Opera News articles from May 2003

Opera News archives from May 2003

Appreciating Austria. (Viewpoint).
May 1, 2003... Our motive every May is to entice OPERA NEWS readers to pursue their passion for opera away from home. This month, we focus on Austria, a country that by any reckoning has contributed as much as any other--if not more--to the creation, growth...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
May 1, 2003... Houston Grand Opera's performances of Lucia di Lammermoor and La Boheme, reviewed by us in April and February On-Line, respectively, were not electronically amplified. Paul Kellogg is Glimmerglass Opera's artistic director, not general...

Opera watch.(Calendar)
May 1, 2003... 1. Tenors MARCELO ALVAREZ and SALVATORE LICITRA will join forces for Duetto, an open-air concert to be filmed outside the Coliseum in Rome on June 12 and broadcast in the U.S. by PBS's Great Performances on June 14. A Sony CD of the event is...

Reunion: Otto Edelmann.(Biography)
May 1, 2003... Otto Edelmann originally wanted to be a boxer. He had the right physique, the right spirit and the right survivor instincts. He even had some of the right training. But this sensitive tough-guy from Brunn am Gebirge, near Vienna, ended up with...

Angelika's art: meet the anti-diva: Angelika Kirchschlager's singing glows with radiant intensity and scrupulous honesty.(Biography)
May 1, 2003... Angelika Kirchschlager is sitting in a rehearsal studio at London's Royal Opera House, listening to a story about a popular and much-recorded soprano who, several years ago, was singing Gilda in Rigoletto at a major American regional company....

Vienna's crooked smile: on the surface, Vienna seems merry and inviting--yet it also provokes a peculiar brand of anxiety. Jan Morris ponders the city's strange dual nature.
May 1, 2003... Contemplating a visit to Vienna, I thought it might be a good idea to go at Christmastime. It is a famously Christmassy sort of place, after all. It was Christmassy, too--the decorous festivity of the streets, the lovely music in St....

Austria: the sights and sensations of Austria's musical capitals, Vienna and Salzburg.
May 1, 2003... Vienna Wiener Staatsoper WITH RECONSTRUCTION OF CENTRAL VIENNA IN THE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY, THE CITY'S IMPERIAL COURT OPERA MOVED INTO THIS NEO-RENAISSANCE MASTERPIECE ON THE RINGSTRASSE, WHICH OPENED IN 1869, WITH DON GIOVANNI....

Zanderfest! Fish-feasting in Salzburg.(Restaurant Review)
May 1, 2003... If you're hungry after a performance at the Salzburger Festspiele, just follow one of the singers or conductors--you may need a fast Vespa, but they'll lead you to the finest eateries in Salzburg. One mustn't judge this festival town by...

Wines of Austria: the Wachau whites.
May 1, 2003... A fifty-minute drive northwest of Vienna brings you to the Wachau--Austria's smallest but most important wine region. The Danube River slices through a forty-kilometer stretch of mineral-rich hills terraced with vineyards on both banks. Some of...

Uneasy union: Jorg Von Uthmann examines Austria's difficult relationship with Germany.
May 1, 2003... Austria, we are told by travel agents and marketing wizards, is a beautiful country inhabited by charming people who live on Mozartkugeln and Sachertorte, waltz through life like Johann Strauss, yodel like the Trapp family and promote every...

Quick-change artist: conductor Frederic Chaslin doesn't need much time to turn out a fine performance.(Biography)
May 1, 2003... For any conductor with an interest in opera, a debut at the Met must be an ultimate test. Also, it is hoped, a crowning triumph. But there are debuts, and there are debuts. Some conductors--the ones with big names, big record contracts, big...

A problem like Maria: Maria von Trapp was an extraordinary woman--but she was hardly the apple-cheeked innocent we all loved in The Sound of Music.(Biography)
May 1, 2003... It's one of the most popular and beloved stories of the twentieth century: how the Salzburg postulant Maria Augusta Kutschera became a governess to the seven children of the widowed Baron von Trapp, married him and escaped the Nazis by climbing...

Return to the city of dreams: in the spring of 1938, Julius Rudel fled Vienna for a new life in New York. Recently he retraced his flight from the city step by step. The conductor's son, Anthony Rudel, was on hand to chronicle the sentimental journey.(Biography)
May 1, 2003... Sixty-five years ago this month--the exact date was May 25, 1938--a seventeen-year-old boy stood on a platform of Vienna's Westbahnhof and waited to board a train to Paris. He wore a new suit and sported new cuff Links, a new pocket watch and a...

Jacobean drama: Rene Jacobs brings theatrical vitality to early music.(Interview)
May 1, 2003... Rene Jacobs discovered musical delights while singing in his local choir at the cathedral in his native Ghent, Belgium. His very high voice was still an exotic thing in the 1960s; fortunately, he found encouragement from the achievements of...

The best of the European festivals voices of summer.(Calendar)
May 1, 2003... The sound of music can be heard all over Austria this summer--and throughout Europe, as the music-festival season kicks off, beginning this month. What follows is our annual listing of some of the most intriguing events at major venues,...

Leading lady.
May 1, 2003... Every summer, Rene Jacobs's Innsbrucker Festwochen finds a home in the beautiful Tiroler Landestheater--but only briefly, and as paying tenants. The rest of the year, the Landestheater is in the hands of another distinguished singer:...

Unburied treasure: Parnassus remasters a persuasive, musically direct Tamerlano from 1970, conducted by John Moriarty.(Sound Recording Review)
May 1, 2003... Handel: Tamerlano * Killebrew, Bogard, Steffan, J. Simon; A. Young, Rintzler; Chamber Orchestra of Copenhagen, Moriarty. Text and translations. Parnassus 96038/40 (Qualiton, dist.) Is there a place in our digital, musically enlightened...

Halevy: La Juive.(Sound Recording Review)
May 1, 2003... * Schorg, Isokoski; Todorovic, Shicoff, Miles; Monarcha Orchestra and Chorus of the Vienna State Opera, Young. Notes, no text or translation. RCA Red Seal 7432179596 2 (3) Quibbles first. Although it is a great pleasure finally to have a...

Catan: Florencia en el Amazonas.(Sound Recording Review)
May 1, 2003... * Schuman, Martinez, Guzman; Shelton, Vasquez, Doss, Gradus; Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Summers. Text and translation. Albany TROY 531/21 (2) The world-premiere engagement of Daniel Catan's Florencia en el Amazonas, in 1996,...

Nyman: Facing Goya.(Sound Recording Review)
May 1, 2003... * Bowe, Angel, Summers; Nicoll, Ebrahim; Michael Nyman Band, Nyman. Text and translations. Warner Classics 45342 Much of Facing Goya could have been written by Erik Satie, an observation that might well please its composer, Michael Nyman....

Monteverdi: Madrigali Guerrieri ed Amorosi.(Sound Recording Review)
May 1, 2003... * Concerto Vocale, Jacobs. Texts and translations included. Harmonia Mundi HMC 901736.37 (2) Published in Venice in 1638, Claudio Monteverdi's Madrigali Guerrieri ed Amorosi, also known as his Eighth Book of Madrigals, is fascinating on...

Juan Diego Florez.(Sound Recording Review)
May 1, 2003... * "UNA FURTIVA LAGRIMA" Arias by Donizetti and Bellini. With Jaho; Mjalovic, Ulivieri; Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Frizza. Texts and translations. Decca 473 440-2 Metropolitan Opera audiences of late have been...

Renee Fleming and Bryn Terfel.(Sound Recording Review)
May 1, 2003... * "UNDER THE STARS" Songs by Brown, Flaherty, Holmes, Kander, Lloyd Webber, Porter, Presgurvic, Rodgers, Schonberg, L. Simon, Sondheim and Willson. Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, Gemignani. Texts. Decca 473 250 This disc of...

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin.(Sound Recording Review)
May 1, 2003... * Kruglikova, Antonova; Nortsov, Kozlovsky, Mikhailov; Bolshoi Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Melik-Pashaev, Orlov. Notes and synopsis only. Naxos Historical 8.110216-17(2) A few Fafners of Shellac may jealously guard the Period Thrift LPs of...

Conchita Supervia.(Sound Recording Review)
May 1, 2003... * "THE CONCHITA SUPERVIA SONGBOOK: RARE AND UNKNOWN SONGS" Songs by Tosti, Gennai, Luna, Turina et al. Various orchestras and pianists. No texts or translations. Pearl GEM 0184 (Koch, dist.) Long before Victoria de los Angeles and Teresa...

Mozart: the da Ponte Operas.(Sound Recording Review)
May 1, 2003... * Le Nozze di Figaro: Battle, Price, Murray, Nicolesco; Allen, Hynninen, Rydl. * Don Giovanni: Studer, Vaness, Mentzer; Shimell, Lopardo, Ramey De Carolis, Rootering. * Cosi Fan Tutte: Marshall, Baltsa, Battle; Araiza, Morris, van...

May on-line edition of opera news.(Brief Article)(Calendar)
May 1, 2003... World-premiere recordings of Van de Vate's All Quiet on the Western Front and Rolf Liebermann's Medea Monolog; new performances of I Lombardi and Ivanhoe; Naxos re-releases Collins Classics' "English Song" series; Winterreise for string...

From around the world: New York City. (North America).(Faust and Les Troyens)(Opera Review)
May 1, 2003... To open the Berlioz bicentennial year, the Met called on one of the world's leading opera directors to stage a new production of Les Troyens. Francesca Zambello's vertiginous track record, from Japan to London's West End, by way of most major...

From around the world: Chicago. (North America).(Opera Review)
May 1, 2003... Once upon a rime, not so long ago, opera companies--especially the big, well-to-do opera companies--thrived on Verdi. In those days, of course, we had voices, wide-ranging voices equally responsive to the composer's demands for extroversion and...

From around the world: Seattle. (North America).(Norma)(Opera Review)
May 1, 2003... What makes Norma the most demanding role for soprano is not only the fiendishly difficult vocal writing but the dramatic challenge of portraying a woman betrayed by both lover and best friend; a mother torn by the need for revenge; a powerful...

From around the world: Houston. (North America).(Die Lustige Witwe)(Opera Review)
May 1, 2003... Not twelve hours after the space shuttle Columbia exploded over North Texas, Houston Grand Opera--in NASA's hometown--had the awkward task of presenting The Merry Widow. At Jones Hall, a block away, the Houston Symphony Orchestra wasn't playing...

From around the world: Vienna. (International).(Opera Review)
May 1, 2003... A fully staged production of Luigi Dallapiccola's II Prigioniero presents a peculiar problem: its duration of forty-five minutes and its serious subject matter would (one hopes) preclude its being paired with another opera, such as Gianni...

From around the world: Graz. (International).(Opera Review)
May 1, 2003... Displaced by a two-week residence of the Kirov Opera (see OPERA NEWS On-Line), Graz's opera troupe headed across town to the 560-seat Schauspielhaus to offer subtle competition to the Russians' bombast: a new production of Ariadne auf Naxos...

From around the world: London. (International).(Opera Review)
May 1, 2003... Colin-Davis returned to Covent Garden to conduct Royal Opera's Die Zauberflote (seen Jan. 30). Davis's Mozart these days seems precisely measured yet entirely spontaneous. Old-fashioned it may be in its avoidance of period gestures or...

From around the world: New York City. (Concerts And Recitals).
May 1, 2003... Karita Mattila followed up a triumphant run in the Met's new Jenufa with a smashing recital at Carnegie Hall (Feb. 24), a venue she termed "adorable" in a brief but happy curtain speech at the end of a generously scaled program that ranged from...

Verdi: Rigoletto.(Video Recording Review)
May 1, 2003... * Serra, Vespasiani; Nucci, Kraus, Pertusi; Orchestra dell'Emilia Romagna, Chorus of the Teatro Regio di Parma, Campori. Production: Samaritani. Hardy Classic Video DVD 11 CD 400, 138 mins. 1987, color, subtitled (VAI, dist.) * Mula,...

Obituaries.(Obituary)
May 1, 2003... JEROME HINES Hollywood, CA, November 8, 1921--New York, NY, February 4, 2003 Jerome Hines's arresting physical presence--a lean, rangy, six feet six inches--and rich, dark instrument established the bass as a towering figure on the...

Dateline.(Opera calendar)(Calendar)
May 1, 2003... METROPOLITAN OPERA (Metropolitan Opera House, 212-362-6000; www.metopera.org) May 1 Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (Wagner). Kringelborn, Grove; Botha, Morris, Ketelsen, Pape, Polenzani; Levine, Schenk/McClintock, Schneider-Siemssen ...

Wienercoda.
May 1, 2003... There is new life in Vienna. Young people are remaining; important new architecture is appearing. Fresh, modern restaurants rivaling those in Berlin and New York have popped up. Outdoor markets buzz. Here are a few suggestions for the...