Opera News articles from May 2002

Opera News archives from May 2002

Italian landscape. (Viewpoint).(Editorial)
May 1, 2002... Italy's magic permeates all but diamond-hard sensibilities; a visit there gives a shock to the jaded and a tonic to those whose imagination hovers around normal. I always learn something when I go: a decade ago, for example, I learned (just in...

Opera watch.
May 1, 2002... 1. NATHAN GUNN, Demetrius in this month's Met performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream, next takes on Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (June 19-29). Summer finds Gunn in Los Angeles, for Marcello in a Hollywood Bowl La...

On the beat: Carnegie Hall: Adriana gives the fans their money's worth; a sad time for a beloved contralto.
May 1, 2002... There was plenty of old-style vocal glamour on display at Carnegie Hall on March 3: APRILE MILLO, DOLORA ZAJICK and MARCELLO GIORDANI all shone in Opera Orchestra of New York's presentation of Adriana Lecouvreur. Even agoraphobic opera fans who...

Miss Italy: is Barbara Fritolli the Italian soprano audiences have been waiting for?
May 1, 2002... At Florence's Teatro Comunale last May, the quartet of soloists for Verdi's Requiem featured Barbara Frittoli, a statuesque and uncommonly beautiful soprano who was impossible to ignore. During the Libera Me, she soared effortlessly to a...

Scenes of Italy: a portfolio of some of our favorite cities in Italy and the operas they inspired.(Illustration)
May 1, 2002... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: THE GRAND CANAL AND SANTA MARIA DELLA SALUTE, RIGHT AMILCARE PONCHIELLI LA GIOCONDA (1876) JACQUES OFFENBACH LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN (1881) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: VENEZIA VENICE...

Eating in Rome: "qui se magna quello che passa la casa"; (what you eat here, the kitchen decides).(Trattoria der Pallaro)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Scarpia himself surely would have found it impossible to resist the perfume of Paola Fazi's homemade potato chips. So went my fantasy when as a student I lived across the piazza from Fazi's Trattoria der Pallaro, just behind the church of...

Valse Trieste: Jan Morris observes a city struggling with its melancholy past, when it was "obliged to accept whatever history decided for it.".
May 1, 2002... Something striking, something rather operatic in fact, has lately happened in Trieste, not on the whole a very operatic city. The Piazza Unita d'Italia (Piazza Unita for short) has always been the showiest part of town, standing as it does...

The spirit of Giulietta: fach meant little to Giulietta Simionato -- she sang practically everything within reach and enjoyed a long career while doing it. Stephen Hastings recently caught up with her in Milan, as she approached her ninety-second birthday.
May 1, 2002... Entering Giulietta Simionatos living room in her Milan apartment is somewhat intimidating. You find yourself surrounded on all sides by more-or-less life-sized portraits of the singer in a variety of poses and costumes. When the great mezzo...

Firenze in Fiore: Brooks Peters travels to Florence in May -- when the city is at its most glorious.
May 1, 2002... If I told you it was snowing in Florence when I was there last May, you might think I'd gone completely matto. But tiny flakes of what looked like snow swirled down from the skies, even though the sun was shining and the temperature was well...

Terra Incognita: Fred Plotkin visits northeastern Italy for the intoxicating tastes and smells of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
May 1, 2002... In the mental map of most Italians, the nation's northeastern frontier is Venice, and its northern confines come at the spot where fancy Dolomite ski resorts such as Cortina d'Ampezzo approach the Austrian border. Yet there is another region,...

Fair Verona: Jonathan Kandell returns to the city thirty years after his first visit.
May 1, 2002... My memories of Verona date back three decades, to the requisite Grand Tour of Europe that followed my college graduation. From the second-class compartment of the train that brought me from Milan, I caught glimpses of lakes and Renaissance...

Voices of summer: opera news highlights Europe's top summer music festivals.
May 1, 2002... Il Paradiso Svelato (Paradise Revealed) is the title of a new music-theater piece being given its premiere in Ravenna this season (June 26); it could also be an apt title for Italy in summer. Some benighted souls complain about the heat, the...

Summer security.(at music festivals)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Not even Floria Tosca would give her life just to attend a summer music festival. Looking over the schedules of European summer festivals this year, a new question arises. Americans are asking themselves not only, "Can I afford the time and...

Chicago on the air. (Lyric Opera Of Chicago Radio Network).
May 1, 2002... More than 500 radio outlets in North America are slated to carry the WFMT Fine Arts Network's rebroadcasts of Lyric Opera of Chicago's 2001-02 first nights through June 29, 2002. Produced by Norman Pellegrini and Lois Baum (with Chris Willis,...

"The Pavarotti Edition". (Recordings: Unlimited Edition).
May 1, 2002... Luciano Pavarotti [] "THE PAVAROTTI EDITION" Opera arias and scenes, Italian songs. Various assisting artists, conductors and orchestras. Texts and translations. Decca 470 000-2 (11) In honor of Luciano Pavarotti's forty years of singing,...

Heggie: Dead Man Walking. (Opera And Oratorio).
May 1, 2002... [] Graham, von Stade, Hamm-Smith, Cook, Foland; Packard, Rideout, Orth, Morris, Ames, Okerlund; San Francisco Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Summers. English text. Erato 86238-2 (2) Jake Heggie's opera Dead Man Walking, based on the book by...

Gluck: Iphigenie en Tauride. (Opera And Oratorio).
May 1, 2002... [] Graham; Groves, Hampson, Rouillon; Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and Vienna State Opera Concert Choir, Bohon. Notes and synopsis. Orfeo C 563 0121 (Koch, dist.) With its stellar cast, this live recording of Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride...

Verdi: Attila. (Opera And Oratorio).
May 1, 2002... [] Theodossiou; Furlanetto, Ventre, Costentino, Gazale, Tonini Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi, Trieste, Renzetti. Text and translation. Dynamic CDS 372/1-2 (Qualiton, dist.) Joining the harvest of releases...

"Bel Sogno". (Recital).
May 1, 2002... Cristina Gallardo-Domas [] "BEL SOGNO" Scenes and arias by Cilea, Donizetti, Catalani, Bellini, Verdi and Puccini. Munich Radio Orchestra, Maurizio Barbacini. Texts and translations. Teldec 8573-86440-2 Cristina Gallardo-Domas...

"Le Belle Immagini". (Recital).
May 1, 2002... Magdalena Kozena [] "LE BELLE IMMAGINI" Arias by Mozart, Gluck, Myslivecek. Prague Philharmonia, Swierczewski. Texts and translations. Deutsche Grammophon 289 471 334-2 The young Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena's voice is on the small...

"Berlioz". (Recital).
May 1, 2002... Veronique Gens [] "BERLIOZ" Les Nuits d'Ete; La Mort de Cleopatre; Songs. Orchestre de l'Opera National de Lyon, Langree. Notes, texts, translations. Virgin 45422 Veronique Gens is a stylish, intelligent singer, much admired for her...

"Rossini". (Recital).
May 1, 2002... Maria Bayo [] "ROSSINI" Opera arias and sinfonias. Concerto Italiano, Alessandrini. Texts and translations. Naive Astree E 8853 (Harmonia Mundi, dist.) It's about time the early-music folks confronted Rossini. Was it musical snobbism that...

"Vivaldi: Stabat Mater; Nisi Dominus; Longe Mala".
May 1, 2002... David Daniels [] "VIVALDI: STABAT MATER; NISI DOMINUS; LONGE MALA" Europa Galante, Biondi. Texts and translations. Virgin 45474 The Stabat Mater, a text of unknown authorship, excluded from the Catholic liturgy until the eighteenth century,...

Verdi: La Traviata.
May 1, 2002... [] Stella; di Stefano, Gobbi; Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan, Serafin. Testament 2211/A This set won a sorry notoriety in 1956 as the Traviata that Callas did not record. It was issued on "her" label with her usual co-stars, in...

May online edition of opera news. (Historical).
May 1, 2002... New recordings of operas by Calegari, de Fesch, Paisiello and Dvorak; Gardiner conducts Vivaldi and Handel Glorias; Adler's AIDS Requiem; Beethoven songs; Otello in English; historic Tannhauser; Met stars sing duets; recitals by Kiehr and...

New York City.
May 1, 2002... Though performed more often than its scope and difficulty would seem to permit, Prokofiev's War and Peace will always be a special event, like a complete Ring cycle, in the international repertory. New to the Met's repertory, the work appeared...

Los Angeles.
May 1, 2002... Achim Freyer might seem an improbable choice to direct a stage version of Bach's Mass in B Minor. Few choral works express as deeply seated a belief in the Christian order as Bach's masterpiece, and Freyer, trained by Bertolt Brecht and Ruth...

Houston.
May 1, 2002... Sirens whined again, as the rising curtain revealed the frantic fugitives hiding from the law. After an absence of twenty-five years, Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men opened at Houston Grand Opera on February 1 (seen Feb. 6). This 1970 work,...

San Diego.(Ariodante)
May 1, 2002... Now in its thirty-seventh year of operations, San Diego Opera took a deep breath and tested the Handelian waters for the first time. Would local audiences sit through three and a half hours of a Baroque opera that most of them had never heard...

Barcelona.(Henry VIII)
May 1, 2002... The Gran Teatre del Liceu, a landmark of the Catalonian capital, has developed strong ties to the musicians the public considers its own, and no love is greater here than that professed for the local diva, Montserrat Caballe. In January,...

Berlin.(Les Contes d'Hoffmann)
May 1, 2002... In assigning directors for his first season as general intendant at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Udo Zimmermann seems to have been more concerned with big names than with choosing the right person for the right piece. The season's first two new...

Strasbourg.(Maometto II)
May 1, 2002... Described by Rossini scholar Richard Osborne as "one of [the composer's] grandest pieces of musical architecture," Maometto II, Rossini's penultimate opera for Naples (1820, later revised for Paris as Le Siege de Corinthe), seldom makes it...

Munich.(Manon Lescaut)
May 1, 2002... Can you guess the title of the Bavarian State Opera's new production? The curtain opens to reveal a unit set consisting of a huge black staircase, roughly thirty steps high and covering the length and width of the Nationaltheater stage. With...

New York City.(Liederabend in Hommage to Lotte Lehmann)
May 1, 2002... In her "Liederabend in Hommage to Lotte Lehmann (Alice Tully Hall, Feb. 21), Grace Bumbry wowed an already affectionate audience without relying on those nostalgic allowances made for a beloved veteran artist. Paying tribute to her mentor in...

May online edition of opera news.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... NORTH AMERICA: Larsen's Barnum's Bird premiere at the Library of Congress; Gavrilova sings Butterfly in Miami, and Scotto stages it in Palm Beach, where Norma is also heard; Skovhus sings Onegin in Houston; Villaume's conducting redeems C....

Obituaries.(Brief Article)(Obituary)
May 1, 2002... ALAIN VANZO, Monte Carlo, April 2, 1928 -- Gournay-sur-Marne, France, January 27, 2002 The tenor made his debut in 1954 at the Paris Opera as a pirate in Oberon, and by the time he was thirty he had established himself as a favorite in the...

Dateline.
May 1, 2002... METROPOLITAN OPERA (Metropolitan Opera House, 212-362-6000; www.metopera.org) May 1 Rigoletto (Verdi). O'Flynn; Nucci, Lopardo, Koptchak; Domingo, Schenk/S. Thomas, Z. Brown May 2 A Midsummer Night's Dream (Britten). Deshorties,...