This world-premiere recording of the 1826 Paris version of Gaspare Spontini’s Olimpie makes a powerful case for a composer much admired in his own day.
Opera
Opera Review: Boston Early Music Opera’s “Orlando” — Divine Madness
This entertaining opera is a real soap opera, given that it chronicles the fallout of the passionate protagonist’s unrequited love.
Opera Review: BLO’S “Handmaid’s Tale” — Sublime Dystopia
The perversity of The Handmaid’s Tale oppressive allegory lends itself well to opera, and Boston Lyric Opera makes the most of the material’s emotional heights and depths.
Opera Review: A Sumptuous New Recording of Korngold’s “The Miracle of Heliane,” Centerpiece of This Summer’s Bard Music Festival
Once much-performed, then banished from the stage by the Nazis, The Miracle of Heliane, now available in a fine new recording, is perhaps the best opera by the man who would become one of Hollywood’s leading composers.
Opera Review: MassOpera’s “Die Fledermaus” — Modern Life, Lampooned
MassOpera’s updated version of Die Fledermaus pulls off a major feat.
Opera Review: “Dido and Aeneas” — A Memorable Evening of Purcell
Handel and Haydn Society assembled both a must-hear program and an extraordinary cast of singers.
Opera Review: Boston Lyric Opera’s “The Rape of Lucretia” — Bravi Tutti
The Boston Lyric Opera is mounting a fabulous staging of Benjamin Britten’s visceral opera.
Opera CD Review: Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger,” Sung in Italian, Beautifully, with Conversational Ease
A 1962 concert performance from Radio Italiana, now on CD, shows how delightful Wagner can sound without barking and slow wobbles.
Opera Review: Beyond the “Barber of Seville” — New Recordings of Two First-Rate Forgotten Operas by Rossini
Beethoven reportedly told Rossini to stick to writing comic operas. But new recordings of two of Rossini’s major serious operas bring great pleasure to the listener—and let us hear some splendid young singers.
Classical Music Commentary: Poetic Narratives in the Concert Hall, and a New Recording of Dvořák’s “The Spectre’s Bride”
A reflection on the whole tradition of combining longish narrative poems to music, especially for performance in a concert hall by large forces (e.g., singers and orchestra).