Long before the often-prejudicial portrayals of Middle Easterners in Hollywood films, opera composers crafted insightful works from 1001 Nights.
Opera
Listening During Covid, Part 8: A Remarkable Black British Composer, an American Master, and an Award-Winning Salieri Premiere
CD recordings keep bringing us unexpected treasures, including chamber works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Samuel Adler, and the (by turns) exquisite and powerful opera Armida by Mozart’s contemporary — who was not his murderer — Antonio Salieri.
Opera Album Review: A Scandalous Liaison Makes a Wonderful Opera: Lennox Berkeley’s “Nelson”
Berkeley’s Nelson reinforces my sense that many fine composers of the twentieth century have largely slid off the map because they did not cater to the obsession of many critics and academics with “the New at all cost.”
Arts Reconsideration: The 1971 Project – Celebrating a Great Year in Music (January Entry)
Arts Fuse writers finish their countdown of great music celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. This month’s triumphant list includes John Lennon, Cat Stevens, Fela Kuti, Laura Nyro, Judee Sill, and Lou Harrison.
Arts Feature: My “Best of 2021” — An Operatic Cornucopia
Here’s my list of twenty superlative operatic offerings of different kinds.
Opera Review: “Eurydice” – Not a Love Story But a Father-Daughter Dirge
Forget romance. Forget chemistry. Forget star-crossed lovers. At its heart, this Eurydice is concerned with the love between a father and a daughter.
Opera Album Review: Great Dane! A Revered Verdian Opera From Denmark
Peter Heise’s King and Marshal (1878), one of the most-performed Danish operas, is melodic and atmospheric, here sung and played persuasively.
Opera Album Review: The Great Polish National Opera “Halka” Gets a Spirited and Shapely New Recording
Halka struts its stuff, impressively, in this new recording with an all-Polish cast conducted by internationally renowned Gabriel Chmura.
Opera Concert Review: Benjamin Britten’s “Curlew River” — From Woundedness to Wholeness
With its wide-ranging textual and musical materials, this “church parable” stands as one of Benjamin Britten’s most striking creations.
Classical Album Review: An Opera by the “Croatian Verdi” — Sung Right
The performance shows generally high competence and comfort, no surprise given that the work is a longtime staple in Croatia: indeed, it is the single most-performed opera in the entire repertory of the Croatian National Theater.