Bongiovanni-issue uses the original RAI-tapes and I am still surprised at the ...

Better melodies could secure new operas a lasting place on stage, the argument goes. Howard Hanson’s 1934 opera Merry Mount, a Metropolitan Opera commission, serves as evidence that a score’s ...

But, to modern directors and company it presents a host of challenges: the extreme vocal virtuosity of the principal roles, its juxtaposition of genres and stylistic eclecticism, and, not least, its ...

Bruch (1838-1920) may be best known for his Violin Concerto no 1, but this first ever recording of his full opera should broaden interest in his output as a whole. Bruch’s Die Loreley is a very early ...

Its main set is a pale, dank, tiled basement ñ the excesses of the banquet in the palace above are glimpsed on an upper level which sits just below the proscenium arch. The ‘below stairs’ angle may be ...

Commentary: “Cendrillon is the Massenet opera most readily approachable by those with reservations about his idiom. His musical sense of humour, all too seldom given full rein, is here at its ...

performance. An initial tendency, heard for instance in the first scene’s Marche nocturne, for Edward Gardner to drive Berlioz’s music too ...

Kim’s rich, resonant bass is much admired. During his two years as a Jette Parker Young Artist in 2011/13 he was cast in a wide range of roles at the Royal Opera House, from Alessio in Bellini’s La ...

In the mountains of the vast Auvergne country near the south of France lays the inspiration of Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne. Marie-Joseph Canteloube, born in 1879 at Annonay, spent his childhood in ...

Despite being married to an American I clearly don’t get to the United States often enough – this was my first encounter with ...

Jules Massenet (1842-1912), composer. Henri Meilhac and Phillipe Gille, librettists. First performance: 19 January 1884 at the OpÈra-Comique, Paris. When it comes to opera, the French have tended to ...

Staged in conjunction with Joffrey Ballet Chicago, the production features both dance and singing. Since Oropesa sings with silver tones and moves as gracefully as a dancer, she is a natural for the ...