Opera News articles from October 2000

Opera News archives from October 2000

WAVE OF THE FUTURE.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... As is customary in our October issue, this month OPERA NEWS takes a look at the opera recording industry, which we find to be in a state of turmoil. In part, this is attributable to the forces roiling the much larger pop-music market: new means...

CORRECTION.(Correction Notice)
October 1, 2000... CORRECTION: Turandot had its world premiere at La Scala: not the Met, as stated in Eric Myers's "When Divas Ruled" (August, p. 24). OPERA NEWS apologizes to Mr. Myers, as this error occurred in the editing stage and was not present in his...

OPERAWATCH.
October 1, 2000... Boulez speaks at Museum of Television and Radio, BAM introduces chanting monks, Kringelborn bows at the Met SOLVEIG KRINGELBORN made her Met debut as Elvira in the star-studded season-opener, Don Giovanni, on September 25. The...

ON THE BEAT.(Rigoletto at Lyric Opera, Chicago)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... Christopher Alden's "subversive" new staging of Rigoletto reaches Lyric Opera of Chicago this month; Mary Dunleavy looks forward to returning to NYCO this season Call him maverick, call him iconoclast, or call him some of the really...

Stage Coach.
October 1, 2000... Voice coaches often are asked, "What does a coach do?" OPERA NEWS recently cornered Gary DiPasquasio, one of New York's busiest coaches, voice teachers, conductors (DiCapo Opera, Dallas Opera, Central City Opera) and impresarios (Teatro...

NOW HATCHING -- A NEW BREED OF CDS.
October 1, 2000... With the internet emerging as a main source of music, what is to become of the compact disc? As millions of listeners ignore the record companies and download music from websites such as MP3, Napster and Gnutella, the movers and shakers of...

Cleared for Takeoff.(Interview)
October 1, 2000... A couple of seasons ago, at the annual Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation concert at Alice Tully Hall, soprano Indra Thomas walked out onstage and gave a ravishing performance of "Mariettas Lied" from Die Tote Stadt. Although she wasn't one of...

SOUND BITES: Gerald Finley.
October 1, 2000... Early on, Gerald Finley thought he wanted to be a veterinarian. He changed his mind while doing laboratory work in his native Ottawa. "It was where all the experimental government research things went on," he said. "I just couldn't bear...

Kaiser, Michael.(Royal Opera House's executive director)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... AFTER CONFIRMING HIS REPUTATION AS A "TURNAROUND KING" WITH A NEAR-MIRACULOUS OVERHAUL OF COVENT GARDEN, THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE'S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DEPARTS In a brief statement issued by the Royal Opera House on June 20, chairman of the...

NEW FROM THE STUDIOS.
October 1, 2000... Consolidation is the name of the game this year. The internal machinations of the studios may remain mysterious, but the effects are already more than evident to the general public. It all translates into fewer classical recordings. Classical...

Fire and Ice.(Angela Gheorghiu)(Interview)
October 1, 2000... ANGELA GHEORGHlU HAS TALENT, TEMPERAMENT, A SUPERSTAR HUSBAND AND A STACKFUL OF BEST-SELLING RECORDINGS. HUGH CANNING TALKS TO THE SOPRANO ABOUT LIFE AT THE TOP OF THE OPERA HEAP. Angela Gheorghiu's rapidly growing discography is beginning...

World Wide Radio.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... A NEW BRITISH VENTURE BROADCASTS CLASSICAL MUSIC VIA THE WEB In a way that scarcely could have been imagined just a few years back, the internet is now a presence in all our lives, and opera is increasingly represented on the World Wide...

Downloding Zone.(online music retailers)
October 1, 2000... ONLINE CLASSICAL AND OPERA RETAILERS ARE CHANGING THE WAY WE LISTEN TO MUSIC AND BUY RECORDINGS. When a young Neapolitan tenor named Enrico Caruso sang into a recording horn in a Milan hotel room near the beginning of the just-passed...

RUSSIANS IN AMBER.
October 1, 2000... CONRAD L. OSBORNE REMEMBERS THE SOVIET RECORDING STARS OF AN EARLIER ERA Now, of course, the Russians are all over the place. The Mariinsky/Kirov Opera of St. Petersburg, having seized both the artistic and entrepreneurial initiatives from...

Metropolitan Opera Guild Annual Report.
October 1, 2000... The Guild's sixty-fifth-anniversary year closed on June 30, 2000. As many of you know, I was elected president of the Guild on June 24 a year ago, in sad and difficult circumstances. Our president of thirteen years, Alton Peters, died...

BACH: St. Matthew Passion.(Review)
October 1, 2000... BACH: St. Matthew Passion Rubens; Scholl, Bostridge, Gura, Selig, Henschel; Choeur et Orchestre du Collegium Vocale, Herreweghe. Text and translations. Harmonia Mundi 951676.78(3) There is no better way right now to approach the world...

MOZART: Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail.(Review)
October 1, 2000... MOZART: Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail Kodalli, Rancatore; Groves, Atkinson, Rose; Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus, Mackerras. Text and translation. Telarc CD 80544 (2) Charles Mackerras paces this new Entfuhrung (soundtrack of...

Handel: Israel in Egypt.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Handel: Israel in Egypt Gritton, Crabtree; Chance, Ogden, Bostridge, Varcoe, Herford; The Choir of King's College, Cambridge, The Brandenburg Consort, Cleobury. English text. Decca 289 452 295-2 (2) Though much performed (and...

RAMEAU: Dardanus.(Review)
October 1, 2000... RAMEAU: Dardanus Gens, Delunsch; Ainsley, Courtis, Naouri, Smythe; Les Musiciens du Louvre and Choeur des Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski. Text and translation. DG Archiv 463 476-2 Dardanus inherits a variety of stylistic features from...

HOLST: Savitri.(Review)
October 1, 2000... HOLST: Savitri J. Miller; S. O'Neill, Han; Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater and Chamber Sinfonia, Cortese. Text. Phoenix PHCD-145 (Albany dist.) Written for three singers (with small female chorus) and an orchestra of twelve,...

THEODORAKIS: Electra.(Review)
October 1, 2000... THEODORAKIS: Electra Dolbonos, Titarenko, Rybakova; Feljaer, Migounov, Leonwitch, Witshnewski; St. Petersburg State Academic Cappella Orchestra and Chorus, Theodorakis. 1998. Translations only. Intuition Classics 33122(3) Greek...

"WAGNER LOVE DUETS".(Review)
October 1, 2000... Placido Domingo and Deborah Voigt "WAGNER LOVE DUETS" Scenes from Tristan und Isolde and Siegfried. With Urmana; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Pappano. Texts and translations. EMI Classics CDC 5 57004 2 Deborah...

VIVALDI.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Andreas Scholl "VIVALDI" Motets and string concertos. Australian Brandenburg orchestra, Dyer. Texts and translations. Decca 289 466 964-2 With the public-radio airwaves full of what a teacher colleague calls "paper-grading music," it's...

MORE THAN A DAY.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Brian Asawa "MORE THAN A DAY" Music of Ned Rorem. Batjer, violin, Gray, clarinet, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Kahane. English texts. RCA Victor 09026-63512-2 It's been a great season for Ned Rorem on CD. The recent Susan Graham...

THE ART OF THE DRAMATIC MEZZO-SOPRANO.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Dolora Zajick "THE ART OF THE DRAMATIC MEZZO-SOPRANO" Arias by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Cilea, Rossini, Mascagni, Saint-Saens, Verdi and Gluck. With Giuliacci, tenor; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Rosekrans. Texts and translations. Telarc...

I WILL WAIT FOR YOU.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Lesley Garrett "I WILL WAIT FOR YOU" With Vargas, Ladysmith Black Mombazo; BBC Concert Orchestra, John Harle Band, Grimethorp Colliery RJB Band, Anthony Pleeth Cello Ensemble, Harle, Robinson, conductors. No texts. RCA Victor 75605-51354-2...

ONLY LOVE.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Sumi Jo "ONLY LOVE" Songs by Wildhorn, Sondheim, Bernstein, Styne, et al. Renzi, piano, Gerhardt, cello; Stratta, conductor; Texts. Erato 8573-80241-2 Soprano Sumi Jo makes an impressive crossover debut with this collection of...

"1000: A MASS FOR THE END OF TIME".(Review)
October 1, 2000... Anonymous 4 "1000: A MASS FOR THE END OF TIME" Medieval Chant and Polyphony for the Ascension. Texts and translations. Harmonia Mundi HMU 907224 The turn of the previous millennium (by the reckoning of the Christian calendar) was an...

"O GEMMA, LUX".(Review)
October 1, 2000... DUFAY: Motets "O GEMMA, LUX" The complete isorhythmic motets. Huelgas-Ensemble, Van Nevel. Texts and translations. Harmonia Mundi HMC 901700 Isorhythmic motets feature a fixed, mathematically sophisticated scheme of rhythm independent...

J. S. Bach: Cantatas 53 and 170.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Maureen Forrester J. S. Bach: Cantatas 53 and 170, excerpts from Mass in B minor; D. Scarlatti: Salve regina. Heiller, organ; Wiener Solisten, Heiller; I Solisti di Zagreb, Janigro. Texts and translations. Amadeus 7010 (Allegro, dist.) ...

GRAND DAME OF SONG.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Maureen Forrester "GRAND DAME OF SONG" Lieder by Brahms and Wagner. Newmark, Muraco, piano; Golani, viola. Txts and translations. CBC Records PSCD 2017 (Allegro, dist.) Maureen Forrester, who turned seventy on July 25, is a rare...

GROSSE SANGER UNSERES JAHRHUNDERTS.(Review)
October 1, 2000... George London "GROSSE SANGER UNSERES JAHRHUNDERTS" Arias and scenes from Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Eugene Onegin, Prince Igor, Aida and Die Walkure. With Bak, Stich-Randall, Varnay, von Ilosvay; Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kraus,...

THE CLASSIC RCA PERFORMANCES.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Dorothy Kirsten "THE CLASSIC RCA PERFORMANCES" Songs and duets by Herbert, Kern, Youmans et al. With Merrill, baritone; various orchestras and conductors. No texts. Collectors Choice Music CCM-101-2/BMG Special Products DMC 12432. ...

SONDHEIM: Saturday Night.(Review)
October 1, 2000... SONDHEIM: Saturday Night Ward, Burns; Campbell, Thorell; Fisher. Text. Nonesuch 79609-2 Saturday Night was to have been composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim's first Broadway show. But when the show's producer, Lemuel Ayers, died...

JOHN and RICE: Aida.(Review)
October 1, 2000... JOHN and RICE: Aida Headley, Scott; Pascal, Hickok, Perkins and original Broadway cast; Bogaev. Buena Vista Records 60671-7 "In life one has to face a huge assortment of nauseating fads," sings the ditsy Amneris of Elton John and Tim...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: PARIS.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Opera Bastille ended its season with a new production of Wagner's Der Fliegende Hollander (seen July 8) by controversial director Willy Decker and conducted by James Conlon. The curtain rose on Wolfgang Gussmann's simple, raked stage, dominated...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: MUNICH.(Review)
October 1, 2000... June 15 brought a rare opera evening that promised much and delivered more. All three major roles in Verdi's Otello at the Nationaltheater were cast with singers appearing for the first time with the company. Special interest centered around...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: LONDON.(Review)
October 1, 2000... English National Opera glanced over the Atlantic for inspiration in the closing weeks of its season, staging its first performances of two major American operas. First on the bill was Nixon in China (seen June 7), which was receiving its London...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: ORKNEY, SCOTLAND.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Three seasons ago, Welsh National Opera staged the first collaboration between David Pountney, former director of productions for English National Opera, and Peter Maxwell Davies. The Doctor of Myddfai recounted a horrific, futuristic tale of a...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: FLORENCE.(Review)
October 1, 2000... It is rare to hear an Italian orchestra play with the refinement, precision and tonal luster heard during the Maggio Musicale's June 16 performance of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin under Semyon Bychkov, who generated much more emotional...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: NAPLES.(San Carlo Theater, Naples, Italy)(Review)
October 1, 2000... In spite of featuring two of today's most promising female singers, Teatro San Carlo's Anna Bolena did not live up to expectations. Mezzo Daniela Barcellona darkened and thickened her tone too much for Giovanna Seymour, a role that requires a...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: HALLE, GERMANY.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Carlo Pallavicino and Nikolaus Adam Strungk's L'Antiope, presented in a coproduction by the Halle Handel (seen June 4) and Dresden Music Festivals, was certainly the most unusual opera given by either festival this year. Many...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: GOTTINGEN, GERMANY.(Review)
October 1, 2000... It's easy to think that the reawakening of interest in Handel's operas is a new phenomenon. In fact, it started eighty years ago, when the German art historian Oskar Hagen staged Rodelinda in this lively university town, simultaneously...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: LONG BEACH, CA.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Is Luigi Dallapiccola's Volo di Notte (Night Flight) a pro-Fascist allegory? Composed in Italy between 1937 and '38, when Mussolini was in power, Dallapiccola's one-act opera depicts the lonely suffering of Signor Riviere, a dictatorial...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: VIENNA, VA.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Wolf Trap Opera, dedicated to the training of emerging artists, focuses on traditional repertoire, but the company, marking its thirtieth season, is hardly old-fashioned. The staging, at the Barns, of Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri on June 23...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: CENTRAL CITY.(Review)
October 1, 2000... The action of Bernstein's Candide travels nonchalantly around the globe, without benefit of visas or logic. From Westphalia to the New World and back to the Old, the main characters repeatedly escape horrible fates, only to wind up together as...

FROM AROUND THE WORLD: NEW YORK CITY.(Review)
October 1, 2000... The U.S. premiere of Writing to Vermeer was exactly the sort of thing the Lincoln Center Festival was mandated to present. This summer's installment of the festival did so quite handsomely at the New York State Theater in Netherlands Opera's...

Letter from St. Louis.(Opera Theatre of St. Louis holds world premier of The Tale of Genji)
October 1, 2000... The kimono was the evening dress of choice for many in the audience at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis on June 15, when the company presented the world premiere of Minoru Miki's The Tale of Genji. Several hundred Japanese music fans and...

Marian Anderson: A Singer's Journey.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Marian Anderson: A Singer's Journey by Allan Keiler Scribner, 448pp. $30 Born on the cusp of one century and living nearly into the next, Marian Anderson became not only America's most celebrated alto and one of history's greatest artists...

OBITUARIES.(Obituary)
October 1, 2000... THEA DISPEKER, Munich, September 28, 1902 -- New York City, July 17, 2000 The doyenne of New York artist managers died at her Manhattan apartment two months short of her ninety-eighth birthday. Long regarded as a legend in the music...

SECOND HEARING.(maturity leads to greater appreciation of certain singers)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... Like many people who love singing and have spent years collecting recordings, I enjoy sharing my favorites with others. So when a friend recently asked for some tapes of great singing, I was in seventh heaven, rummaging through the shelves for...