Opera
Cross-gender disguises and comic banter liven up the melodrama in this presentation of Antonio Cesti’s famous opera, thanks to a spirited and virtuosic traversal by a mostly Italian cast.
The composer of Les huguenots and L’Africaine was already an accomplished master at age 26, as this first-rate recording reveals.
Vivaldi put this opera together using, in part, arias associated with two famous singers: the “Moorish” (i.e., half-African) Vittorio Tesi and the castrato Farinelli.
At this point in his career, Mayr is contributing to the development of the musicodramatic conventions that would set the stage for the masterpieces of Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi.
Attention is being paid today to talented composers who have been sidelined or disdained because of their race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. Reynaldo Hahn qualifies on several counts.
New podcast host Elizabeth Howard talks to Neal Goren about contemporary opera: the trends, attracting new audiences, and how opera can be adapted for the internet.
Just in time for Passover: another fine world-premiere Rossini recording, the 1827 French version of his Moses-in-Egypt opera.
Performed 1600 times in Paris, then forgotten, Hérold’s brilliantly witty, Le pré aux clercs shines again in a splendid recording.
The world-premiere recording of a first rate production of a brilliant, fantastical opera, unstaged and unheard since 1914.
Opera Commentary: Labor Action at the Met — “Wear Your Union Colors!” — Update
Locked-Out MET Stagehands and Skilled Craftspeople ,Joined by Union Supporters, Launch First-of-Its-kind Interactive “Virtual Picket Line.”
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