Commentary on Joyce Di Donato’s ‘Malibran’ Concert at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro on August 19th, 2008

Di Donato being greeted by the audience at the Rossini Theater in Pesaro on August 19th, 2008.

Interview With Joyce Di Donato

Q. Why did you decide to do a concert in Pesaro this summer?

I was asked by Maestro Zedda if I would come to give a tribute concert to Maria Malibran in honor of her bicentenial, and the timing worked out perfectly for my schedule, so I jumped at the chance to return to this very special festival where I debuted 5 years earlier.

Q. Why did you select the pieces you performed?

They were all chosen from repertoire that Maria had sung over the course of her career, and I knew that I wanted to feature the Romeo from Capuleti in the second half, as well as Desdemona’s grand willow song. The Mozart were just a delight to program, and the Una Voce was sort of a “must sing”!

Q. Is Rossini’s Desdemona one of the new roles you are preparing? What roles were you working on in Pesaro?

I don’t have plans as of yet to perform Desdemona (not enough months in the year!), but it is an aria that I have long aspired to sing, and this was the perfect opportunity. I was heavy into preparation for my first Elvira for the Royal Opera House (which just opened last night!). I was arriving to a very short rehearsal period, and since this was a new role, I knew I needed to be overly well prepared, so my days were spent with Mozart instead of at the beach, sadly!

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Teatro Comunale di Bologna’s Committed but Incomplete Simon Boccanegra

Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901) Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave

Simon Boccanegra – Melodrama in a Prologue and Three Acts Simon Boccanegra – Roberto Frontali Amelia Grimaldi – Carmen Giannattasio Jacopo Fiesco – Giacomo Prestia Gabriele Adorno – Giuseppe Gipali Paolo Albiani – Marco Vratogna Pietro – Alberto Rota Capitano dei balestrieri – Enea Scala Ancella di Amelia – Lucia Michelazzo

Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna Conductor – Michele Mariotti Chorus Master: Paolo Vero Director – Giorgio Gallione Costume and Set Design – Guido Fiorato Lighting Design – Daniele Naldi

Directed for TV and Video – Francesca Nesler

Live from the Teatro Comunale di Bologna 2007 Synopsis, essays and Subtitles in Italian, English, French, German, and Spanish. ARTHAUS MUSIK Cat. No. NTSC 101 307 1DVD Running Time; 140 Min.

At first it came as a delightful surprise to see this Simon Boccanegra from the Teatro Comunale di Bologna available on DVD. In November, 2007, thirteen opera lovers from Michael Tisma’s Ovations International opera tour travelled to Teatro Municipale Valli in Emiglia Romana to see Bologna’s production of Boccanegra. Without exception, everyone considered it an emotionally gripping performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s pessimistic tale of spiritual disturbance and foreboding. What is evident while watching the DVD is the difference between the confident execution and polish of the Teatro Valli performance and the unfinished, yet promising rendition caught at the opera’s prima in Bologna. There is much to be said for taping a production later in the run, after it has had a few performances under its belt. Valli’s was the seventh outing for Bologna’s dedicated team where it revealed all its artistic merit.

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Howard Shore, The Fly

By Harvey Steiman

Reprinted with permission from Seen and Heard – Music Web’s Live Opera, Concert and Recital Reviews.

Soloists, chorus and orchestra of Los Angeles Opera, Placido Domingo, conductor; Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. 7.9.2008 (HS)

Cast:

SETH BRUNDLE, Daniel Okulitch
VERONICA QUAIFE, Ruxandra Donose
STATHIS BORANS, Gary Lehman
OFFICER/MEDICAL ANALYST/CHEEVERS, Beth Clayton
MARKY, Jay Hunter Morris
TAWNY PERKINS, Ashlyn Rust

Production:

LIBRETTIST, David Henry Hwang
DIRECTOR, David Cronenberg
SET DESIGNER, Dante Ferretti
COSTUME DESIGNER, Denise Cronenberg
LIGHTING DESIGNER, AJ Weissbard
ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR/CHORUS MASTER, Grant Gershon
MAKEUP AND CREATURE DESIGN, Stephan L. Dupuis
MAKEUP, CREATURE AND PUPPET FABRICATION, Mark Rappaport’s Creature Effects, Inc.

Those who know David Cronenberg’s 1986 film “The Fly” probably remember mostly its gore. The title character, a mad scientist played by Jeff Goldblum, gradually transforms into a gigantic insect, losing fingernails and various appendages in several memorable “yuck” moments. But there’s a story of human emotions in the film as well, as the scientist and a pretty science reporter, played in the film by Geena Davis, struggle to come to grips with their own love story and its consequences.

Sounds like great stuff for an opera, doesn’t it? Los Angeles Opera thought so, too, and co-commissioned one. It made its U.S. debut Sunday with Placido Domingo conducting and Cronenberg directing (the first performances were in July at Theatre de Châtelet in Paris). The results seem surprisingly tepid.

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