OperaPulse :: Opera's Online Voice

Grammy Worthy: Why We Love Joyce DiDonato

Jennifer Sams — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:29:10 +0000

Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is stealing hearts everywhere lately. She brought the crowd to their feet at the 54th Grammy Award ceremony last week with her performance of Rossini’s “Non più mesta” from La Cenerentola and has been receiving rave reviews for her performance in the Metropolitan Opera’s pastiche The Enchanted Island which played during the month [...]

Better Than The Real Thing: San Diego Opera’s ‘Moby-Dick’

Erica Miner — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:23:27 +0000

San Diego, CA - On a recent trip to Maui I took a whaling cruise. What unfolded before my disbelieving eyes almost sent me careening overboard: a new calf breeching, instantly followed by its mother showing how it was done. A rare occurrence, we were told. What, I asked myself, could possibly top that? The [...]

New York City Opera Opens Season with Traviata

Steven Jude Tietjen — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:00:58 +0000

New York, NY - The world premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s nineteenth opera, La Traviata, was a disaster. Violetta, a consumptive courtesan, was sung by an aging, overweight soprano and her lover, Alfredo, and his proud father, Germont, were sung by mediocre singers. But the real controversy lay in Verdi’s continued experimentation with and bending of [...]

Peabody Conservatory Presents an Evocative Postcard from Morocco

Megan Ihnen — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:43:47 +0000

Baltimore, MD - The ultimate trick in presenting an opera that does not have a specific plot is to attack the work with the same intensity and captivating energy as every other Traviata and Tosca. Dominick Argento’s Postcard from Morocco, premiered in 1971 at the Cedar Village Theater, Minneapolis, MN, is vague by design. It [...]

Women on the Verge

Steven Jude Tietjen — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:00:24 +0000

New York, NY - Valentine’s Day propaganda focuses on the uncomplicated, easily commercialized aspects of love: two people, madly and faithfully in love, exchanging cultural tokens of devotion. That’s fine, but what about the rest of us? What about the many relationships that represent the difficulty, complexity, and precarious nature of falling in – and [...]

Breaking Traditions: Karen Keltner

Erica Miner — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:00:54 +0000

San Diego, CA - San Diego Opera Resident Conductor Karen Keltner knows about pushing envelopes. One of the few female conductors to hold that position in an opera company, in the U.S. or overseas, she always knew the path to becoming a conductor would be uphill, but also recognized that for a woman, that road [...]

Houston Grand Opera’s Vivid Rape of Lucretia

Robin Lowe — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:00:42 +0000

Houston, TX - Houston Grand Opera’s production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia plays as an incredibly vivid history lecture that skews into a theology lecture before the end of the second act. The action takes place in Rome in approximately 500 B.C., with these scenes taking place on a raked area in the center [...]

Pittsburgh Symphony and Mendelssohn Choir Perform Brahms’ Requiem

Christian Kriegeskotte — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Pittsburgh, PA - According to Dr. Richard E. Rodda’s program notes, Brahms began composing his “German Requiem” in the form of a symphony, inspired by the encouragement of his most profound mentor, Robert Schumann, who died prematurely in 1856. The work did not evolve into its final state until after the subsequent death of the [...]

Wagner’s Rienzi: a Staple at OONY

Steven Jude Tietjen — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

New York, NY -This past weekend New York City was ablaze with Wagner. While Deborah Voigt rode off into the sacrificial fire at the premiere of the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Götterdämmerung on Friday night, Eve Queler and her Opera Orchestra of New York offered a lighter fare of Wagnerian barbecue with a nobly [...]

Opera Lafayette Gives Life to the Rare

Steven Jude Tietjen — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

New York, NY - As the overture to Monsigny’s Le Roi et le fermier stretched into the Rose Theater, shaking off years of dusty neglect, two gold busts flanking the stage slowly came to life. With the climax of the overture, the inanimate statues cocooned into the sentient playwright and his female partner in narration. [...]