13 Dec 2004
Elektra in der Oper Duisburg: Ein Leben für den Tod Rheinoper: In Duisburg zeigen Stein Winge und Johannes Schütz Richard Strauss` "Elektra" in einer Welt, die Kopf steht. Duisburg. Alles ist erfüllt von den Abwesenden. An die Wände hängt Elektra,... »
13 Dec 2004
Lavinia la turca Lavinia fuggita Opera da camera in un atto di Matteo D'Amico libretto di Sandro Cappelletto, liberamente tratto dall'omonimo racconto di Anna Banti prima rappresentazione: Modena, Teatro Comunale 12 dicembre 2004 Teatro Comunale via del Teatro 8 Modena... »
13 Dec 2004
Altman opera a fitting renovation By Bill Gowen Daily Herald Classical Music Critic Posted Monday, December 13, 2004 It's rare that a film director has an opportunity for a do-over. But Robert Altman is no ordinary director, having created several... »
13 Dec 2004
Singer is entrancing in a demanding role By Wayne Lee Gay Star-Telegram Classical Music Critic After a weak start with Bizet's Carmen and a strong comeback with Janacek's Jenufa, Dallas Opera was on track for Rossini's La Cenerentola, or Cinderella,... »
12 Dec 2004
Anna Netrebko: Vom Aschenputtel zur Operndiva VON Tobias D. Höhn, 10.12.04, 12:30h Leipzig - Für viele ist sie die zweite Maria Callas. Wenn die russische Opernsängerin Anna Netrebko wie eine Ballerina über die Bühne schwebt, mit einem Lächeln und glockenheller... »
12 Dec 2004
Alle Jahre wieder - Das Weihnachtsoratorium in der Thomaskirche, mit den Thomaner, dem Gewandhausorchester und Gästen Weihnachtsoratorien sind auch eine Jahrgangsfrage: Frei von der Diskussion um die Herrlichkeit Bachscher Noten, fixiert auf die individuelle Interpretation. Insofern ist Thomaskantor Georg Christoph... »
12 Dec 2004
Firenze, teatro Comunale. Si rappresenta il Don Carlo nell'edizione in cinque atti, con la ricostruzione dello storico allestimento di Luchino Visconti. A metà del secondo atto il sipario si chiude per il cambio di scena. Mezze luci in sala, Zubin... »
10 Dec 2004
With all of the festivities surrounding the reopening of La Scala, the production of Don Carlo at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino was left in the shadows. The company is producing both the four-act and five-act editions, the latter being... »
10 Dec 2004
Altro che idiota! Vita con un idiota opera in due atti di Alfred Schinittke libretto di Viktor Erofeev Russkij Festival Auditorium Parco della Musica - Sala Petrassi Viale Pietro De Coubertin Roma 0680241281 10 dicembre 2004 Non è solo un... »
10 Dec 2004
We previously reported on the Manhattan School of Music production of Lee Hoiby's A Month in the Country. Here is Anne Midgette's review. A Russian Play, Reimagined by an American Composer By ANNE MIDGETTE "We've lost a few people," said... »
10 Dec 2004
Prodigal Son and a Brat, a Whimsical Pairing By BERNARD HOLLAND The Juilliard Opera Center's double bill on Wednesday made more nonmusical than musical sense. "L'Enfant Prodigue" by Debussy and "L'Enfant et les Sortilèges" by Ravel fit nicely into an... »
10 Dec 2004
Salieri promu chantre de l'Europe [09 décembre 2004] Le Napolitain Riccardo Muti a fait le bon choix avec cette Europa Riconosciuta de Salieri pour rouvrir le théâtre dont il est directeur musical depuis le départ d'Abbado en 1986. L'ouvrage avait,... »
08 Dec 2004
Paris Palais Garnier 12/04/2004 - et 6, 8, 11, 14, 16, 19, 22, 27 décembre 2004 Georg Friedrich Haendel : Hercules Joyce DiDonato (Dejanira), William Shimell (Hercules), Malena Ernman (Lichas), Toby Spence (Hyllus), Indela Bohlin (Iole), Simon Kirkbridge (Pretre de... »
08 Dec 2004
A triumphant 'Rosenkavalier' By George Loomis International Herald Tribune Wednesday, December 8, 2004 HELSINKI Far be it from me to foment rivalry between sopranos, but Finland has another who is fully worthy of the international acclaim already lavished on the... »
07 Dec 2004
How does it come about that "modern" productions date so quickly while "traditional" ones can go on for ages ? Probably, because ideas that once were fresh and innovative are immediately picked up by everybody in the business, copied (sometimes... »
06 Dec 2004
I spent a spectacular three days in Walt Disney Concert Hall taking in the magnificent music of Richard Wagner in what has been entitled The Tristan Project. At first, when this three day event was announced as part of... »
04 Dec 2004
Not strictly opera, but so full of the usual suspects . . . My experience of Berlioz's Dramatic Symphony Romeo et Juliette (R&J) came full circle last night at Boston's Symphony Hall. I had first heard the work live in... »
03 Dec 2004
Troubadour des temps modernes Avec toujours un meme gout pour l'éloquente clarté, Anne Sofie von Otter sait tout faire. Bete de scène inespérée, elle est récitaliste sans appret ni pose. Ballades ou mélodies, Lieder et songs, l'éclectisme du programme n'est... »
03 Dec 2004
Review: 'Rodelinda' at Met Is Masterpiece MIKE SILVERMAN Associated Press NEW YORK - George Frideric Handel's "Rodelinda" was a huge success at its London premiere in 1725, but it soon vanished from the stage and - like the composer's three... »
01 Dec 2004
Australia forges a 'Ring' with confidence By Shirley Apthorp Published: November 30 2004 Where do the Valkyries meet between battles? At the Wunder Bar, of course. Schwertleite, Grimgerde and sisters are leather-clad punks with a crass sense of humour,... »
30 Nov 2004
OPéRA "Hayedée" à Compiègne Auber sort de l'oubli Jacques Doucelin [Le Figaro] [30 novembre 2004] Et de cinq ! Après Manon Lescaut, Gustave III, Le Domino noir et Les Diamants de la couronne entre 1990 et 1999, Pierre Jourdan vient... »
30 Nov 2004
On the Weill side of Venus Robert Thicknesse Opera North is reviving a "lost" work by the composer THINK of Kurt Weill and what do you get? Cigarettes, dim lights, fishnets; Lotte Lenya or Ute Lemper; Berlin, Brecht, Communism, cabaret... »
29 Nov 2004
Eine neue Oper von Peter Eötvös in Paris uraufgeführt Peter Eötvös, der ungarische Komponist und Dirigent, heuer sechzig geworden, fühlt sich schon seit je zum Theater hingezogen. Seine Musik hat dieses narrative, körperlich-gestische Element, das Bildhafte und Kommunikative, das guter... »
29 Nov 2004
Opera: Don Pasquale Robert Thicknesse at Covent Garden JONATHAN MILLER certainly has it in for Covent Garden. A few weeks ago he hilariously described the crowd here as "Harrods Food Hall gives up its dead", and to continue the metaphor... »
27 Nov 2004
Clipping the wings of an apocalyptic epic (Filed: 27/11/2004) Rupert Christiansen reviews Angels in America at Theatre du Chatelet, Paris There are plenty of wonderful operas taken from good plays, and a few (Otello and Wozzeck, for example) taken from... »
27 Nov 2004
A fully American grand opera Los Angeles Opera stages the seldom-produced "Vanessa" By John Farrell Special to U-Entertainment Thursday, November 25, 2004 - Los Angeles Opera has been steering its productions the last few months right down the middle of... »
27 Nov 2004
Soaring Opera hits new heights in Tchaikovsky's 'Eugene Onegin' Joshua Kosman, Chronicle Music Critic Friday, November 26, 2004 Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" is a story of strong emotion accommodating itself, painfully but with resigned acceptance, to external reality. Dreams of romantic... »
24 Nov 2004
Superb, if mixed, Fanciulla at OONY Last night's La Fanciulla del West at Carnegie Hall was the classic case of the whole being much better than the sum of its parts. It was a thrilling performance of Puccini's score and... »
23 Nov 2004
The Helikon Opera of Moscow is in residence for three weeks at Dijon. Its first production was Verdi's Nabucco. In ResMusica.com, Edouard Bailly reviews this production with lavish praise for its costumes and sets, as well as, for the most... »
22 Nov 2004
Macbeth and the darkness Madrid Teatro Real 11/10/2004 - Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth Carlos álvarez (Macbeth), Paoletta Marrocu (Lady Macbeth), Aquiles Machado (Macduff), Guillermo Orozco (Malcolm), Carlo Colombara (Banquo). Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real, Jesus Lopez Cobos (Musical Conductor),... »
19 Nov 2004
Semele Robert Thicknesse at the Coliseum [Times Online, 20 November 2004] IT HAS to be the Prince of Wales's favourite opera. "Nature to each allots his proper sphere," avers Congreve's coolly brilliant libretto, and proceeds to itemise the results of... »
19 Nov 2004
Boris Trajanov, Evan Bowers and Marquita Lister Opernhaus Graz's new production of Tosca is a hit. According to Larry Lash of the Financial Times, A stage direction in my score of Tosca has Scarpia making a cup of coffee... »
19 Nov 2004
If 'Vixen' can find its balance, it'll be a charmer November 19, 2004 BY WYNNE DELACOMA Classical Music Critic Somewhere amid the nonstop bustle onstage and the flood of highly colored orchestral music from the pit, a charming production of... »
18 Nov 2004
La Fenice refaite à neuf lance sa saison avec une "Traviata" façon années 1970 LE MONDE | 17.11.04 | 18h19 Le théâtre vénitien, rénové après l'incendie de 1996, présente l'œuvre de Verdi dans sa version originale de 1853, transformée en... »
17 Nov 2004
Waiting for the End of the World
By HEIDI WALESON [WSJ]
November 17, 2004
San Francisco
Many listeners know Gyorgy Ligeti from the creepily futuristic orchestral music in the soundtrack of the 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” His opera “Le Grand Macabre” (1978, revised in 1996), given its American premiere this month by the San Francisco Opera, is a thoroughly different creature, yet it is just as much an artifact of its time. Though carefully crafted and full of compositional references, the score is mostly an elbow-in-the-ribs accompaniment to a nihilistic black comedy. Beginning with an opening fanfare for car horns that sounds like Harpo Marx multiplied and continuing with a parody of the “Dies Irae,” the prophecy of the Day of Judgment, the opera is a soulless and often scatological joke. »
16 Nov 2004
More than meeting Bellini's demands Baltimore company sings 'I Puritani' with polish, precision and control By Tim Smith Sun Music Critic November 15, 2004 Bel canto - "beautiful singing." It's more common to hear that term spoken of than to... »
15 Nov 2004
Verdi à Las Vegas Venise : de notre envoyé spécial Jacques Doucelin [15 novembre 2004] Un de ces chats comme Venise en a le secret, trone impérial et méprisant au beau milieu d'une place ensoleillée, manteau mité, mais noeud papillon... »
![Kurt Streit as Idomeneo [Photo by Terrence McCarthy courtesy of San Francisco Opera]](http://70.32.73.199/Idomeneo1.png)