Aside from Claudio Monteverdi’s operas, Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, which premiered in Vienna in 1762, is the earliest opera in regular repertory. Its abundance of graceful melody, compelling story and absence of the stiffness of the prevailing opera seria put it there, and not incidentally so did its use of orchestral accompaniment in the recitatives … [Read more...]
The eternal beauty of Gluck’s ‘Orfeo’
By Robert Croan Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice is all things to all people. Prior to the great Baroque revival of the mid-20th century, it was the oldest opera in standard repertory. Since its world premiere in Vienna in 1762, the iconic work has been revised, reworked and tampered with so many times that the work as performed from one opera house to another … [Read more...]
Soprano Chambers makes a splendid Salome for FGO
By Robert Croan “A 16-year-old girl with the voice of Isolde.” That’s how composer Richard Strauss described the requirements for the title part of Salome, his magnificent one-act opera that shocked audiences at its premiere in Dresden in 1905. He was referring to the biblical daughter of Herodias, who danced for the lecherous Herod and in return demanded the head of … [Read more...]
FGO’s ‘Salome’ benefits from strong lead, secondary performances
Today’s menu of visual entertainment encompasses literally everything thanks to digital technology, but even a complicated work of grand opera from more than a century ago still has the power to shock. Richard Strauss’s 1905 opera Salome, based on an Oscar Wilde play that was the last word in decadence at the time, also remains a formidable challenge for any house that wants … [Read more...]
Arts preview 2017-18: The season in opera
South Florida’s opera companies have made the transition from the model of opera companies that has obtained since the Roosevelts, Vanderbilts and Morgans helped found New York’s Metropolitan Opera House in 1880. Back then, opera was about society as much as it was the music. Twenty years ago in this area, opera-going was still in that Gilded Age mode: Anyone who was anyone … [Read more...]
Fine singing makes for strong ‘Ballo’ at FGO
A production of a favorite opera can seem even better than ever if it allows you to appreciate the genius of its composer. And Florida Grand Opera’s current production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball) does just that, with some exceptional singing that underlines the composer’s dramatic power and shows why this opera is one of his mid-career … [Read more...]
Soprano Wilson returns to ‘Un Ballo in Maschera’ for FGO
When Tamara Wilson packed her things to head to Miami for rehearsals of the Florida Grand Opera production of Un Ballo in Maschera, she forgot one important item: Her copy of the score. Her assistant later mailed it to her, but having it at hand again perhaps was more akin to having a good-luck charm nearby. This is Wilson’s fifth appearance as Amelia in Giuseppe Verdi’s … [Read more...]
FGO’s ‘Before Night Falls’ an important work, strongly cast
The life of Cuba after the Revolution of 1959 has been the subject of endless amounts of prose and heated arguments, but it also makes a good subject for an opera. In May 2010, the Cuban-American composer Jorge Martín saw his opera on this subject, Before Night Falls, take the stage for the first time at the Fort Worth Opera in Texas. On Saturday night, he was on hand again … [Read more...]
Lensky stands out in second cast of FGO’s ‘Onegin’
By Robert Croan Although composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was Russian through and through, his music was highly influenced by his mainstream European contemporaries. His orchestral writing was a continuation of the Germanic styles of Schumann and Brahms. Eugene Onegin – his most famous opera, first performed in Moscow in 1879 and newly presented by Florida Grand Opera … [Read more...]
FGO’s ‘Onegin’ beautiful, satisfying
Of all the operas of Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin is the best-loved, and its profusion of engaging melody is surely one of the primary reasons. But it also helps when the cast is strong enough to give those melodies the ride they deserve, and happily, Florida Grand Opera’s current production of Eugene Onegin hits its marks in that regard, and in providing a fine night at the … [Read more...]