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Princess Turandot (soprano Christine Goerke) proclaims a man will never possess her. Photo: Kelly & Massa for Opera Philadelphia.

Opera Philadelphia’s Bloody King, Bloody Princess

By Charles Geyer on 30 September 2016 Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Opera, Romantic

OPERA REVIEWS: Puccini’s Turandot; Third World Bunfight’s Macbeth (after Verdi) at Opera Philadelphia Opera Philadelphia’s Fall 2016 season fully exemplifies the company’s hallmarks – a commitment to variety and innovation, plus an enduring grounding in the classics. Besides the world premiere of Breaking the Waves (reviewed here on October 29), the season boasts a provocative and brilliant new adaptation of Verdi’s Macbeth by controversial and virtuosic South African theater troupe Third World Bunfight, as well as a glorious, quintessentially grand-opera production of Puccini’s crowning masterwork, Turandot. Puccini’s Crown Princess With his typically magnificent melodies, piquant exoticism, big passions and (atypical)…

DSO Gala 2016: Lang Lang and Tchaikovsky a Perfect Recipe

By Paul E. Robinson on 27 September 2016 Concert Reviews, Orchestral, Piano, Romantic

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1; Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet (excerpts); Lang Lang, piano; Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Jaap van Zweden, conductor; Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, TX, Friday, September 16, 2016 CONCERT REVIEW: It is now ostensibly a tradition for orchestras all over North America to open their seasons with a Gala concert (i.e., a fund-raising event with tickets at high prices, a sit-down meal and other perks). To guarantee maximum attendance at such an event, Gala concert programming must be accessible – no Schoenberg or Dutilleux, thank you – and above all, it must include a soloist of “superstar” status. The Dallas Symphony has perfected the art of producing…

Sergio Barza’s Favourite Art Song

By Kiersten van Vliet on 25 September 2016 Art Song, Next Great Art Song, Romantic

La Scena Musicale is celebrating the Art Song with the worldwide survey, What is your favourite art song? Submit your vote at www.nextgreatartsong.com. Conductor Sergio Barza shares his three choices below. 3. Schubert – Gretchen am Spinnrade “My peace is gone, My heart is heavy, I will find it never and never more. Where I do not have him, That is the grave, The whole world Is bitter to me. My poor head Is crazy to me, My poor mind Is torn apart. My peace is gone, My heart is heavy, I will find it never and never more. For him only, I look Out the…

Bold Programming at the Inaugural Vancouver Opera Festival

By Newswire on 21 September 2016 Classical, Contemporary, Multimedia, Newswire, Opera, Romantic, Visual Arts

VO PRESENTS THREE NEW OPERA PRODUCTIONS AND BOLD PROGRAMMING AT THE INAUGURAL VANCOUVER OPERA FESTIVAL Otello, Dead Man Walking and The Marriage of Figaro feature superb singers, stunning designs Programming also includes a new commissioned video installation by award-winning artist Paul Wong, performances by vocal stylist Ute Lemper and Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq Many events and experiences for audiences of all ages Vancouver, BC ~ Three dazzling new opera productions are at the core of the inaugural Vancouver Opera Festival, April 28 to May 13, 2017. Full-scale productions of Giuseppe Verdi’s late-career masterpiece Otello, featuring powerful tenor Clifton Forbis in…

Aida (Anna Markarova), Photo: Yves Renaud

Cautious Choice Aida Pays Off at the Opéra de Montréal

By Kiersten van Vliet on 19 September 2016 Concert Reviews, Opera, Romantic

Returning to the Opéra de Montréal stage for the first time in a decade, Verdi’s Aida opened last night in a flash of grandeur. Set in a fictional pharaonic Egypt brought to life by the Romantic imagination, Aida is a classic story of forbidden love, jealousy, and revenge. Given the relative risk of Another Brick in the Wall (March 2017), a new commission from first-time opera composer Julien Bilodeau based on Pink Floyd’s seminal album The Wall, it seems judicious to open the season with this well-loved standard. While it remains secure in the operatic canon, Opéra de Montréal’s production…

Review – Franz Schubert: String Quintet – Lieder (Erato)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 September 2016 Art Song, CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Romantic

His final work for strings, Schubert’s Quintet in C Major (1828) is unusual for its doubling of the cello voice rather than the viola, Mozart’s quintet model. With unmatched lyricism and finesse, Quatuor Ebène tackles this behemoth of Romantic chamber repertoire, which was only completed two months before the composer’s untimely death. Gautier Capuçon makes a fine fifth wheel, adding a dark intensity without disrupting the balance of the upper strings. This is perhaps the most evident in the exquisite second movement, Adagio, a nocturne that is so unusually slow for Schubert, and given a keenly sensitive treatment by Quatuor…

Filumena, Banff Centre, Photo: Don Lee

New Opera Productions in Canada

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 September 2016 Canadian Music, Classical, Contemporary, La Scena Spotlight, Opera, Romantic

The 2017–18 season is shaping up to be a milestone for new opera productions by Canadian companies. In celebration of the country’s 150th birthday, several works with Canadian themes will get their world premieres in Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto. Furthermore, Vancouver Opera has a watershed season with the inaugural year of the Vancouver Opera Festival. If you missed its triumphant opening run in Montreal last spring, Opéra de Montreal’s production of Les Feluettes (Lilies) travels to Pacific Opera Victoria this April. The Lost Operas of Mozart City Opera of Vancouver, 27 to 29 October, 2016 It’s a little-known fact that…

Inna Los as Cio-Cio-San and James Slayden as U.S. Navy Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton, Photo: Ken Howard

Butterfly Emerges Strong in Berkshire Opera Festival Debut

By Charles Geyer on 31 August 2016 Concert Reviews, Opera, Romantic

OPERA REVIEW: Madama Butterfly, inaugural production of the new Berkshire Opera Festival INTERVIEW: Jonathon Loy, BOF General Director Opera is back in the Berkshires! The new Berkshire Opera Festival took its first bow on August 27 with its fascinating and beautiful new production of Puccini’s perennially popular Madama Butterfly at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. If first impressions are everything, a better introduction could not have been imagined. Of course we know Butterfly well, don’t we? For 112 years she has tantalized and beguiled operagoers (and shamed Western sensibilities) with her tale of innocent, exotic victimhood – the geisha…

Aleksey Bogdanov (Baron Scarpia), Tosca, Opera North, Photo: Lisa Morrison

Review: Putting Puccini in His Place

By Charles Geyer on 19 August 2016 Art Song, Choral, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Opera, Orchestral, Romantic

CONCERTS: Puccini “Beyond Verismo” at Bard SummerScape 2016 OPERA: Tosca at Opera North Puccini qua, Puccini là! Arguably the most popular and successful opera composer in history has been enjoying his typical ubiquity this summer, as a single weekend’s sampling around the Northeast United States will demonstrate. Friday, August 12 saw the closing performance of the maestro’s Tosca as rendered by Opera North (Lebanon, New Hampshire) in a taut, handsome production. And at Bard College’s final weekend of SummerScape 2016 (Dutchess County, New York), three full days of programming (August 12 through 14) were dedicated to winding up an exploration of…

Lebrecht Weekly – Schubert Lieder: Der Wanderer (Delphian)

By Norman Lebrecht on 12 August 2016 Art Song, Lebrecht Weekly, Romantic

It’s always a good sign when a pianist is named as the editorial force behind a lieder recital, giving the enterprise both objective distance and intellectual rigour. Graham Johnson’s Schubert cycle on Hyperion is a benchmark of this rule, each singer chosen to reflect the character of the group of songs performed. Now the vastly knowledgeable Iain Burnside has begun a similar odyssey on the exquisite Scottish label, Delphian. I must have somehow missed the first volume with soprano Ailish Tynan, but the second is a cracker. The Welsh baritone Roderick Williams, winner of this year’s Royal Philharmonic Society award,…

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