Review of A Harlot’s Progress

Check out the review here. 

Attending the world premiere of an opera is always a special occasion, and even more so if it is the first opera by its composer. If one adds to all this the fact that the venue is the Theater an der Wien, whose history is filled with premieres of musical masterpieces, the cup of interest cannot be more full of curiosity and expectations.

First of all I must say that the premiere of A Harlot’s Progress was a success, something that is much needed in the world of opera in the times in which we live. It was really a remarkable musical performance with a convincing stage production and an excellent cast, headed by the superlative Diana Damrau.

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Star Withdraws From Lyric Opera’s ‘Otello’

Here's the latest from the NY Times. 

The South African tenor Johan Botha has withdrawn from the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Verdi’s “Otello” because of what the company described as “severe back pain caused by a previous injury.” He has gone to Vienna for treatment.

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Lyric Opera nails a Butterfly while Theo Ubique channels Callas

Check out the review in the Chicago Reader. 

This week saw the opening of both Theo Ubique's Master Class—the Terrence McNally play about Maria Callas—and Lyric Opera's Madama Butterfly.I saw them a day apart, which made for some interesting reverberations.
Master Class, at No Exit Cafe, is such an intimate production that you might want to avoid the front-row seats. Callas, played by the admirable Kelli Harrington, leaves the singing to her three ostensible students, each of whom delivers a high-volume vocal in pretty close proximity to your eardrums.

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Chicago Opera Theater’s latest creative turn: ‘Orpheus’ at park pool

Check out the review from the Chicago Sun Times. 

For Chicago music lovers who have been feeling a Verdi overload from the many productions and concert performances of the great Italian during this, his bicentennial year, Chicago Opera Theater has an answer. And it’s one into which even total opera novices can literally take the plunge.
Almost.

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Review of the Lyric Opera House in Chicago

Check out the review here. 

Sweet Sound of Success

Check out this profile of Sandra Radvanovsky. 

How does a diva define the word "diva"? American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, whose calendar this season includes prima donna roles by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini, sits quietly in the offices of OPERA NEWSand takes a short pause before answering, her hands folded in her lap and her tone matter-of-fact. "Right. Nowadays, everybody gets called a diva. Or calls themselves a diva. Beyoncé is a diva, right? The term used to have negative connotations — a diva was someone who threw fits, stomped out of rehearsals, had all these demands. But that's not acceptable in this day and age.
"People who throw hissy fits get replaced. That's understood. I choose to take the positive route — I believe that the ladies who sing these big roles are women who have worked hard to get where we are, we are accomplished at what we do, and we are at the top of our game. We earned the right to be called 'diva' because of all the work we've done. I'm honored to be called a diva. I am. I work hard for that. I work very hard, I love what I do, and I am intensely passionate about it. If that's being a diva, I am fine with it. But I refuse to be something that I'm not, or behave in such a way that creates an aura of me being untouchable. That's not me.

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Interview with Richard Bonynge

Check it out here.

ON: This is your first public master class in New York. Why the long delay?
RB: Simple. Nobody asked me!
ON: What's the first master class you ever conducted?
RB: I'm not sure. Early on, I did some in Aldeburgh, and I've done them in London and in Australia, but I haven't done that many, to be quite honest.
ON: In such a short time, what do you hope to achieve?

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New Book On Opera Legends

The book is called, They Changed Opera, and here's part of a review from the New York Times Book Review. 

The collapse of the New York City Opera last month was many things, but it could hardly be called unexpected. Indeed, that the company had kept going for seventy years was more than a little amazing. Certainly the board of trustees made some terrible choices over the past decade—the most severe of them likely the decision to cancel a full season of performances at Lincoln Center in 2009 as its theater was renovated (New York City Ballet, which shared the space, made no such mistake) and then to leave the Center altogether in 2011.
But it had been a star-crossed organization for years, beset by strikes, warehouse fires, financial woes and the devastation of the early years of AIDS. Beverly Sills—the company’s biggest star, its long-time general manager and most effective fundraiser—estimated that the troupe lost more than 100 people to AIDS in the space of a decade: directors, conductors, singers, and others at the peak of their youth and sexual urgency, cut down by a mysterious new malady. The brilliant and venturesome Christopher Keene succeeded Sills as general director in 1989 and brought to the stage a number of daring modern operas, including Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten. But he spent much of his tenure fighting the virus, sometimes all but incapacitated, before his early death in 1995.

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Vienna State Opera goes live stream with pay as you view offerings

Check out the article here. 

For all those who can't come to the Vienna State Opera — it can now come to you.
Starting Sunday, the company is offering what it describes as state-of-the art live streaming, with viewers able to switch between a view of the stage and close-ups with moving cameras. Innovations promised by the year's end will include apps providing subtitles in English, German and Korean and a synchronized score of the work being shown.
The project starts off with Richard Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier" ("Knight of the Rose.")

The Vienna State Opera is one of the most respected around. 

Great Opera Performances

Check out Natalie Dessay singing "Pale et blonde"

Longtime Chicago Lyric Opera Artistic Director Passes Away

This was first reported over the summer but his accomplishments should be duly noted. 

A brilliant, idiomatic interpreter of the Italian repertoire and the longtime artistic director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, Bartoletti was a beloved figure in the cultural life of his adopted city for more than a half-century. Educated in Italy, Bartoletti made his professional debut in Florence, leading Rigoletto at the Teatro Communale in 1953. He made his Lyric debut in 1956, stepping in for Tullio Serafin to conduct Il Trovatore with Jussi Björling, Ettore Bastianini, Herva Nelli and Claramae Turner. In his first Lyric season, Bartoletti also paced Renata Tebaldi as Tosca and Mimì and Eleanor Steber as Violetta.

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Check Out the Latest Opera in Chicago

Hey it's Ted Margaris, and check back for the latest in opera news in Chicago.

First up, check out the Chicago Opera Playhouse where Hansel and Greta is currently playing. Here's Luciano Pavarotti