Renée Fleming: An Artist of Her Time
I made notes for this article before one appeared in The New York Times implying that Renée Fleming was retiring from opera. I recall that, more than a year ago, she said she planned to put her famous...
View ArticleWhere to Find Opera in Greater New York During Spring and Summer 2017
Not too long ago, the end of the Metropolitan Opera season in mid-May plunged New York opera lovers into despondency as there were few options for hearing performances of any kind, not to mention ones...
View ArticleWhen Singers Switch Roles in the Same Opera
There is a superb revival of Lillian Hellman’s play, The Little Foxes, at Manhattan Theatre Club, directed by Daniel Sullivan. Attending it twice gave me fresh thoughts about how opera singers and...
View ArticleReview: 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 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...
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