Giacomo Meyerbeer

Opera Album Review: Meyerbeer’s Disturbing Look at a Demagogue, “Le Prophète” (1849) — at Bard Summer Festival and on a New Recording

July 19, 2024

Posted in Featured, Music, Opera, Review

Long one of the most-performed French operas, “Le Prophète,” thanks to some splendid performances, feels as vivid and relevant as ever.

Opera Album Review: Meyerbeer’s Comic Opera about Peter the Great, A Welcome Return

December 13, 2022

Posted in Classical Music, Featured, Music, Opera, Review

This re-release of a superb recording of a major Meyerbeer opera reminds us what treasures are available to opera companies (and college opera programs) willing to step beyond the well-trodden path.

Opera Review: Arabs on the Operatic Stage — Meyerbeer’s 1814 Comic Opera about the Mysterious ‘East’

January 26, 2022

Posted in Classical Music, Featured, Music, Opera, Review, Uncategorized

Long before the often-prejudicial portrayals of Middle Easterners in Hollywood films, opera composers crafted insightful works from 1001 Nights.

Opera CD Review: Congolese Tenor Patrick Cabongo Steps into Stardom in a World-Premiere Recording of Meyerbeer’s “Romilda e Costanza”

May 26, 2021

Posted in Classical Music, Featured, Music, Opera, Review

The composer of Les huguenots and L’Africaine was already an accomplished master at age 26, as this first-rate recording reveals.