By Tim Cornwell [The Scotsman, 18 March 2010]
THE voices of the New World return to the old in this year’s Edinburgh International Festival. A flamboyant, colourful, thunderous line-up focused on Latin America and the United States ranges from the Grammy award-winning gospel group the Blind Boys of Alabama, to Australian opera, Brazilian dance and some of the world’s greatest orchestras.
By Alexandra Coghlan [MusicalCriticism.com, 18 March 2010]
Lucy CroweThere seems to be something of a curse blighting London’s tenors at the moment; hot on the heels of Domingo’s withdrawal from Tamerlano we had both John Tessier and his understudy unable to perform in ENO’s Elixir (resulting in a polyglot performance, with guest tenor Edgaras Montvidas singing in Italian while the rest of the cast continued in English), and last night’s Handel Festival concert continued in this vein with tenor Simon Wall unable to perform.
By Anthony Tommasini [NY Times, 18 March 2010]
The Metropolitan Opera under general manager Peter Gelb is defining itself through the choice and quality, however debatable, of its ambitious new productions. Yet bringing successful existing productions of overlooked works to the Met is just as important to the company’s artistic mission, not to mention a safer bet. And few operas have been as overlooked as Ambroise Thomas’s “Hamlet.”
By John von Rhein [Chicago Tribune, 18 March 2010]
When persistent bronchitis forced Anne Schwanewilms to withdraw from the cast of Lyric Opera’s fine revival of “The Marriage of Figaro,” the company again turned to one of its own to help keep the show afloat. Replacing her for the remaining five performances of Mozart’s comedy is American soprano Nicole Cabell, who took over the role of Countess Almaviva on Monday, little more than a month after she portrayed Adina in the company’s “Elixir of Love.”
By Joshua Kosman [San Francisco Chronicle, 18 March 2010]
The operatic concert paraphrase is one of the most time-bound of musical genres. It’s almost exclusively an artifact of the 19th century, an era when keyboard wizards were rife, operas were popular blockbusters, and home stereos didn’t exist.
By Francis Carlin [Financial Times, 16 March 2010]
Taking on Rameau’s only comic work Platée in France is like trying to remake a famous film. Laurent Pelly’s staging for the Paris Opera in 1999, which is still in repertoire and also a DVD, has rightly or wrongly become a template.
By Seth Colter Walls [Newsweek, 15 March 2010]
The story of Franz Schreker flips classical music’s greatest cliché on its head. Instead of toiling in obscurity during his life and gaining fame only after death, the Austrian was a star as a young composer—before he was all but erased from history. In 1919, the influential critic Paul Bekker wrote that Schreker was the only operatic author with a claim to Wagner’s exalted legacy.
By Francis Carlin [Financial Times, 9 March 2010]
Das Rheingold has been a long wait. The Paris Opera has not seen a full Ring cycle since 1957. Now, Nicolas Joel has embarked on a new cycle over two seasons with a first, very mixed, result.
NY Times ArtsBeat [9 March 2010]
Today on ArtsBeat three New York Times critics — Anthony Tommasini, chief classical music critic; Roberta Smith, art critic; and Dwight Garner, book critic — are discussing the music, the art and the literary threads of “The Nose.” Daniel J. Wakin, classical music reporter for The Times, is moderating.You can read the previous posts here.
By Becca Mitchell [TC Daily Planet, 8 March 2010]
There’s no denying La Bohème is one of the world’s most famous operas. Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera is staged frequently across the globe and was the inspiration for the Tony-winning musical Rent, which ran for more than 12 years on Broadway and was just staged in an acclaimed Minneapolis production. One could argue it’s the love story at the center of the piece that’s contributed the most to the opera’s lasting resonance. And on that level, if not on all levels, the current Minnesota Opera production delivers.
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