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A Tale of Two Festivals: Castleton and BlackCreek

By Paul E. Robinson on 14 July 2011 Concert Reviews, Opera, Orchestral

by Paul E. RobinsonEvery summer Marita and I drive from Austin, Texas back to our native Canada, varying our route each year according to events of particular interest on the road and the availability of friends we enjoy visiting.This year we decided to make a stop in Charlottesville, Virginia, a favourite place we hadn’t visited in too many years. This charming, lively, petite (pop: 40,000) mountain town is home to the University of Virginia where we fondly recalled once having inspected the tiny room inhabited by Edgar Allen Poe during his short tenure as a student here. The literary stature…

Mark Adamo : Little Women

By La Scena Musicale Team on 17 June 2011 Multimedia, Opera

Stephanie Novacek (Jo), Joyce DiDonato (Meg), Chad Shelton (Laurie), Stacey Tappan (Beth), Margaret Lloyd (Amy), Daniel Belcher (John Brooke) Houston Grand Opera Orchestra/Patrick Summers Mise en scène : Peter Webster Décors : Christopher McCollum; Costumes : Melissa Graff Naxos 2.110613 (114 min 53 s) **** Little Women a été créé en 1998 au Houston Grand Opera et est devenu depuis l’un des opéras les plus souvent montés sur les scènes internationales. L’histoire est une adaptation du roman de Louisa May Alcott qui raconte la vie des quatre filles March (Jo, Meg, Amy et Beth), vivant dans la demeure familiale lors…

Austin Lyric Opera in Crisis: No Easy Answers!

By Paul E. Robinson on 27 May 2011 Arts Industry, Opera

by Paul E. RobinsonThe news just keeps getting worse from opera companies across the United States. As the economy ever so slowly rights itself after a devastating recession, ticket buyers and generous donors are hard to find. Endowments have taken a tremendous hit from the stock market collapse. The New York City Opera has been struggling for years and recently announced that it would have to leave Lincoln Center in order to cut costs and remain in business. David Gockley, the San Francisco Opera’s highly-regarded General Director, said that his company was feeling the heat and needed to do some…

“Die Walküre” Battles “The Machine”

By Paul E. Robinson on 25 May 2011 Concert Reviews, Opera

by Paul E. RobinsonWhile opera fans are notoriously old-fashioned when it comes to stage directors bringing overarching new ideas to their favourite works, it is clear that if opera is going to have any future, it must be open to creative re-thinking.Wieland Wagner successfully updated his grandfather’s Ring cycle at Bayreuth in the 1950s, and Karajan and Schneider-Siemssen used cutting edge projection technology to add a new dimension to the Ring cycle at Salzburg in the 1960s. In 1976, Patrice Chereau gave us something to think about with his radical new Ring at Bayreuth. In 2011, we have Robert LePage…

Fun at the Opera: Nuns in NY and Aliens in Austin!

By Paul E. Robinson on 18 April 2011 Multimedia, Opera

by Paul E. RobinsonIt’s not possible to be in two places at once, or is it? Thanks to “The Met Live in HD,” I virtually spent the afternoon in New York enjoying Le Comte Ory, and the evening at the Long Center in Austin, Texas, totally engrossed in Jonathan Dove’s Flight as presented by the Austin Lyric Opera.Le Comte Ory and Flight are far from standard opera fare, yet both were first-class entertainment, and, in the case of Flight, philosophically interesting too. These two productions had something else in common; each of them involved the birth of a child -…

Still Dangerous After 181 Years?

By La Scena Musicale Team on 11 April 2011 Opera

By Frank Cadenhead The new brochure of the 2011-2012 season at Paris’s Opéra-Comique only arrived in the past few days and has already caused a stir in two countries. Most Parisians know the name of the composer Auber only as the name of a metro stop near the Palais Garnier. But Daniel François Esprit Auber (1782-1871) was the most performed French opera composer in the 19th Century and his opera “La Muette de Portici” (The Mute Girl of Portici) has an important history. The fact that this opera is in the season at the Opera-Comique next year, from the 3rd…

Opera of the Future: HD, 3D & Beyond

By Paul E. Robinson on 11 March 2011 Concert Reviews, Multimedia, Opera

by Paul E. RobinsonI must confess that I was reaching the point where I doubted I could sit through another performance of Carmen! The plot was too silly, the music overly familiar and the characters merely cardboard cutouts; then, along came the Royal Opera House production directed for the stage by Francesca Zambello, and for film by Julian Napier. Did I mention it was in 3D?This production of Carmen (poster: right) in 3D was a fantastic experience, and completely restored my faith in Bizet’s venerable opera. It also provoked me to question the Met’s pioneering efforts in streaming opera live…

Metropolitan Opera Announces 2011-12 Season Including 11 Live in HD

By Newswire on 17 February 2011 Newswire, Opera

Here is the Metropolitan Opera’s 2011-12 Season announcement.Wah Keung Chan—Seven New Productions, Including a World Premiere,a Met Premiere, and the Complete Ring Cycle,Headline the Met’s 2011-12 SeasonJames Levine conducts the final two installments of Robert Lepage’s production of the Ring: Siegfried and Götterdämmerung; complete cycles scheduledfor April and May 2012The season opens with the first-ever Met performance of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena,starring Anna Netrebko in the first of two new productions she sings this season; Laurent Pelly’s production of Manon follows in AprilThe world premiere of The Enchanted Island, a pastiche of Baroque music and Shakespearean comedy, opens on New Year’s EveTony Award-winning stage directors Michael Grandage and Des McAnuffmake their Met debuts…

Breaking News: Canadian soprano Simone Osborne Sings Juliette

By Newswire on 14 February 2011 Newswire, Opera

Soprano Simone Osborne (photo: Connor Beaton)It has just been announced that Vancouver soprano Simon Osborne will be making her Vancouver Opera debut as Juliette in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette next season. Below is the Press Release from Vancouver Opera. Osborne burst onto the scene after winning the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2008, and has since taken on major assignments. Currently she is Pamina in the COC production of The Magic Flute. Upcoming engagements include an Atlantic Canada recital tour, Gilda in Rigoletto for the COC next season, and Mozart Requiem for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in January 2012.*******************Vancouver…

Breaking News: Canadian Peter Barrett Makes Met Debut

By Newswire on 14 February 2011 Newswire, Opera

Just received the following press release from the Met – Newfoundland baritone Peter Barrett is making his Met debut this evening as Dr. Malatesta opposite a stellar cast of Anna Netrebko Norina and Matthew Polenzani as Ernesto. This is great news for Peter and for Canadian opera. He was a member of the COC Ensemble, and even at that early stage of his career, he had all the ingredients of a major singer – gorgeous voice, solid training, stage presence, musicality, and the drive and ability to excel. We say Bravo to Peter, and “Toi toi toi” for this evening!…

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