Tag Archives: Metropolitan Opera
Tosca premiered today and where would we be without it?
Today in 1900, Giacomo Puccini‘s Tosca premiered in Rome, Italy. And aren’t we glad that it did? Why is Tosca so loved? It combines beauty and savagery. Both the evocative parts and the savage parts loom more powerfully juxtaposed against … Continue reading
Filed under 21st Century Opera, Classic Opera, Classical Composers, Uncategorized, Video
a tale Godunov to share–the Chevy Chase of basses?
Tonight, I went to opening night at Berks Jazz Fest. At the gala before the show, I was talking with a veteran local musician, now a senior citizen, who had seen Boris Godunov at the Met decades ago. “It starred a Finnish bass,” … Continue reading
Filed under North American Opera, opera anecdotes, Performers
retro Met? (don’t quote me)
The one thing I hate at the Met is the note in the program that the public is requested not to interrupt the music with applause. That should be destroyed. What we need is to be encouraged to applaud. –Plácido Domingo … Continue reading
Filed under North American Opera, opera quotes
Moses und Aron — an anniversary glance
Today marks the anniversary of the premiere of Arnold Schoenberg‘s Moses und Aron in Hamburg, Germany, in 1954. Moses und Aron is an important operatic work if not a popular one. This, despite the fact that the libretto, also written by Schoenberg, mirrors the exile … Continue reading
Filed under anniversary, Modern opera, North American Opera, Premieres
Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, roles to be heard and seen
At the press conference last week to announce the Metropolitan Opera’s new season, I met someone from Philadelphia who has already reviewed the Opera Company of Philadelphia‘s production of Romeo and Juliet at the Academy of Music that I will … Continue reading
Filed under Classic Opera, North American Opera
