Review: Heartbeat Opera's Tricky 'Butterfly' Adaptation
Must expectations be adjusted — or lowered — when opera loses its grandeur? Such is the ongoing question that confronts any number of upstart opera companies in New York and elsewhere as they seek to...
View ArticleWhy Don't We Clap Between Movements at Classical Concerts?
“My Music Rules,” arguably the best episode of the animated children’s drama Arthur, sees the titular third-grade aardvark at odds with his little sister, D.W. For the musical guest at an upcoming...
View ArticleDonizetti's Stunning 'Lucia di Lammermoor' Is Your Saturday at the Opera...
The stunning Lucia di Lammermoor Donizetti’s beautifully tragic masterpiece, is your Saturday at the Opera production. Listen in at 1 pm for the music of love, madness and — if this performance is new...
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Your 2017 Classical Music Summer Festival Guide
Memorial Day is behind us, and while Neil deGrasse Tyson wouldn't say it's technically summer yet (June 21 can't come fast enough!), the warm weather and longer days have us ready for it. To help you...
View ArticleHow Many Movements Are There in a Symphony?
“What are the four movements of a symphony?” is a weird question. Not a bad question, but certainly a weird one. That’s because it assumes that there are always four movements in a symphony. There are...
View ArticleThe State of the Art at La Scala
MILAN — I have been fortunate to attend at least a couple of performances at Teatro alla Scala every season since 1975. In addition, I was a student there in the late 1970s, working directly under the...
View ArticleConductor Sir Jeffrey Tate Has Died at 74
Sir Jeffrey Tate, the leading English conductor and chief conductor of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra died on June 2nd, at the age of 74. It has been reported that he suffered a heart attack.Tate was a...
View ArticleBerlioz's Monumental 'Les Troyens' Is Your Saturday at the Opera Broadcast
On Saturday at 1pm, soak in the epic nature of Hector Berlioz’s crowning achievement, Les Troyens. The sprawling story, told over five acts, was the culmination of Virgil’s epic poem that had...
View ArticleRon Howard Is Directing a Pavarotti Documentary
Earlier this month, the internet learned that Ron Howard will be directing an official Luciano Pavarotti documentary. Howard is no stranger to biopics and documentaries; the famed actor and filmmaker...
View Article#3834: New Music From/About Iceland
For this New Sounds, hear music made about an imaginary Iceland as well as new music from Iceland by way of Ireland, Australia, & New York. One of the outsider’s views of Iceland is by the Irish...
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A Musical Renaissance on the Italian Riviera
GENOA — This wonderful, contradictory capital of Liguria (the Italian Riviera) is the first Italian city I wrote about for Operavore. I adore Genoa and its whole region in a very particular way. It is...
View ArticleThe Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Grand Finals Concert
This week's episode of Saturday at the Opera features a special broadcast of The Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Grand Finals Concert. The Finals Concert took place on March 19th with Maestro...
View ArticleHistory Clashes With Culture Over Roman Rock Opera 'Nero'
The rock opera Divo Nerone (“Divine Nero”), a massive spectacle of musical theater, premiered this weekend in Rome. But while the show and it’s all-star direction stopped at nothing to wow the...
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Review: 'Angels in America' at New York City Opera
Though Angels in America remains a pungent period piece about the late-20th-century AIDS epidemic, the 21st century couldn't help but creep into the New York City Opera production of Peter Eotvos'...
View ArticleIn Praise of Alan Gilbert
Alan Gilbert, music director of the New York Philharmonic, just gave his last Lincoln Center performance with the company he has led since 2009. The house program on June 10 had a cover page that...
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Review: New Opera 'Three Way' Meditates (Tamely) on Sex
With all of its throbbing vocal and orchestral intensity, opera is full of sex, as a byproduct of passion. But how often does opera portray sex — full and frontal?Three Way, the new opera with music by...
View ArticleCaramoor Opens Its Summer Season With a Night of Italian Opera
At 8:30 pm on Saturday, June 17, listen live as Caramoor opens its summer season with a concert celebrating the 20th anniversary of Bel Canto at Caramoor. Artist-in-Residence soprano Angela Meade is...
View ArticleThe Challenge of Translating Traditional Stage Works for Today's Modern...
Earlier this month, controversy erupted after a Fox News program reported on a certain New York City play. That “play” was Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare in 1599. In the play’s third...
View ArticleMissing 'The Leftovers'? Explore the Music Next
HBO’s acclaimed series The Leftovers came to a finish earlier this month. For those at a loss for what to do with their lives post Leftovers, here’s a suggestion: dive further into the music. Since its...
View ArticleThe Opera Party: Pride Without Prejudice
At 7 pm on Thursday, June 22, watch Metropolitan Opera countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo celebrate opera — and its secrets — in a whole new way at The Greene Space.At our final Opera Party of the...
View ArticleGig Alert: Julia Holter's Tragedy Opera at National Sawdust, 6/22 & 6/23
Gig Alert: Julia Holter's Tragedy Opera at National Sawdust Tickets: $34-$42, General Admission. Shows at 7PM, 6/22 & 6/23Singer and composer Julia Holter writes music that blurs the line between...
View ArticleThoughts on Opera and Gay Pride
It seems to me that opera, on the stage, is more gay than ever but possibly the opera audience is less gay than ever. By this I mean that opera no longer serves as a discreet refuge for an oppressed...
View ArticleMozart's Immensely Popular 'Magic Flute' Is Your Saturday at the Opera...
Tune in Saturday at 1 pm EST for Mozart’s immensely successful fantasy opera The Magic Flute. The two-act production begins as a romantic princess rescue mission, a common theme amongst works of its...
View ArticleWatch the First Episode of ‘Vireo,’ Lisa Bielawa's New Binge-Worthy Opera
Lisa Bielawa’s Vireo is meant for binge-watching. That’s not a phrase one typically associates with opera, but taken in the context of Bielawa’s work — her previous projects include a...
View Article#3845: Sam Amidon and Nico Muhly
Vermont-born singer/fiddler/banjoist/guitarist Sam Amidon and composer, arranger, and co-founder of the artist-run Bedroom Community record label Nico Muhly join John Schaefer in the studio for this...
View ArticleO (peratic) Canada!
In the cultural and political hurlyburly that is the United States, we sometimes lose track of our friendly and excelling neighbors to the north.Canadians will shortly celebrate, in their circumspect...
View ArticleWeird Classical: Conductors Who Died at the Podium
Today, it’s a bit cliche to describe something as your “passion.” The word is everywhere on job postings, resumes, dating profiles and countless “about me” sections all over the Internet. But maybe the...
View Article'Norma,' a Bel Canto Masterpiece, Is Here for Saturday at the Opera
On Saturday at 1pm, you can listen in for Norma, Vincenzo Bellini’s veritable bel canto masterpiece. The story of love and betrayal in Roman Gaul was considered by the composer to be his finest work....
View ArticleEpisode 10: The Drug War
As the opioid epidemic continues to increase, we take a look back at the Sixties when the War on Drugs, a federal effort to decrease illegal drug use, was beginning to take shape. It was a decade of...
View ArticleSan Francisco Opera Heats Up
SAN FRANCISCO — It seems that Mark Twain never said that the coldest winter he ever spent was summer in San Francisco. But it can be surprisingly chilly for people who are unprepared. Twain came here...
View ArticleThis Opera Company Stages Performances on a Truck
What would you do if you knew people wanted to go to the opera, but they couldn’t afford it? OperaCamion, a production of Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, thinks you should just bring the show to...
View Article'Carmen,' the Eternal Favorite, Is Your Saturday at the Opera Broadcast
Carmen is universally loved, and you can enjoy it once again on Saturday at 1 pm.Well-known excerpts from the immensely popular opera have found their way into all of pop culture’s many rooms. However,...
View ArticleIt’s The Bomb, Opera Lovers
When I exited LoftOpera’s production of Rossini’s Otello last March, I asked a young woman what she thought of the performance. “It’s the bomb!” she said. I’ve heard this term, and its related “It’s da...
View Article'Eugene Onegin,' a Bleak Look at Missed Opportunities, Is Your Saturday at...
In 1879, Tchaikovsky wrote an operatic adaptation Eugene Onegin, based on a novel by the revered Russian writer Alexander Pushkin. It’s this opera, with its meditations on love, loneliness and shifting...
View ArticleWho Should Receive the Next Kennedy Center Honors?
The recipients of the 2017 Kennedy Center Honors will soon be announced. This is one of the greatest recognitions our nation bestows on its performing artists, many of whom (though not all) were born...
View ArticlePreview: Dvořák's Long Lost 'Dmitrij' is Coming to BardSummerScape Festival
In a world where operatic sequels are all but unknown, Mussorgsky's 1874 Boris Godunov gruffly demands one.The Macbeth-like Tsar Boris is toppled by madness and death, and his successor — who was...
View ArticleBoston, Witchcraft and Verdi's 'Un Ballo in Maschera'
BOSTON — I enjoy coming to this historic city because many locals have strong opinions and there are many stimulating conversations to be had. Once we put aside the vexing question of why Boston sports...
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Review: Changing the Opera DNA of Handel's 'Aci' and Schubert's 'Winterreise'
The sanctity of the operatic masterpiece is becoming an increasingly dim memory. The question is, how much do we mind?The summer has been a series of wildly personal productions, with Heartbeat Opera...
View ArticleMozart's 'Don Giovanni' is your Saturday at the Opera Broadcast
Tannhäuser, Richard Wagner’s masterpiece about the legendary German poet of the same name, is your 1pm Saturday at the Opera Broadcast. The work premiered in 1845, but Wagner couldn’t keep away from...
View ArticleAudra McDonald is the "Luckiest Survivor in the World"
Much like the staggering beauty of her voice, Audra McDonald is impossible to ignore. The only artist to sweep all four acting categories at the Tony’s, she’s the most decorated Broadway star of all...
View ArticleWhat Turns an Opera Flop Into a Favorite?
Many of the world's great operas were once considered flops. It's hard to believe but it's true. Like great movies or book that over time develop into classics, so too have some operas received a...
View ArticleWagner's 'Tannhäuser,' the Stuff of German Legend, Is Your Saturday at the...
Tannhäuser, Richard Wagner’s masterpiece about the legendary German poet of the same name, is your 1pm Saturday at the Opera Broadcast. The work premiered in 1845, but Wagner couldn’t keep away from...
View ArticleJonas Kaufmann Tackling Otello Will Show at U.S. Theaters in HD
In 1965, Maria Callas sang her final two Met performances, as Tosca. Her Scarpia was Tito Gobbi and the conductor was Fausto Cleva. At the first performance her Mario Cavaradossi was Franco Corelli. At...
View ArticleSingular Voices: The Poetical José Carreras
Say “José Carreras” and the typical response is, “One of the Three Tenors along with Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti.” True, of course. The lucrative megaconcerts between 1990 and 2003 dominate...
View ArticleVerdi's Tragic 'Macbeth' Is Here for Saturday at the Opera
Macbeth is a terrifying, yet fascinating, look at the dynamics of power and the delusions that come with it. The play is a Shakespeare staple, and Verdi’s operatic interpretation of it has been chosen...
View ArticleFall 2017 Preview: Opera and Vocal Music in New York
The opening of the Metropolitan Opera is always the highlight of the fall opera season in New York and the Met has appealing offerings this autumn. But New York has many other appealing and unusual...
View ArticleWhy Are There Ballets in the Middle of French Opera?
In 1861, Richard Wagner was ready to take his opera Tannhäuser to the Paris Opéra. He knew that in order to please his Parisian audience, he had to revise it to include a ballet, which he managed to...
View ArticleFall Preview: New Operas and Important Revivals Across America
I hear so often that opera is dying, that there are no new works, that production styles are either moribund or crazy. And yet, we are in a period of real creative ferment in opera. There is a...
View ArticleGet Ready for a Wild Ride With Offenbach's 'Tales of Hoffman'
Jacques Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman is your selection for this saturday’s edition of Saturday at the Opera. And it’s a particularly good one, especially if you’re in the mood for masked identities,...
View ArticleFall 2017 Preview: New Operas and Big Nights in Europe
When summer high season ends, it’s the right time to travel to Europe, even for a few days, for some opera, good food and museum exhibitions. The continent’s beastly heat wave will have abated....
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