Opera News articles from September 2003

Opera News archives from September 2003

Upward bound.(Viewpoint)(Editorial)
September 1, 2003... Many great Metropolitan Opera careers have begun with spectacular Metropolitan Opera debuts: the 1918 company premiere of La Forza del Destino that marked Rosa Ponselle's audacious leap from vaudeville to Verdi; Kirsten Flagstad's triumphant...

Opera watch.(Calendar)
September 1, 2003... 1. THE BOLSHOI THEATER season opens this month, with the Marfa of LARISSA DIADKOVA heading the cast of Khovanshchina (Sept. 4). New stagings on the Bolshoi's 2003-04 calendar are Verdi's Macbeth, absent from the Bolshoi stage for 150 years,...

On the beat: Graves's schedule takes her from Bucharest to Berlioz; Spencer's Light set to sing in Chicago; Eggerth awarded Austrian silver.(Denyce Graves)(Elizabeth Spencer's novella, The Light in the Piazza adapted to music by Adam Guettel)(Marta Eggerth receives Austria's Grand Decoration of Honor)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... Are there any other performers today who exhibit the kind of career dedication that DENYCE GRAVES does? Graves has the kind of professional sensibility that's hard to find these days; no matter what the project, she works like a demon, and...

Sound bites.(Katharine Goeldner)
September 1, 2003... Katharine Goeldner almost refused the 1997 Opera Omaha offer. The Iowa-born mezzo had spent the past decade building a thriving career in Europe, and singing Siebel in Omaha's Faust would mean giving up a season-long contract in Halle, Germany....

Reunion.(Eric Myers interviews opera singer, Carol Neblett)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... Carol Neblett feels she is very much in her prime. It's just that the offers seem to have stopped coming. "It's an interesting thing that happens," she says ruefully, "when you still can sing really well, and they only want the new, the young....

Becoming Renee Fleming: sure she's the biggest female opera star we have now. But she had a long, slow and often painful start. America's number-one diva recalls her tough early days. Struggling young singers--coraggio!(Interview)
September 1, 2003... It's hard to imagine Renee Fleming languishing in obscurity, struggling to get a career started, dragging herself from one futile audition to another. It's even harder to think of her showing up--gratefully, in fact--in Richmond, Virginia, for...

Hot tickets! Talk about hot spots!(upcoming opera in the United States, Europe and Middle East)(200th anniversary of Hector Berlioz's birth)
September 1, 2003... The most exciting place on earth this season may be the kingdom of Judea, but not for the usual political, religious and military reasons. In one of the most eagerly anticipated role debuts in years, Karita Mattila will unveil her Salome at the...

Opera confidential: Graeme Kay gives you a flavor of some of our favorite U.S. opera companies--their audiences, golden moments, proteges, favorite bars and restaurants, biggest scandals and best company anecdotes.(included are Lyric Opera of Chicago, Cincinnati Opera, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Portland Opera, San Diego Opera, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, and the Tulsa Opera)
September 1, 2003... CHICAGO The biggest pleasure I get is when I take my grandson, my daughter or just an acquaintance to the opera. To me, that's what it's all about--spreading it around. I just love to sit there and be surrounded by all that greatness. It's...

The unsinkable: Shirley Verrett: as she reveals in her recently published autobiography, this formidable American artist was often tough, uncompromising and ready to fight.(Biography)
September 1, 2003... A diva's life is marked by constant motion--jetting from one engagement to another, changing time zones, longitudes and latitudes until cities, countries and even continents zip by in a blur. But time and age reduce the whirl to slow motion....

Lord the master: one of the unsung heroes of the U.S. opera scene. Stephen Lord has a reputation for being a musician's musician. This fall, he conducts Rigoletto at Boston Lyric Opera, one of his two home companies.(Interview)
September 1, 2003... Stephen Lord's conversational style is fast, funny and occasionally furious, ripping with impatience for those who don't (or won't) work as hard as he does. "Hard, hard work," Lord says, is the secret to his success; his admiring friends and...

Bleak houses: Justin Davidson looks at some of the American opera companies hardest hit by today's economic crisis.
September 1, 2003... As the U.S. economy keeps hobbling and spluttering along like an angry drunk, it has knocked America's opera companies off balance, vandalized their plans and gouged holes in their budgets. The Metropolitan Opera still may be able to follow...

Mainstays: ever wonder what became of some of the Met stalwarts of the 1970s and '80s? William R. Braun catches up with some of the busiest artists in the company's history.(Leona Mitchell, Johanna Meier, Simon Estes, Isola Jones, Patricia Craig, Myra Merritt, Ryan Edwards, Brian Schexnayder, Allan Monk, Barabara Daniels)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... Nothing defines an opera house like the singers who appear night after night. Each generation may have a Pavarotti who jets in for a single role each season, but the quality of performance is in the hands of those who settle into the opera...

Learning with Ned: as the venerable American composer nears his eightieth birthday. Russell Platt pays tribute to the two Ned Rorems in his life-teacher and friend.
September 1, 2003... Whenever Ned Rorem publishes one of his diaries, those of us who know him go straight to the back of the book to see if we've made the cut. Fred Sherry, the versatile cellist and modern-music organizer, once said that it doesn't matter whether...

Music of the spheres.(Music and Sound)(satellite radio services XM Radio and Sirius offer classical music)
September 1, 2003... If the 1930s, '40s and '50s were the golden days of radio, the turn of the millennium may have marked the start of the platinum age for opera-lovers. While commercial radio stations across the U.S. continue their exodus from classical-music...

A season of song: opera news's 2003-04 International Opera Forecasts.(Calendar)
September 1, 2003... USA ALABAMA MOBILE OPERA (Mobile Civic Center Theater, 251-432-6772; www.mobileopera.org) Turandot. Oct. 23, 25 The Mikado. Mar. 24, 25 OPERA BIRMINGHAM (Alabama Theatre, 205-975-2787; www.operabirminqham.org) Lucia...

James Levine: a Celebration in Music.(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... * "JAMES LEVINE: A CELEBRATION IN MUSIC" Orchestral music of Brahms, Mozart, Prokofiev, Schoenberg, Stravinsky Wagner, Webern et al. Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra,...

Berg: Wozzeck (in English).(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... * Barstow, Rigby; Kale, Woodrow, Bronder, Shore, Bayley; Susan Singh Choristers, Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Daniel. English text only Chandos 3094 It's now hard to remember how the debate over opera in English translation once reached a...

Puccini: Turandot.(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... * Casolla, Deguchi: Bartolini, Heredia, Bou, Ariostini Mas, Esteve, Garcia-Quijada; Bilbao Choral Society, Escolania Santo Maria, Malaga Philharmonic, Rahbari. No libreto. Naxos 8.660089/90 Though taken from two live performances in late...

Massenet: Werther.(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... * Uria-Monzon, Azzaretti; Haddock, Massis, Marliere; Orchestre National de Lille, Casadesus. Text, no translation; English synopsis. Naxos 8 660072-73 Werther boasts one of the strongest recorded legacies of all operas--certainly, of all...

Jennifer Larmore L'Etoile.(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... * French arias by Offenbach, Massenet, Auber, Saint-Saens, Berlioz, Gounod, Ravel, Thomas, Chabrier. Texts and translations. Radio Symphonieorchester Wien, Wiener Concertcor, de Billy. Teldec Classics 8573 87193-2 Jennifer Larmore, whose...

Marcelo Alvarez and Salvatore Licitra "Duetto".(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... * Romantic ballads in duet by Sartori, Shearman, Wood, Saggese, Marrale; arrangements of Bach, Gounod, Bizet et al. The City of Prague Philharmonic, The Kuhn's Choir, May. Texts and translations. Sony Classical SK87957 Duetto, a showcase...

Solveig Kringelborn "To a Friend.".(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... * Songs by Irgens-Jensen. Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra, Jia; Smebye, piano. Texts and translations. NMA 2 (www.n-m-a.no) If the only Norwegian composer you can name is Edvard Grieg, let soprano Solveig Kringelborn introduce you to a...

Jerry Hadley "the Word is Beautiful.".(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... * Viennese operetta arias by Benatzky Kalman, Korngold, Lehar, Millocker, Stoltz, J. Strauss, Zelter. Munich Radio Orchestra, Bonynge. No texts or translations. RCA 68542-2 This collection of Viennese operetta arias would be worth having if...

Olga Makarina "Mozart Arias, Exsultate, Jubilate.".(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... * Orchestra of the Mikhailovsky M. Mussorgsky Opera and Ballet Theater, Anikhanov. Texts and translations. Romeo Records 7223 (Qualiton, dist.) Olga Makarina--born in Archangel, Russia, and trained at both the St. Petersburg Conservatory...

Dietrich Henschel "Beethoven Lieder".(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... * Schafer, piano. Texts and translations. Harmonia Mundi 901801 Dietrich Henschel is an astonishing lieder singer. In song after song on this program, it is difficult to imagine a better approach to realizing Beethoven's intentions in...

Maggie Teyte "A Vocal Portrait".(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... * Songs and arias by Berlioz, Bizet, Chausson, Debussy, Duparc, Elgar, Faure, Fontenailles, Gretry, Hahn, Liszt, Martini, Messager, Offenbach, Paladilhe, Pergolesi, Purcell, Quilter, Ravel, Romberg, Russell, Szulc, Tchaikovsky, Thomas. Recorded...

September on-line edition of opera news.(Calendar)
September 1, 2003... New recordings of works by J.S. Bach and Thomas Tomkins; the songs of Armstrong Gibbs; recitals by Kiehr, Ziesak, Persson and Kringelborn; classic performances of Acis and Galatea and The Gambler, Caballe as Gemma di Vergy; tributes to Peerce,...

Puccini: Tosca.(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... * Guleghina; Licitra, Nucci; Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Muti. Subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Italian. EuroArts/ TDKDVD 115008 9 DVUS-OPTOS (Naxos, dist.), 121 mins. Luca Ronconi's staging (La Scala, 2000) of Puccini's...

Verdi: Falstaff.(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... * McGreevy, Persson, Gubisch, Hellekant; Wi. White, Beuron, Jupither; Orchestre de Paris, Festival Aix-en-Provence (2001), Mazzola. Subtitles in English, Italian, Spanish and Japanese. 125 mins. For a Falstaff, one needs, first of all, a...

I Never Walked Alone: the Autobioqraphy of an American Sinqer.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... by Shirley Verrett with Christopher Brooks John Wiley & Sons, 306 pp. $30 In this memoir, written with Christopher Brooks, associate professor of African-American studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, Shirley Verrett takes us on her...

Lauritz Melchior: the Golden Years of Bayreuth.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... by Ib Melchior Baskerville Publishers, 273 pp. $50 For any lover of Wagner's music-drama, Lauritz Melchior retains near-mythic status. Few of us who heard him during his unchallenged reign as the world's greatest heldentenor will forget...

From around the world: San Francisco.(North America)(San Francisco Opera's three-opera festival)
September 1, 2003... A three-opera "festival" in June and July brought to a close Pamela Rosenberg's first year as San Francisco Opera's active producer (and second as general director). Not all has gone well lately for the eighty-year-old company. Money problems...

From around the world: Los Angeles.(North America ... a Polish production of Don Giovanni is reenacted across the Atlantic)(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... A staging of Don Giovanni that honored the rubrics of Lorenzo da Ponte's dramatic outlines, and nothing more, would probably rank these days as downright retrograde. Such backward steps certainly do not figure in the seventeen-year history of...

From around the world: Cincinnati.(North America)(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... As the soloist at the center of Cincinnati Opera's triple bill--Poulenc's La Voix Humaine (The Human Voice), Weill's Die Sieben Todsunden (The Seven Deadly Sins) and Bolcom's Medusa--soprano Catherine Malfitano posed herself a monumental...

From around the world: Cambridge, MA.(North America ... The Sound of a Voice and Hotel of Dreams are premiered in a single production)(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... The Sound of a Voice, Philip Glass's two interconnected one-act operas, based on plays by David Henry Hwang, had their premiere at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge in June. The title play, and the first of the evening's ghost operas,...

From around the world: Boston.(North America ... Die Schone und Getreue Ariadne is produced with fidelity to original 1691 detail)(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... When the rich, cosmopolitan city of Hamburg built the Theater am Ganse-markt, in 1678, they picked a Venetian architect who knew just what an opera house required. The building, which remained in use for sixty years, boasted the grandest stage...

From around the world: Berlin.(International ... fine performances in Peter Grimes are hampered by poor set design and production)(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... If someone of limited abilities and a demonic sense of humor set out to make a parody of all that's awful about German Regietheater, he might come up with something like Katja Czellnik's recent production of Peter Grimes for Berlin's Komische...

From around the world: Paris.(International ... a production of Les Vepres Siciliennes stresses its political intrigue)(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... The original French version of Verdi's Les Vepres Siciliennes returned to the repertoire of the Opera National on June 18, in a new production by Andrei Serban, conducted by James Conlon. At its 1855 premiere, the opera earned lavish praise,...

From around the world: Prague.(International ... an international cast delivers The Death of Klinghoffer)(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... The 2003 Prague Spring Festival brought opportunities to experience five rarely-performed works, ranging from nineteenth-century Czech operas to a contemporary American masterpiece. With John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer (seen May 22), the...

From around the world: Florence.(International)(Otello)(La Clemenza di Tito)(Fidelio)(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... None of the three operas staged during this year's Maggio Musicale boasted an ideal cast, but the inaugural production, Beethoven's Fidelio (seen at the Teatro Comunale on May 21), proved memorable nonetheless, thanks to conductor Paavo Jarvi's...

From around the world: Vienna.(International ... a production of Il Turco in Italia displays Dominique Mentha's innovative approach)(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... Who could guess that Dominique Mentha's parting gesture to Vienna (where he was harshly criticized by press, politicians and public) would result in one of the best opera productions the city has seen in years? Mentha's rocky tenure as...

From around the world: Venice.(International ... Marino Faliero suffers from a confusing plot)(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... Marino Faliero marked Donizetti's Paris debut, which took place in 1835, not long after the premiere of Bellini's I Puritani, with which it shared a stellar cast. Marino Faliero did not match Puritani's success, but it was appreciated by the...

From around the world: Amsterdam.(International ... a production of Euryanthe takes liberties with a weak libretto)(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... For this year's collaboration of Netherlands Opera and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at the Holland Festival, Bernard Haitink was to conduct Tristan und Isolde. When that production was canceled, conductor John Eliot Gardiner was called in....

From around the world: San Francisco.(Concerts and Recitals ... a production of Der Fliegende Hollander utilizes the resources of Davies Hall, on-stage and off)(Opera Review)
September 1, 2003... The rubric--"Innocence Undone: Wagner, Weill and the Weimar Years"--may have been as contentious as its predecessors. Yet the San Francisco Symphony's June festival in Davies Symphony Hall again emerged what it has been for the previous seven...

Jarmila Daubek Packard.(Obituaries)(former director of Metropolitan Opera Guild)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
September 1, 2003... JARMILA DAUBEK PACKARD, Prague, Czechoslovakia, September 25, 1932-Manhattan, June 21, 2003 A longtime member of the board of directors of the Metropolitan Opera Guild, Packard was variously active on its education, publications and...

Marcella Pobbe.(Obituaries)(death of opera singer in Italy)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
September 1, 2003... MARCELLA POBBE, Montegalda di Vicenza, Italy July 13, 1921--Milan, June 17, 2003 Celebrated for her statuesque beauty and bold style, Pobbe made her debut in 1949, at Spoleto, as Gounod's Marguerite, and appeared at all the principal...

Yevgeny Kolobov.(Obituaries)(founder, chief conductor and artistic director of Russian Novaya Theater)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
September 1, 2003... YEVGENY KOLOBOV, Leningrad, Russia, 1946--Moscow, June 15, 2003 The founder, chief conductor and artistic director of Moscow's innovative Novaya Theater, Kolobov was previously associated with the Kirov Theater and Moscow's Stanislavsky and...

Manuel Rosenthal.(Obituaries)(French composer and conductor dies in Paris)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
September 1, 2003... MANUEL ROSENTHAL, Paris, France, June 18, 1904-June 5, 2003 The composer of the opera-bouffe Rayon des Soieries (1930) and the Offenbach-inspired ballet Gaite Parisienne (1938), among other works, Rosenthal graduated from the Paris...

Dateline.(upcoming opera performances, United States and Europe, September, 2003)(Calendar)
September 1, 2003... METROPOLITAN OPERA (Metropolitan Opera House, 212-362-6000; www.metopera.orq) Sept. 29 La Traviata (Verdi). Fleming; Vargas, Hvorostovsky; Gergiev, Zeffirelli/Feldman, Zeffirelli/Gaetani Sept. 30 Tristan und Isolde (Wagner). Eaglen,...

Bend it like Bjoerling.(enjoying both soccer and opera)
September 1, 2003... I was very young when I scored the World Cup-winning goal at Milan's San Siro stadium in the afternoon, then in the evening won an hour-long ovation at La Scala. The uproar greeting my spectacular shot and the tumult for my sensational high C...