The “A” cast may have sung Nabucco on Friday night for Palm Beach Opera, but on Saturday night I heard the alpha cast. The company alternates its principals in two casts for each of its full productions and the Saturday lineup featured five incredible voices, “B” cast or no. Giuseppe Verdi’s third opera, Nabucco, began the Romantic period in operatic composition. It nearly … [Read more...]
Second cast of PBO’s ‘Carmen’ features auspicious debuts
I’ve seen Georges Bizet’s Carmen many times, but the second cast of the recent Palm Beach Opera production offered even a veteran operagoer fresh delights. Chief among them Saturday night was the Polish-born mezzo-soprano Magdalena Wór, who made a magnificent debut with this company, with her rich, seductive mezzo sound, perfectly suited to the role. And her acting as the … [Read more...]
Sarasota Opera’s ‘Giovanna’ revealed Verdi gem
The Sarasota Opera likes to say that no other company in the world will have completed a Verdi cycle – a complete survey of all the composer’s stage works -- when it comes to an end in 2013 on the 200th anniversary of Verdi’s birth. The company’s just-ended production of Giovanna d’Arco (Joan of Arc) was the 29th opera in the cycle, and its boast of exclusivity is a strong … [Read more...]
Second cast excellent in PB Opera’s original, stimulating ‘Giovanni’
Like it or not, the cutting edge of European set and stage design came hurtling into Palm Beach Opera for its production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Stefano Poda’s creation arrived simultaneously with a cold blast of fresh air. It is visually stimulating and wholly original. The company took a chance on hiring this gifted young Italian director, 39, whose splendid costumes … [Read more...]
Second cast outstanding in PB Opera’s ‘Otello’
Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello was the basis for the libretto Arrigo Boito wrote for Giuseppe Verdi, who at the time Boito approached him about the opera was 71 years old and considered himself retired. But three years later, in February 1887, Otello had its triumphant premiere at La Scala, and this work plus Verdi's final opera, Falstaff, are considered the pinnacle of the … [Read more...]
At Bard SummerScape, a stunning ‘Les Huguenots’
Every summer for the past 20 years, the private liberal arts school of Bard College, two hours north of New York City near Annandale-on-Hudson, has taken it upon itself to perform operas, choral works, dance and drama, many of them offbeat or seldom performed. This year's SummerScape festival saw a complete, 4 ½-hour production of Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Les … [Read more...]