Living at the Opera

Here is another Renata Scotto Lucia which has come available, and it is one of her best. This performance is one of three which the soprano sang in May 1967, at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Again it is the cast and the conductor that make this outing memorable. Along with Riccardo Muti, Gianandrea [...]

This delightful performance on CD of Rossini’s Cenerentola was recorded live on 13 November 2004 at the ROSSINI IN WILDBAD festival. The cast gathered for this production exhibits the highest singing standards possible among today’s Rossini revivals. Joyce Di Donato’s Cenerentola is the total package. She not only sings in an effortless way, but her [...]

“Miss Scotto lives her roles and the standing ovation she received was her just due.” So said Max de Schauensee, Bulletin Music Critic Emeritus about Renata Scotto’s Bolena on December 16, 1975, at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. Scotto sang only five performances of the opera, three in Dallas with mezzo-soprano Tatiana Troyanos as Giovanna [...]

In today’s opera world, many opera companies are anxious to seek out theater directors to flesh out the story lines of the operas they are presenting; opera impresarios are overjoyed when they can find a director who can excite their audiences. From the reviews some of these productions receive online and in the press, the [...]

The unending close-ups and ‘pseudo-artistic’ camera angles shot by video director, Gary Halvorson, came close to deflating the emotion out of the February 7th Telecast of G. Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. In Act One, he ran so many quick facial shots, it seemed there was one for each musical measure. He also interjected some unwieldy [...]

By Bernard Jacobson Reprinted with permission from Seen and Heard – Music Web’s Live Opera, Concert and Recital Reviews. Ensemble La Venexiana, cond. and dir. Claudio Cavina, The Moore Theater, Seattle, 8.2.2009 (BJ) The Early Music Guild and its executive director, August Denhard, put Seattle much in their debt with a three-performance visit by the [...]

Many operagoers think the Met’s HD Telecasts appear the same on the screen as in the house. The January 24th telecast of W. Gluck’s 1762 version of Orfeo ed Euridice proved otherwise. Because of video director Barbara Willis Sweete’s steady stream of close-ups, viewers were deprived of seeing many of the dancers’ flowing lines and [...]

It’s a safe bet that when Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna are scheduled to sing, the married couple will produce theatrics back stage as well as during the performance. It certainly turned out that way at the Met’s January 10th HD telecast of Giacomo Puccini’s La Rondine. Minutes before the opera was about to start, [...]

By James L Zychowicz Reprinted with permission from Seen and Heard – Music Web’s Live Opera, Concert and Recital Reviews. Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Lyric Opera of Chicago, Sir Andrew Davis (conductor) Civic Opera House, Chicago 20.12.2008 (JLZ). Production: Original Production: Harold Prince Director: Vincent Liotta Set Design: Clarke Dunham Lighting: Christine Binder Conductor: [...]

Rossini Opera Festival 2007 If ever there was an opera production that put the words “cultural divide” in neon lights, the Rossini Opera Festival’s 2007 production of La Gazza Ladra is it. The striking differences in opinions between Italian opera critics and their English counterparts were planted front and center. These diverse viewpoints were directly [...]