Opera

Arts Commentary: Reviewing Music, Re-viewed

July 14, 2020
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Our opera-loving reviewer contrasts his own pieces, written 48 years apart, on the same Offenbach operetta.

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Opera CD Review: Spontini’s Wacky Comic Opera, in Which Nothing Is as It Seems

June 9, 2020
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Metamorfosi is a marvelously effective and amusing one-act opera that would suit college opera workshops splendidly.

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Opera CD Review: An Album of Beethoven Arias? Soprano Chen Reiss’s Imaginative New Solo Disc Pulls it Off

June 8, 2020
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Immortal Beloved is a CD that will appeal to lovers of fine singing and to people curious about some hidden corners of Beethoven’s output.

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Opera CD Review: A Compact, Powerful New Opera from Carlisle Floyd, Composer of “Susannah”

May 24, 2020
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Prince of Players is based on a play that also yielded the movie Stage Beauty, and it’s one of the best new operas to come along in years.

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Opera CD Review: Gunther Schuller’s Splendid 1970 Children’s Opera Gets Its World-Premiere Recording

May 17, 2020
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A Grimm, but not grim, opera about a Fisherman, his Wife, their Cat, and a wish-granting Flounder.

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Opera CD Review: A Tenor as a Villain? Donizetti’s Unusual Two-Tenor Opera Gets a First — and Fine — Recording

April 1, 2020
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An 1829 opera about Elizabeth I and her supposed lover — enlivened by underhanded threats, virtuous resistance, remorse, and an attempted poisoning — proves well worth reviving.

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Opera Album Review: Rossini’s Pre-fab Opera, “Eduardo e Cristina,” Turns Out to Be First-Rate

March 19, 2020
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The practice of re-using large chunks of an opera for a new plot and new words may sound implausible to us, but in Rossini’s hands the result is delightful and surprisingly coherent.

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Opera Review: Beethoven’s “Leonore” — Upcoming Performances in New York City

February 27, 2020
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Music lovers should seize this rare opportunity to see Beethoven’s first (1805) version of Fidelio, complete with a reconstruction of Florestan’s original aria.

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Opera Album Review: The Most Neglected Master of Opera? Carl Maria von Weber, Early and Late

February 13, 2020
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New recordings of Peter Schmoll and His Neighbors and of Euryanthe pose an embarrassing question: why is the opera repertory so narrow?

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Opera Album Review, Oscar Wilde, Part 3 — A Spiffy “The Importance of Being Earnest”

February 7, 2020
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Odyssey Opera revels in the glittering wit and touching moments of this full-length chamber opera by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, better known for his Hollywood film scores and some wonderful guitar pieces.

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