Opera News articles from November 2000

Opera News archives from November 2000

SITE SINGERS.(Web sites devoted to opera singers)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... Pairing mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer and an Apple PowerBook G3 on this month's cover of OPERA NEWS is not a whimsical juxtaposition but an affirmation of two contemporary phenomena in the opera world: the astonishing number of star mezzos and...

LETTERS.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2000... THE JOY OF MUSIC Your special issue on Leonard Bernstein [July], while eclectic and provocative, gave scant attention to his broad impact on American culture. Like the Texaco-Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, which have brought opera to...

CORRECTION.(Brief Article)(Correction Notice)
November 1, 2000... In editor Rudolph S. Rauch's September "Viewpoint," only La Boheme, Tosca and Reyer's Salammbo received their Met (and U.S.) premieres during 1900-01. Cavalleria Rusticana bowed with the company in 1891-92, Pagliacci in 1893-94, Le Cid in...

OPERA WATCH.
November 1, 2000... Callas heirs auction memorabilia, Weigle and Sabbatini arrive at the Met, Rousset brightens Baroque scene PLACIDO DOMINGO is one of five recipients of this year's KENNEDY CENTER honors; the others are dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, rock 'n'...

ON THE BEAT.(Chuck Jones; Harry Bicket)(Interview)
November 1, 2000... Chuck Jones, the genius behind Warner Brothers' wascawy wabbit; Harry Bicket leads Rinaldo, cut and uncut All right, come clean. How many of you, when sitting through the Tannhauser overture, find yourself mentally humming, "Oh,...

SOUND BITES: John Hancock.(Brief Article)(Interview)
November 1, 2000... "I'm attracted to aristocrats who misbehave," says John Hancock. "But then, I also like characters who have an all-encompassing humanity." These flip sides of Hancock's artistic profile are on display at New York City Opera this fall, as the...

A TWENTYSOMETHING AT THE OPERA PART III.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... PART III "She must be a vessel for someone else's voice," I found myself thinking, as Polish contralto Ewa Podle's warbled through Chopin and Tchaikovsky -- "like a ventriloquist's dummy, or a lip-syncher." I began to picture myself...

HIGH SCORERS John Bucchino.(Interview)
November 1, 2000... "East is east and west is west, and the wrong one I have chose...." Ten years ago, that old song lyric might well have hit home with composer John Bucchino. After years of trying to get his plane off the runway as a singer/songwriter in...

SINGERS IN CYBERSPACE.(opera-star websites)
November 1, 2000... navigates some of his favorite opera-star websites Like eBay, Madonna and the NASDAQ, Placido Domingo has an official internet address. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, the crimson-colored homepage of www.placidodomingo.com...

Season of Susanne.(Susanne Mentzer)(Interview)
November 1, 2000... PAUL THOMASON examines the sweetness and strength of Susanne Mentzer, one of the most gifted of the current bumper crop of lyric mezzos Taped to Susanne Mentzer's refrigerator in Aspen, Colorado, is a Polaroid taken in 1976. Staring at the...

Wired.(Neil Shicoff)(Interview)
November 1, 2000... NEIL SHICOFF'S PULSE RUNS A BIT FAST -- EVEN FOR A TENOR. THE PRODIGIOUS AND PRODIGAL SON COMES HOME TO THE MET WITH A VENGEANCE THIS MONTH IN A NEW PRODUCTION OF IL TROVATORE neil Shicoff's life reads a bit like an Isaac Bashevis Singer...

Hey There, Goerke Girl!(Christine Goerke)(Interview)
November 1, 2000... CHRISTINE GOERKE IS SMART, FUNNY AND HIGH-ENERGY -- A SOPRANO IN OVERDRIVE. THIS MONTH THE BEWITCHING SINGER TAKES ON ARMIDA IN HANDEL'S RINALDO AT NEW YORK CITY OPERA "Christine would like to know what section of the magazine this piece...

GLUCK: Iphigenie en Tauride.(Martin Pearlman, Christine Goerke, Boston Baroque)(Review)
November 1, 2000... GLUCK: Iphigenie en Tauride [] Goerke, Sh. Baker, West; Cole, Gilfry, Salters; Boston Baroque, Pearlman. Text and translation. Telarc CD-80546 (2) The advent of complete opera recordings coincided with the low ebb of Gluck's popularity; in...

MOZART: Don Giovanni.(Daniel Harding, Mahler Chamber Orchestra ,Carmela Remigio)(Review)
November 1, 2000... MOZART: Don Giovanni [] Remigio, Gens, Larsson; Mattei, Padmore, Cachemaille, Fechner, Oskarsson; Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Harding. Texts and translations. Virgin Classics 7243 5 45425 2 7 (3) At the helm of this live recording of...

WEILL: Marie Galante/Davy Crockett (highlights).(Joy Bogen, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Jacques Deval)(Review)
November 1, 2000... WEILL: Marie Galante/Davy Crockett (highlights) [] Bogen; Hrynkiw, piano, Orchestra of St. Luke's, V. Symonette. Texts and translations. Koch/Schwann 3-6592 The out-of-the-way material on this disc, like the recent Juilliard Opera...

TRAETTA: Ippolito ed Aricia.(Patrizia Ciofi)(Bratislava Chamber Choir)(International Orchestra of Italy)(Elena Lopez)(Review)
November 1, 2000... TRAETTA: Ippolito ed Aricia [] Ciofi, Lopez, Donzelli, Allegretta; Manzotti, Edwards, Grassi; Bratislava Chamber Choir, International Orchestra of Italy, Golub. Text and translation. Dynamic 257 (4) (Qualiton, dist.) Tommaso Traetta...

GURLITT: Soldaten.(Claudia Barainsky)(Thomas Mohr)(Review)
November 1, 2000... GURLITT: Soldaten [] Barainsky, K. Muller, Breedt, Lindsley; Mohr, Harper, Worle, Burt, Kohn, Malmberg Berlin Radio Chorus, Berlin German Symphony, Albrecht. Text and translation. Orfeo C-482992-H-2 (Qualiton, dist.) Manfred Gurlitt...

MAHLER-WERFEL: Complete Songs ZEMLINSKY: Waldgesprach.(Brabant Orchestra)(Charlotte Margiono)(Julian Reynolds)(Review)
November 1, 2000... MAHLER-WERFEL: Complete Songs ZEMLINSKY: Waldgesprach [] Margiono; the Brabant Orchestra, Reynolds. Text and translations. Globe GLO 5199 (Qualiton, dist.) Alma Mahler-Werfel, during her marriage to Gustav Mahler, must have suffered...

ADAMS: Harmonium; The Klinghoffer Choruses.(San Francisco Symphony)(John Adams)(Kent Nagano)(Orchestra of the Opera de Lyon)(Review)
November 1, 2000... ADAMS: Harmonium; The Klinghoffer Choruses [] San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, Adams (Harmonium); the London Opera Chorus, Orchestra of the Opera de Lyon, Nagano (Klinghoffer). 1997, 1991. English texts. Nonesuch 79549-2 In a 1980...

GRANGE: Dark Labyrinths.(Alison Wells)(Nicholas Sears)(Ian Mitchell)(Review)
November 1, 2000... GRANGE: Dark Labyrinths [] Wells; Sears; Gill, cello, Gemini, Mitchell. English texts. Black Box BBM1038 (Harmonia Mundi, dist.) This new collection of music by British composer Philip Grange (b. 1956) offers the listener a good chance...

Placido Domingo.(Review)
November 1, 2000... Placido Domingo [] "SONGS OF LOVE" VVC Symphonic Orchestra, Kohn, Jojic, Silvetti. No texts. EMI 7243 5 56045 2 8 Placido Domingo sounds completely at home in his new collection of Spanish popular song and American movie standards....

The Twelve Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic and Juliane Banse.(Review)
November 1, 2000... The Twelve Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic and Juliane Banse [] "SOUTH AMERICAN GETAWAY" Texts and translations. EMI Classics 5 56981 2 No disc featuring a cello ensemble would be complete without a performance of Heitor...

Lee Ritenour and Dave Grusin; Renee Fleming, Gil Shaham and Julian Lloyd Webber.(Review)
November 1, 2000... Lee Ritenour and Dave Grusin; Renee Fleming, Gil Shaham and Julian Lloyd Webber [] "TWO WORLDS" With Morrison, violin; Walker, flute. No texts. Decca 012 157 960 2 No disc featuring a cello ensemble would be complete without a...

Catherine Bott and Joseph Cornwell.(Review)
November 1, 2000... Catherine Bott and Joseph Cornwell [] "FAIREST ISLE" The Parley of Instruments, Goodman. English texts. Hyperion CDA67115 Do songs still matter to a country's identity? These two collections of "national songs," some once sung by the...

Marie McLaughlin.(Review)
November 1, 2000... Marie McLaughlin [] "SONGS OF SCOTLAND" Martineau, piano; Frayling-Cork, clarasch. English texts. Hyperion CDA67106 Do songs still matter to a country's identity? These two collections of "national songs," some once sung by the great...

R. STRAUSS: Die Frau ohne Schatten.(Review)
November 1, 2000... R. STRAUSS: Die Frau ohne Schatten [] Rysanek, Ludwig, Hesse, Haug, Mayr; King, Berry, Egel, Schomberg, Kelemen, Alvary, Dickie; Vienna Philharmonic, Bohm. 1974. No text. Opera d'Oro OPD-1218 (3) Other recordings of Die Frau ohne...

"RICHARD STRAUSS PRIMA DONNAS AT THE WIENER STAATSOPER 1933-1976".(Review)
November 1, 2000... R. STRAUSS: Excerpts * "RICHARD STRAUSS PRIMA DONNAS AT THE WIENER STAATSOPER 1933-1976" Arias and scenes from Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos, Salome, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Capriccio, Arabella, Daphne and Elektra with Della Casa, Goltz,...

"SONGS".(Review)
November 1, 2000... Paul Derenne * "SONGS" by Beydts, Caplet, Ciry, Cliquet-Pleyel et al. Various accompanists. Text and notes, no translations. INA, Memoire Vive, IMV032 (Harmonia Mundi, dist.) This subsidized release from French radio archives takes the...

"THE STANDARD HOUR RADIO BROADCAST OF OCTOBER 12, 1950, FROM SAN FRANCISCO".(Review)
November 1, 2000... Herva Nelli and Mario del Monaco * "THE STANDARD HOUR RADIO BROADCAST OF OCTOBER 12, 1950, FROM SAN FRANCISCO" San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Merola. Urania URN 22.143 (Qualiton, dist.) "An unusual couple," say the accompanying notes. And,...

"75TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION".(Review)
November 1, 2000... Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau * "75TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION" Performances 1949-80. DG 463 500-2 (21 CDs) When I was very much younger, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau seemed to be everywhere. I heard him first, as Papageno on a recording of Die...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: BAYREUTH.(Review)
November 1, 2000... In his new Ring at Bayreuth (with sets by Erich Wonder), director Jurgen Flimm seemed bent on extracting from Wagner's drama a message it will not yield. There was one touching moment in the new Ring at Bayreuth. It took place not as part...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: SALZBURG.(Salzburg Festival, Austria)(Review)
November 1, 2000... Herbert Wernicke's new production of Berlioz's Les Troyens at the Salzburg Festival already has been hailed by some as the last great opera achievement of Gerard Mortier's regime as artistic director, even though Mortier has another year to go....

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: VIENNA.(Theater an der Wien, Vienna, Austria)(Review)
November 1, 2000... For Guy Joosten's new KlangBogen production of Massenet's Werther that opened on July 14 (seen 18) at the Theater an der Wien, Johannes Leiacker erected two huge white-tiled walls with a frieze of butterflies reminiscent of a bathroom. Into the...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: PESARO.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... The Rossini Opera Festival opened this year (Aug. 5) with Le Siege de Corinthe (1826), the composer's sophisticated adaptation for Parisian audiences of his earlier Maometto II, with a ballet and a new French libretto inspired by the...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: SPOLETO.(Teatro Nuovo, Spoleto, Itlay)(Review)
November 1, 2000... Much of the pleasure derived from Der Rosenkavalier at this year's Spoleto Festival was attributable to the limited size of the Teatro Nuovo, where most of the orchestra was hidden under the stage, and where words, gestures and facial...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: MONTPELLIER.(Montpellier, France)(Review)
November 1, 2000... Vittorio Gnecchi's Cassandra, composed some four years before Strauss's Elektra, opened the Festival de Radio France in the lively university city of Montpellier. It is a forgotten opera by a largely forgotten composer, but in 1905, Gnecchi...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: GARSINGTON.(Britain)(Review)
November 1, 2000... Over the years, Garsington Opera has developed a reputation not only for quality but also for championing unusual repertoire, and through the festival's advocacy several neglected but worthwhile pieces have enjoyed a measure of rehabilitation....

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: BUXTON.(Opera House, Buxton, England)(Review)
November 1, 2000... The spa town of Buxton is set high up in the Derbyshire Peak District, one of England's loveliest locations. In the great days of water-based health cures it held a high position, alongside Bath, Leamington and Cheltenham, as a fashionable...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND.(Grange Park Opera, Hampshire, England)(Review)
November 1, 2000... Country-house opera is all the rage in Britain. Almost every summer, it seems, some new venue opens up, usually involving a fine, old building set in a rural landscape, picnickers in formal evening attire and an opera performance divided by a...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: SAVONLINNA.(Savonlinna Opera Festival, Savonlinna , Finland)(Review)
November 1, 2000... The Savonlinna Opera Festival decided several years ago to greet the new millennium with something meaty. Concept and librettist were decided on even before a composer. Paavo Rintala, one of Finland's best-known writers at the time of his...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: DROTTNINGHOLM.(Review)
November 1, 2000... The remarkable state of preservation of the exquisite Drottningholm Court Theater, a short boat-ride from Stockholm, makes it uniquely capable of recreating eighteenth-century stage settings. So it came as a surprise to learn that Pierre Audi,...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: SANTA FE.(Santa Fe Opera)(Review)
November 1, 2000... The past summer's season at Santa Fe Opera, the company's forty-fourth, was the last under the management of founder John Crosby, who will not, however, retire from the podium. A longtime Richard Strauss devotee, he is slated to conduct a...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: SEATTLE.(Seattle Opera, Seattle, Washington)(Review)
November 1, 2000... Seattle Opera has forged half of its new Ring (the production will be unveiled in its entirety in August of 2001), and it's already clear that the company has struck gold. The new Das Rheingold and Die Walkure, directed by Stephen Wadsworth and...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: INDIANOLA, IA.(Review)
November 1, 2000... Maria Callas and her increasing legend have created a standard for the role of Norma that has made life difficult for all who follow her. Even today, finding a soprano who can conquer the high-flying coloratura and provide convincing dramatic...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: CINCINNATI.(Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati, Ohio)(Review)
November 1, 2000... Cincinnati Opera got its eightieth season and the new millennium off to a resounding start on June 22 with artistic director Nicholas Muni's Victorian-era Salome. Set in Herodes's opulent observatory (designed by Peter Werner), the production...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: KATONAH, NY.(Caramoor Festival)(Review)
November 1, 2000... Having honored Donizetti with Lucrezia Borgia in 1997 and Rossini with La Gazza Ladra in '98, the Caramoor Festival turned to Bellini with Il Pirata in a concert performance at the Venetian Theater on July 22. Once again, bel canto specialist...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: LENOX, MA.(Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert)(Review)
November 1, 2000... Tanglewood's annual Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert, which nearly drowned in a fierce July 15 rainstorm around the backless, sideless, 5,000-seat Koussevitzky Music Shed, managed to hold on for dear life to the late composer-conductor's...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: PITTSFIELD, MA.(Koussevitzky Arts Center, Berkshire Community College)(Review)
November 1, 2000... The small but never lazy Berkshire Opera Company, now installed in the Koussevitzky Arts Center on the Berkshire Community College campus, delivered a brave, occasionally lovely account of Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi at a July 10...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: VIENNA, VA.(Review)
November 1, 2000... Immorality seldom sounds more beautiful than in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea. Wolf Trap Opera reveled in that captivatingly corrupt realm, on July 21 at the Barns of Wolf Trap, with a classy, sexy new production that tapped much of...

IN REVIEW: FROM AROUND THE WORLD: PRINCETON, NJ.(Opera Festival of New Jersey)(McCarter Theatre)(Review)
November 1, 2000... Opera Festival of New Jersey has staked a claim to American opera in recent seasons. Following up outstanding revivals of Vanessa, Susannah and Postcard from Morocco, the festival made a strong case for Hugo Weisgall's Six Characters in Search...

Letter from Glyndebourne.(Review)
November 1, 2000... The 2000 season at the Sussex opera house marked a number of beginnings and endings. It was the first season for which Gus Christie (son of Sir George) had overall responsibility as executive chairman, and the last of both Graham Vicks...

Caruso: A Documentary, plus Caruso in My Cousin (1918 silent film).(Review)
November 1, 2000... Caruso: A Documentary, plus Caruso in My Cousin (1918 silent film) [] Be Canto Society VHS 186, 94 mins. One of the most important yet least familiar of all silent opera-singer films has appeared as a commercial video release. My Cousin,...

OBITUARIES.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... SUZANNE DANCO, Brussels, January 22, 1911 -- Fiesole, August 10, 2000 The Belgian soprano, renowned for her pure voice and impeccable technique, died in the garden of her villa in Fiesole. Born into a Flemish family of non-musicians, she...

FASHION POLICE BLOTTER.(lack of style in dress of opera singers)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... "STYLE is the great thing," declares Diana Vreeland land in the biographical play Full Gallop, by the late Mark Hampton and Mary Louise Wilson. "Oh, you gotta have style! It helps you get up in the morning! It helps you get down the stairs!"...