16 Feb 2006
LA Times: A sense of adventure lost. And found.
Conservatism is once more on the rise in the orchestral world but the starchy old Met, under new boss Peter Gelb, is trying to buck the trend.
Recently in Commentary
Ignite at Wigmore Hall
What do you get if you cross Benjamin Britten, ‘one-page scores’, an innovative performing ensemble and ‘Wigmore Learning’ — the Wigmore Hall’s imaginative outreach programme which aims to provide access to chamber music and song through innovative creative programmes, online resources and events?
Marseille, Capital of European Culture
Marseille woke up this past January 11 stunned to find itself number two on the New York Times list of 46 places you should visit in 2013 (Rio was number one, Paris just made the list at number 46).
Rossini Maometto Secondo at Garsington Opera - David Parry speaks
Garsington Opera at Wormsley is producing the British premiere of Giacomo Rossini´s Maometto Secondo. Garsington Opera is well-known for its role in reviving Rossini rarities in Britain. Since 1994, there have been 14 productions of 12 Rossini operas, and David Parry has conducted eleven since 2002. He´s very enthusiastic about Maometto Secondo.
Michele Mariotti conducts La donna del lago
Rossini’s La donna del Lago at the Royal Opera House boasts a superstar cast. Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez are perhaps the best in these roles in the business at this time. Yet the conductor Michele Mariotti is also hot news.
Kate Lindsey at Glyndebourne
It would seem a logical step for the mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey to take on the role of the Composer in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos.
Douglas Boyd on Garsington Opera at Wormsley
“Aim for excellence”, says Douglas Boyd, new Artistic Director of Garsington Opera at Wormsley, “and the audience will follow you”.
A Chat with Aida Designer Zandra Rhodes
When I spoke with Zandra Rhodes, she was in her large San Diego workspace, which she described as having walls decorated with her own huge black and white drawings.
An Interview with Virginia Zeani
Palm Beach audiences are famous for their glamour, but in recent years a special star has sparkled amid the jewels, sequins, feathers and furs (whatever the weather).
Bel Canto Queen Jessica Pratt
When the soprano Jessica Pratt first arrived in Italy, she had yet to learn the language or sing in a staged opera.
James Conlon Renews Contract with LA Opera
On Wednesday evening, February 20, Los Angeles Opera gave a press conference at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion featuring Music Director James Conlon.
The New Season at Teatro Real
It is another “What Could Have Been” moment. The debut of Brokeback Mountain by Charles Wuorinen is part of Madridʼs Teatro Real coming season.
Festival d’Aix en Provence 2013
Plans for July’s Aix-en-Provence Festival were announced and opera is, of course, at the center of the program with a particularly noteworthy Richard Strauss production.
Amsterdam Welcomes Stanislavski Opera
Amsterdam enjoys a rare visit from Moscow’s Stanislavski Opera at the landmark Koninklijk Carre Theater, for three performances of Tchaikovski’s Eugene Onegin and a Sunday morning opera concert, on February 1st-3rd.
A New Festival Hall for Erl
A new festival hall has been inaugurated in the small town of Erl in the Tyrolean mountains.
Rome Opera Opens New Season
Yesterday, Conductor Riccardo Muti opened the Rome Opera, where he is “honorary conductor for life,” with a gala presentation of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra.
Michael Spyres: Star Ascendant
When tenor Michael Spyres takes the stage at Carnegie Hall on December 5th, he will be in heady company.
Rewriting the Unwritten Law: Gilliam and Ghent Tackle Damnation
One of the most noteworthy and controversial productions in recent memory arrived in Belgium with hurricane force as Director Terry Gilliam’s inaugural opera, an inspired interpretation of Hector Berlioz’s Le Damnation de Faust, blasted into Ghent, followed by a run in Antwerp.
Florian Boesch on Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin
Florian Boesch is singing Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin at the Oxford Lieder Festival on Sunday 14th October. This won’t be routine. Radically challenging conventional interpretation, Boesch says “I don’t believe it ends in suicide”
Exciting Glyndebourne 2013 season
Exciting developments at Glyndebourne ! Many new initiatives which could transform Glyndebourne from a summer festival to a truly international, year-round opera experience.
Good News for Opera in Barcelona
The recently released numbers for the past season at Barcelona’s opera Liceu gives some hope for the future.
OPERA TODAY ARCHIVES »
Commentary
By Mark Swed [LA Times, 15 February 2006]
New evidence that the opera world is fickle is about as shocking as a revelation that politicians lie or that divas hate (or at least used to hate) to diet. Still, topsy-turvy is news, and topsy-turvy opera is.
Wasn't it just yesterday that San Francisco Opera went from brain dead and irrelevant to brainy and meaningful, that Los Angeles Opera was ready to sample every wonderful new flavor under the sun (and invent a few of its own), that Chicago Lyric Opera put America first and that the Metropolitan Opera was a big, fat, plush red velvet 19th century cocoon where the rich could beam at a chandelier that goes up and down, ooh and ah over sets that looked like living rooms even they couldn't afford, and dine elegantly in the Met restaurant no longer named for disgraced former donor Alberto Vilar?