Opera News articles from September 2002

Opera News archives from September 2002

Forward thinking. (Viewpoint).
September 1, 2002... It's traditional in the September issue of OPERA NEWS to look forward to the coming season. But this year it is impossible not to reflect back to the events of September 11, 2001. While, as far as I know, no one has attempted to write an opera...

Opera watch.
September 1, 2002... 1. When PLACIDO DOMINGO received the eleventh annual Ella award from the SOCIETY OF SINGERS, a Los Angeles-based organization devoted to helping singers in need, at their May 30 benefit gala, he was serenaded by Victor Trent-Cook, Thomas Young...

On the beat: Adams and Rorem offer musical responses to September 11; Horne receives tribute in Boston; farewell to Stagebill; Andante sets new tempo for CD sales.(On the Transmigration of Souls)
September 1, 2002... We all know that urgency is a crucial aspect of creative expression--that artists feel the need to respond to the sweeping, dramatic events of their lifetime. But I confess that I was hoping, in the months after September 11, that our leading...

Sound bites.(Christopher Schaldenbrand)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Christopher Schaldenbrand was in a work-study program in high school, sorting blueprints in an engineering office, "chlorine blowing in my face," when he realized he had to be a musician. "I had to do something where I could express myself on a...

Air de Printemps. (A Singer's Diary).
September 1, 2002... Ask soprano Amy Burton about her latest recital project, and she carefully points out, "It's not a recital, it's a show. Yvonne Printemps was very `show beeznezz.'" Burton's eyes sparkle as she effortlessly, even in a crowded Manhattan coffee...

The return of the native: California-born Kent Nagano has been one of the most admired maestros in Europe for ten years. Now he's principal conductor at Los Angeles Opera, and a key player in the cultural revival of the City of Angels.
September 1, 2002... It's 7.05 on a mildly sticky evening in early June as the well-dressed, well-bronzed clusters of Los Angeles operagoers chat their way up North Grand Avenue toward the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Few heads turn as a lean, neatly-turned-out man...

Winning tickets! Coming attractions for 2002-03, from Berlioz to Bolcom and Bach again.
September 1, 2002... What do you give a composer on his 200th birthday? If you're an impresario, you give him a performance--or forty. Hector Berlioz was born on December 11, 1803, and for companies across America and around the world, the new season launches a...

Where do we eat? Opera News simplifies your preshow dining choices in the Lincoln Center area.
September 1, 2002... You've chosen your opera and bought your tickets. The big evening looms, and mild panic sets in as you realize you'll be facing five hours of Wagner on an empty stomach if you don't make dinner plans fast. As we all know, the wrong restaurant...

One saint in three acts: Olivier Messiaen's Saint Francois d'Assise finally receives its American premiere this month, in a new production at San Francisco Opera. William R. Braun tells us what to listen for this extraordinary musical spectacle.(Saint Franfois d'Assise)
September 1, 2002... "The drama of my life consists of four things," Olivier Messiaen told his protege Almut Rossler. "Firstly, I teach about birdsongs to urban dwellers who've never heard a bird in their lives. The second drama consists of my telling people that I...

Argentine export: in Buenos Aires, Marcelo Alvarez was considered just another country boy from Cordoba. He left Argentina behind, and today he's one of the hottest tenors on the international scene.(Interview)
September 1, 2002... Marcelo Alvarez is a tenor to be watched--vocally gifted, theatrically intense, handsome, Latin, opinionated, ambitious and business-oriented to boot. Born in Cordoba, Argentina, some 400 miles northwest of Buenos Aires, Alvarez did not leave...

Big D, big dream: Dallas Opera has needed a new theater for decades. When will it open?
September 1, 2002... Dallas has never been reluctant to dream big, but follow-through has been a problem. As Jonathan Pell, the Dallas Opera's artistic administrator, points out, the inadequacy of Music Hall at Fair Park for opera has been talked about ever since...

Something to sign about: Wendy Ebsworth interprets opera for the hearing-impaired.
September 1, 2002... It was an odd sight, that night at Covent Garden, but not inappropriate to the matter at hand. The opera was Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten--and there, stage right, was soprano Gabriele Schnaut, gesticulating operatically as the Dyer's Wife...

A season of song: Opera News's 2002-03 international opera forecast.
September 1, 2002... USA ALABAMA MOBILE OPERA (Mobile Civic Center Theater, 251-476-7372; www.mobileopera.org) Carmen. Oct. 24, 26 Cavalleria Rusticana/Carmina Burana. Mar. 27, 29 OPERA BIRMINGHAM (Alabama Theatre, 205-322-6737; ...

Mozart: .Idomeneo.
September 1, 2002... [] Milne, Frittoli, Hunt Lieberson; Bostridge, Rolfe Johnson; Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Mackerras. Text and translations. EMI 5 572602 When Mozart wrote Idomeneo, his four classic repertory operas were still in...

Lully: Persee.
September 1, 2002... [] Panzarella, Hailer, Felip, Simon; Agnew, Billier, Correas; Maitrise du Centre du Musique Baroque de Versailles "Les Chantres de la Chapelle" and Les Talens Lyriques, Rousset. Text and translation. Astree Naive E 8874 (Harmonia Mundi, dist.)...

Berg: Wozzeck.
September 1, 2002... [] Dalayman, Eklof; Quale, Stregard, Falkman, Wahlund; Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera, Stockholm, Segerstam. No text or translation. Naxos 8. 660076-77 At least three Wozzeck recordings have been made from live performances. This...

Menotti: The Saint of Bleecker Street.
September 1, 2002... [] Melinek, Stephen, Zeltzer, Farrugia, Howard; Richards, Bindel, Rozynko; Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Spoleto Festival Choir, Hickox. Text and translations. Chandos CHAN 9971(2) Gian Carlo Menotti's fourth opera written for the Broadway...

Cimarosa: La Finta Parigina.
September 1, 2002... [] Gemmabella, Sparacio, Sunseri, Ramini; Battiato, Bellavia, Cutolo, Gambina, Galli; Franco Ferrara Philharmonic, Lombardini. Text and translation. Bongiovanni GB -2269/71 (3) (Qualiton, dist.) Though best remembered for Il Matrimonio...

Puccini: Madama Butterfly.
September 1, 2002... [] Katchour, Brillemburg, Strejc; Rankin, Eikotter, Kilpelainen; Bremen Philharmonic State Orchestra and Bremen Theatre Chorus, Neuhold. Italian libretto. Naxos 8.660878/79 The furor that greeted the premiere of Puccini's Madama Butterfly,...

Salvatore Licitra. "The Debut".
September 1, 2002... [] Arias by Verdi and Puccini. With Plazas; Montvidas. London Symphony Orchestra, Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Rizzi. Sony Classics SK89923 Salvatore Licitra's Met debut was the stuff publicists' dreams are made on. Replacing an ailing...

David Daniels. "Handel: Oratorio Arias".
September 1, 2002... [] Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Nelson. English texts. Virgin Classics CDC 72435 4549724 Countertenor David Daniels offers a new collection of arias from Handel's English oratorios, including selections from Belshazzar, Semele, Theodora,...

Jose Cura. "Boleros".
September 1, 2002... [] Songs by Manzanero, de la Luz, Capo, Miraski, Garrido-Lecca, Castillo. Sinfonia of London, Stratta. Texts and translations. Warner Classics 8573-85821-2 Opera-star crossover albums are usually exercises in irredeemable kitsch. Backed by...

Thomas Allen. "Songs My Father Taught Me".
September 1, 2002... [] Songs by British and American composers. Martineau, piano. Texts. Hyperion CDA 67290 (Harmonia Mundi, dist.) For more than four decades, Thomas Allen's international career has embraced opera roles ranging from Mozart's Almaviva to...

Katarina Karneus. "Sibelius Songs".
September 1, 2002... [] Drake, piano. Texts and translations. Hyperion CDA67318 (Harmonia Mundi, dist.) At least as far as discography is concerned, the songs of Jean Sibelius remain largely the precinct of singers with Nordic roots. Anne Sofie yon Otter,...

Isabel Bayrakdarian. "Joyous Light".
September 1, 2002... [] Elmer Iseler Singers and Chamber Orchestra, Armenian. Texts and translations. CBC Records/Les Disques SRC SMCD 5215 (Naxos, dist.) Joyous Light could be the crossover sensation of the year, appealing to an audience that few record...

Milena Kitic. "Great Arias For Mezzo-Soprano".
September 1, 2002... [] Arias and songs by Handel, Gounod, Donizetti, Meyerbeer, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens, Ponchielli, Thomas, Bellini, Bizet. Opera Orchestra of New York, Queler. Texts and translations. Romeo Records 7218 (Qualiton, dist.) If sensational high...

Beethoven: Fidelio.
September 1, 2002... [] Nilsson, Wenglor; Hopf, Unger, Schoffler, Frick, Braun, Witsch, Koller; Orchestra and Chorus of Radio Cologne, E. Kleiber. No text. Opera d'Oro OPD-1322 (2) (Allegro, dist.) In many ways this is--or could be--a glorious recording. Erich...

Vanger, arr. "Operatica: Shine".
September 1, 2002... [] Huang, Mula, O'Flynn, Shakila, Jihae; Vanger, Osborn; produced, arranged, performed and programmed by Lord Vanger. No texts or translations. E-Magine EMA 61076-2 Operatica: Shine is an application of the pop-music "remix" technique...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2002... Frank Lewin has not been on the faculty of the Yale School of Music for the last ten years, as stated in our review of his opera Burning Bright (July). He did teach film composition at Yale from 1971 to 1992. Due to an editing error in our...

Prague. (International).
September 1, 2002... It is always a treat when an opera thought to have dramatic flaws comes off brilliantly onstage. Janacek's Osud (Fate) contains much glorious music, but it is rarely staged because of a discursive libretto fashioned largely by the composer...

Copenhagen. (International).
September 1, 2002... Even after four and a half hours of Royal Danish Opera's Giulio Cesare in Egitto (seen May 4, 8, 18, 22), the audience could not let go. The production made such an impact that it seemed opera in Denmark would never be the same; by the end of...

Florence. (International).
September 1, 2002... This year's Maggio Musicale opened with Graham Vick and Tobias Hoheisel's production of Berlioz's Les Troyens, first mounted in Munich in 2001. Seen on two successive evenings--La Prise de Troie on May 14 and Les Troyens a Carthage on May...

Kiel. (International).
September 1, 2002... Every opera-lover knows Franco Alfano--even though hardly anyone could name the title of any of his works, let alone hum one of his melodies. Alfano is remembered almost exclusively for completing Puccini's Turandot after the composer's death...

Gottingen. (International).
September 1, 2002... When we think of composers of Italian opera who enriched their works with elements from French opera, Handel doesn't immediately spring to mind. Nevertheless, the theme of this year's Gottingen International Handel Festival--"Handel and Le...

London. (International).
September 1, 2002... During the Victorian era, Cosi Fan Tutte was hardly ever performed, due to its supposedly deplorable frivolity. Throughout the twentieth century, it was performed more and more, becoming (as Alice in Wonderland might have said) seriouser and...

Barcelona. (International).
September 1, 2002... The applause at the end of her grand aria in Act III would not die down. Mezzo Dolora Zajick bowed and put her hand on her chest repeatedly, and finally started her exit. It was time for the orchestra to continue, under Richard Bonynge, but the...

Amsterdam. (International).
September 1, 2002... Netherlands Opera's new production of Lulu was a personal triumph for conductor Hartmut Haenchen, as well as for soprano Laura Aikin in the title role. Both demonstrated not only how beautiful Berg's music can be but how this beauty enhances...

Charleston, SC. (North America).
September 1, 2002... Operatic lunacy reigned at Spoleto Festival USA in May, from the divine madness of Cost Fan Tutte to diabolical goofiness in Der Fliegende Hollander. Mozart's round-robin of romance profited by a giddy, vigorous production that seemed to be set...

Washington, DC. (North America).
September 1, 2002... "Let us have fantasy, boldness, unexpectedness, enchantment--above all, tenderness," Bizet once wrote. He would have found all five qualities, to varying but always traceable degrees, in the Washington Opera's revival of its 1995 production of...

Los Angeles. (North America).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Given the geographic proximity of the Los Angeles Music Center to the region's other major cultural industry, you'd expect a close working relationship between Los Angeles Opera and the surviving shards of the film industry. You'd be wrong,...

Long Beach. (North America).
September 1, 2002... Aside from a couple of college-based productions of distant memory, Janacek's Jenufa has remained a history-book entry in the Los Angeles area, but little more. That, of course, makes it ideal fodder for the intrepid explorative force known as...

Portland, OR. (North America).(Consul, Candide)
September 1, 2002... Light played tricks on the eyes in Candide, Portland Opera's season finale (seen May 11). On a bare stage, Jerome Sirlin's lighted projections flung audiences from a Bulgarian battlefield to a stomach-churning ship at sea, and from the splendor...

Milwaukee. (North America).
September 1, 2002... Producing Der Rosenkavalier is a significant endeavor for any opera company. Undertaking it with a cast filled with singers making their role debuts seems a particularly precarious venture. Yet the fearless Florentine Opera took on Strauss's...

Letter from Denver.
September 1, 2002... They all laughed at Nathaniel Merrill when the longtime Met stage director headed off to Colorado in the early 1980s and promised theatergoers in Denver he'd not only stage grand opera with international stars but present it in the round. It...

Arturo Toscanini: the NBC Years.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... by Mortimer H. Frank Forward by Jacques Barzun Amadeus Press (Portland, Oregon), 358 pp. $29.95 Probably more books have been written about Toscanini than about any other conductor. None has previously dealt specifically with the NBC...

The Memoirs of Hector Berlioz.
September 1, 2002... Translated and edited by David Cairns Everyman's Library (Knopf), 720pp. $25 Hector Berlioz, in his mid-twenties, nearly destitute and largely self-taught, found himself chased out of the Paris Conservatory library one morning by its...

Britten's Musical Language.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... by Philip Rupprecht Cambridge University Press, 368pp. $75 The subject of this entry in Cambridge's "Music in the 20th Century" series should be understood dearly in advance: it is not simply an analysis of Britten's musical style. What...

Opera, Sex, and Other Vital Matters.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... by Paul Robinson University of Chicago Press, 332 pp. $18 (paperback) Paul Robinson gets his priorities right. He's an intellectual historian (Richard W. Lyman Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University) as well as an accomplished...

Verdi: Rigoletto.
September 1, 2002... * Schafer, Araya; Alvarez, Gavanelli, Halfvarson; Orch. and Ch. of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Downes. Production, McVicar. BBC Opus Arte DVD OA 0830D Caveat emptor. This is not a Rigoletto for the prim or the literal-minded. Take...

Poulenc: Stabat Mater, Litanies a la Vierqe Noir, Quatre Motets pour un Temps de Penitence.
September 1, 2002... * Howarth, Choirs of St. John's, Clare and Gonville & Caius Colleges, Cambridge, BBC Philharmonic, Robinson (Stabat Mater). Choirs of Clare and Gonville & Caius Colleges, Cambridge, Webber (Litanies). Choirs of Clare and Gonville & Caius...

Dateline.
September 1, 2002... METROPOLITAN OPERA (Metropolitan Opera House, 212-362-6000; www.metopera.org) Sept. 23 Opening Night Gala. Fedora (Giordano) (Act II). Freni, C. Lawrence; Domingo, D. Croft, Plishka; Levine, De Tomasi/Pickover, Villagrossi/TBA. Samson et...

House style. (Coda).(opera houses)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... One evening last year, holding a ticket for New York City Opera's compelling production of Handel's Acis and Galatea, I walked from a cafe opposite Lincoln Center to the theater in a near-perfect storm. The rain soaked my shoes, and the...