Review | Spellbinding Bruckner from Thielemann & Staatskapelle Berlin in Vienna
Christian Thielemann’s June 26th concert with Staatskspelle Berlin at Vienna’s venerable Musikverein almost felt like too much of a good thing. Works by two favourite…
Ossama el Naggar
Ossama el Naggar
Born in Cairo, Egypt, Ossama el Naggar moved to Montréal to pursue graduate studies in Chemistry and Business Administration. He founded a classical music distribution company and later an online business. He teaches opera appreciation, history and literature at the Thomas More Institute in Montréal and travels extensively worldwide, chronicling opera, ballet and the symphonic repertoire.
From this author
Review | Marie-Nicole Lemieux shines in impromptu Paris Rossini fest
For avid Rossini fans, a logical destination is the Rossini Opera Festival held annually in Pesaro, the composer’s birthplace on Italy’s Adriatic coast. There, the…
Review | Wajdi Mouawad’s filmic Pelléas et Mélisande in Paris
Belgian playwright’s Maurice Maeterlinck’s play Pelléas et Mélisande (1892) fascinated musicians of the epoch. Both Fauré (in 1898) and Sibelius (in 1905) wrote incidental music…
Review | Vocally Uneven, Helter Skelter Don Carlos in Paris
Deservedly, Don Carlos (1867) enjoys a reputation as one of Verdi’s finest operas, rivaled only by his two final works, Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893).…
Review | Violinist Justin Saulnier Dazzles in Mendelssohn with Sinfonia de Montréal
Many cities, in addition to well-funded professional orchestras, boast ensembles that consist of musicians playing at a professional level, but who, for one reason or…
Review | La Scala’s Ring Continues with Triumphant David McVicar Die Walkure
This past fall, La Scala embarked upon a new Ring cycle with high expectations. Its previous one took place a decade ago, under the baton…
Review | Peter Sellars’ Unhip Castor et Pollux in Paris
Nothing is less hip than a strenuous attempt to be hip. This is how polite society would describe Paul Sellars’ take on Rameau’s Castor et…
Review | Joyce El-Khoury Triumphs as Médée in Paris
Premiered in Paris in 1797, Cherubini’s Médée was originally presented with a French libretto, based on Euripides’ play from Greek antiquity. It’s this version that is currently…
Review | Lisette Oropesa Triumphs in Misguided Paris I puritani
Bellini’s final opera, I puritani (1835), premiered shortly before the composer’s untimely death by accidental poisoning. It is one of the highpoints in the romantic…
Review | A Very Canadian Dialogues des carmélites in Valencia
Based on Die Letzte am Schafott (“The Song at the Scaffold”), a novella about the execution by guillotine of sixteen Carmelite nuns from Compiègne in…
