September 30, 2000
The October 2000 issue of Opera reports that Renée Fleming, Marcello Giordani, and Dwayne Croft will lead the cast in 2002 in the first Met performances of Il Pirata.
September 29, 2000
The September 2000 issue of Opera reports that Natalie Dessay and Jean-Paul Fouchécourt will sing husband and wife in Les Mamelles de Tirésias at the Met in January 2002.
That magazine also reports that Samuel Ramey will sing Archibaldo in Montemezzi's L'Amore dei tre re in Chicago in 2004.
September 28, 2000
I attended a performance tonight of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at Symphony Hall in Boston, the opening night of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 2000-2001 season. The Missa Solemnis was on the program of the orchestra's first performance in Symphony Hall on October 15, 1900.
Tonight Seiji Ojawa conducted, with soprano Emiko Suga (born in Japan), contralto Anna Larsson (born in Sweden), tenor Kurt Streit (born in the United States), and bass-baritone Willard White (born in Jamaica), with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.
The Missa Solemnis is not a work that I like very much. I find it at times boring and wearying, more self-important than important. Seldom do I find any of it very moving.
Nonetheless, the performance was a very good one, well conducted, with the soloists, chorus, and orchestra all performing very well. Kurt Streit, the only one of the four soloists to have a recording career, was, curiously enough, the soloist whose voice I found the least appealing. His tenor voice is not at all ardent. Willard White sounded quite pleasant, but at times I wish that he had been a little louder. The two female soloists were more interesting. Their voices are pleasant, at times beautiful, and they blended well together. I would like to hear both of them in other repertory. Anna Larsson was the best of the four soloists; she was actually interesting and somewhat moving in the "Agnus Dei."
I may listen to the radio broadcast on Saturday night.
September 21, 2000
According to www.musiclassical.com,tenor Carlo del Monte died in Mexico City on September 14. He is perhaps best known as the tenor in the recordings of La Traviata and Gianni Schichi with Victoria de los Angeles.
September 18, 2000
In the New York Times of September 18, James R. Oestreich reviewed the September 15 performance of Puccini's Madama Butterlfy at the New York City Opera. He praised the sets and the stage direction. Andrew Richards, as Pinkerton, "occasionally fell into inaudibility with a slight drop in volume, turn of the head or movement toward the back of the stage, which remains problematic acoustically in the face of whatever electronic enhancement is now being applied.
". . . Joel Sorensen delivered the part of . . . Goro . . . with stentorian tone, the one singer consistently able to overcome the acoustical dead spots."
English soprano Susan Bullock mader her City Opera debut as Cio-Cio-San. "Her top notes early on, through whatever combination of vocal pressure and electronic tinkering, sounded shrill when loud and raw when quiet, but she fared better in her middle range at middle volume and carried solidly through her final scene.
". . . [T]he orchestra . . . often drowned out singers aided little if at all by electronics."
September 15, 2000
Tenor Plácido Domingo and Deutsche Grammophon are engaged in a project to record every aria that Verdi ever wrote for a tenor. Deutsche Grammophon will use earlier recordings from its vaults, and Domingo will record the 23 arias that he has not previously recorded. The Boston Globe reports that the set "will also include alternate versions and substitute arias Verdi composed for specific productions or artists."
Today's Boston Globe reports that John Williams is giving some thought to composing an opera for the Los Angeles Opera Company at the invitation of Plácido Domingo. Williams said, "It would be on the light side, which is maybe a good thing; so much contemporary opera takes itself so very seriously."
September 14, 2000
Last Tuesday's performance of Donizetti's Roberto Devereux at the New York City Opera got a generally negative review from Bernard Holland in today's New York Times. "The stage pictures and their garish lighting are ugly . . .." "Pervasively miscast, it features a collection of singers who wander around in search of their characters." "[The role of Elisabetta] requires luxury of sound, technique and a natural extroversion. [Lauren] Flanigan wrestles determinedly with all three, but the audience ends up noting the struggles more than the outcome."
September 8, 2000
Today's Boston Globe reports that Teatro Lirico d'Europa has booked dates in 2002 at the Emerson Majestic Theatre in Boston for performances of their touring productions of Verdi's Rigoletto and Il Trovatore.
September 3, 2000
I began reading Opera on Screen by Marcia J. Citron, but I could not get through it. The bad "academic" prose was too hard to take. I am amazed that the Yale University Press would have published such a book. A sample sentence is: "One of the prominent features of television is its affinity for presence."
August 29, 2000
According to today's Boston Globe, Naxos has a forthcoming recording of Massenet's Werther with tenor Marcus Haddock in the title role.
June 14, 2000
Today's Boston Globe reports that Welsh conductor Grant Llewellyn will become artistic director of Boston's Handel and Haydn Society in July 2001. He will succeed Christopher Hogwood. The Globe says that Llewellyn plans to maintain his permanent residence with Wales with his wife and four children.
April 30, 2000
Audra McDonald was quoted in the New York Times of April 30, 2000: "In the last couple of years, musical theater pieces have been written that require more from singers than before, while new operas are requiring more in terms of acting. In 'The Great Gatsby,' for example, you needed someone like Lorraine Hunt, who could keep the drama moving forward."
February 25, 2000
Seiji Ozawa conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem with Christine Goerke, Ian Bostridge, Thomas Quasthoff, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and PALS (Performing Artists at Lincoln School) last night at Symphony Hall in Boston. I attended the performance. It was a very good one, quite moving indeed, even better than the BSO's performance that I attended in 1995. The orchestra, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and the children's chorus were all superlative. It is hard to imagine that a better trio of soloists could be found today.
February 16, 2000
Today's Boston Globe reports that "Virgin Entertainment Group will bump rival Tower Records and take over the space Tower has occupied [at 360 Newbury Street in Boston] since 1987." Tower had had an option to renew "at market rent" its lease, which expires at the end of June 2001.
February 12, 2000
February 9, 2000
Opera also reports that German soprano Marianne Schech died on July 22, 1999, at the age of 85. The obituary states that she was "a warm, ultra-feminine Sieglinde and Marschallin."
Conductor Robert Spano will be music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, beginning in September 2001, reports the Boston Globe of today. Spano will remain music director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic and head of the conducting program at the Tanglewood Music Center.
An attraction of the Atlanta position is the Atlanta Symphony's relationship with Telarc records.
Spano is at the moment in Wales for rehearsals of Mozart's CosEFan Tutte.
The New York Times of February 9 reported that the "38-year-old Mr. Spano said he was thrilled by his appointment. 'I can't wait to get going with this wonderful orchestra,' he said.'"
Donald Runnicles, music director of the San Francisco Opera, will be principal guest conductor of the Atlanta Symphony. He will be keeping his current position in San Francisco.
December 27, 1999
The Wall Street Journal gave a generally favorable review to John Harbison's new opera The Great Gatsby, with especial praise for the music for characters Daisy and Myrtle and for the singing of the roles' interpreters Dawn Upshaw and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.
OTHER REVIEWS OF THE GREAT GATSBY
New York Post--Shirley Fleming
