...