The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Month: March 2013
-
The musicians of San Francisco Symphony are returning to work as of March 31, 2013. They have reached a tentative agreement for a new 26-month contract. Official Site | Press Release
-
Tenor Noah Stewart (pictured left, photograph by Mitch Jenkins) is singing the world premiere of Steven Stucky’s The Stars and the Roses with Berkeley Symphony this Thursday. How did you start singing?I first started singing when I needed extra school activities while at junior high school in New York City. I was drawn to a…
-
* Notes * Mariss Jansons and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (pictured left, photograph courtesy of Bayerischer Rundfunk) performed Shostakovich and Beethoven as the closing concert of this year’s Lucerne Festival zu Ostern. The orchestra played Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 54 first. The piece is quite odd, having a vernal, yet dark quality…
-
* Notes * Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, and the Tölzer Knabenchor were conducted by Mariss Jansons (pictured left) in Britten's War Requiem op. 66 at Lucerne Festival Saturday evening. The orchestra sounded secure and polished. The brass fanfares in the Dies irae were particularly fine. The chorus was perfectly good. The boys'…
-
* Program * Johannes BrahmsTragic Overture, Op. 81Daniel Cohen Ludwig van BeethovenSymphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 (first movement)Giedre Slekyte Claude DebussyNuages from Trois Nocturnes Paolo Bortolameolli * Notes * Bernard Haitink has been giving master classes in conducting for the Lucerne Festival for three days. This morning's session included three young conductors from…
-
* Notes * John Eliot Gardiner conducted (pictured left, photograph by Sheila Rock / Decca) English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir in Johannes-Passion BWV 245 at Lucerne Festival Friday night. The playing was crisp and genial, and any intonation errors were within reason given the period instruments. The singing was lucid and very much together. The…
-
* Notes * A run of Cimarosa's Il Matrimonio Segreto is currently being held at Teatro Regio di Torino. Francesco Pasqualetti conducted last night's performance, and the overture went nicely, but there were some raw, blurry moments in the pit. Likewise with the singing, which was often quiet compared with the sound of the orchestra.…
-
* Notes * This month Teatro La Fenice is performing Rossini's first opera, La Cambiale di Matrimonio, in Teatro Malibran. The opera is only one act and director Enzo Dara certainly makes the most of the scant 75 minutes it takes to perform. The sets and costumes, from Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, feature…
-
* Notes * La Fenice is currently presenting the Robert Carsen production of Věc Makropulos. Carsen sets much of the action in an opera house, starting with Emilia Marty on stage during the overture, switching in and out of various opera costumes. Act II is clearly backstage after Turandot, and Act III is simply in…
-
* Notes * Claudio Abbado and Orchestra Mozart Bologna (pictured left, photograph by Marco Caselli Nirmal) played a second concert at Lucerne Festival last night. The program started with Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 2, played with a smooth lucidity. Martha Argerich returned to the KKL Konzertsaal stage to play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20. Both soloist…
The Opera Tattler 