Opera: Latest Features
CD Review: 22 December 2011
Paris
Editor's Holiday Pick:
Opera CDs
If you’re looking for a holiday gift for the
discerning opera lover on your list, Operanet editor Joel Kasow has some
suggestions.
Comment: 13 October 2011
New York
English Queen Loses Her
Head at Met Gala
Socialists, socialites, investment
bankers and Martha Stewart are among those on the red carpet for the
annual Opening Night Gala at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Review: 29 September 2011
New York
The Met Live in HD: From
Slapstick to Post Traumatic Stress Close-ups
"The cameras
are far too mobile and there are far too many close-ups that show most
singers disadvantageously," writes Joel Kasow of a current batch of HD
opera broadcasts.
Review: 31 August 2011
New York
Great Perfomances: An
Unfortunate Coda to a Stellar Career
Joel Kasow comments
on two Great Performances broadcasts on PBS, including a
Rigoletto featuring the aging Plácido Domingo in his new role as
unremarkable baritone.
Review: 21 June 2011
New York
Mad Scenes and Atomic
Bombs in HD
Joel Kasow on three of The Metropolitan
Opera’s productions airing now on PBS television and a DVD review of John
Adams' Doctor Atomic.
News: 4 June 2011
New York
Solti Archive Goes to
Harvard University
Recognizing his importance to Chicago,
the British-Hungarian maestro once said, "They should erect a statue to
me."
Review: 15 April 2011
New York
Don Carlo and
La Fanciulla del West in HD
Joel Kasow on two of
The Metropolitan Opera’s productions airing now on PBS television's
Great Performances at the Met.
Review: 10 February 2011
New York
The Sublime, Sublimely. The
Ridiculous, Ridiculously
Joel Kasow weighs in on
performances of Boris Godunov and Don Pasquale, to be
seen on PBS’ Great Performances at the Met.
News: 26 October 2010
Paris
In Memoriam: Dame
Joan Sutherland
Joel Kasow remembers the Australian
soprano the Italians called "La Stupenda".
Reader Comment: 18 October 2010
New York
Opera in
America
Mike Gibb in London responds to Alan Behr's review
of the Opening Night Gala at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Review: 3 October 2010
New York
A Night (Really) at
the Opera
Unlike in years past, the star of this year’s
Opening Night Gala at the Metropolitan Opera was actually the opera, not
the audience.
News: 27 September 2010
Paris
Foucault as
Opera?
As unlikely as an opera on the life of Michel
Foucault may seem, it is all the more unlikely for not having a
listed composer.
Television Review: 19 August 2010
New
York
Great
Performances at the Met: Hamlet
Joel Kasow on
Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet seen on PBS screens in the United States
this summer.
News: 2 August 2010
Paris
In
Memoriam: Giulietta Simionato, Cesare Siepi, Sir Charles
Mackerras
Operanet editor Joel Kasow on the performance
and recording legacies of two Italian opera stars and a leading conductor
of Janacek's operas and Czech music.
Television: 13 May 2010
New York
Great
Performances at the Met: Carmen
Directed by
Richard Eyre and conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Elīna Garanča sings
title role opposite Roberto Alagna as Don José in this new production of
"Carmen." at at the Met.
Interview: 30 March 2010
Paris
Ildebrando
D’Arcangelo
When Ildebrando D’Arcangelo is described as
"the hottest thing in Opera these days," it is a winking acknowledgment of
the many meanings of the term "hot." But the Italian bass-baritone
superstar is charmingly self-deprecating and approachable, as our Patricia
Boccadoro recently found out.
Christmas Books: 22 December 2009
Paris
Opening Night
at La Scala
Just in time for the holidays, Joel Kasow
reviews the Teatro Alla Scala Foundation's luxury coffee table book,
Opening Night at La Scala.
CD Review: 13 December 2009
Paris
Editor's CD
Review of Opera and Song
Opera critic Joel Kasow reviews
recent and notable releases by Kate Royal, Véronique Gens, Inva Mula,
Violeta Urmana, Plácido Domingo, Roberto Alagna as well as a new
recordings of Thomas Adès' 'The Tempest', and Federico Ricci's 'Corrado
d’Altamura'.
Comment: 4 October 2009
New
York
A
Bumpy Night: Tosca at the Met’s Opening Night Gala
Booing, boozing and schmoozing — the evening’s performance was
Tosca, but the real spectacle took place off stage.
Book Reviews: 25 September 2009
Paris
Too Much, Too Little
or Too Late
Joel Kasow on recent books about Wagner,
choral music and the opera.
News: 27 August 2009
Paris
In Memoriam: Hildegard
Behrens (1937 - 2009)
A latecomer to
Opera, Behrens threw herself into demanding roles with bravado, intensity
and true, raw talent.
CD and DVD Review: 13 July 2009
Paris
Summer Listening: Editor's CD and
DVD Review of Opera and Song
Opera critic Joel Kasow
weighs in on recent and notable releases from Europe, North America and
Australia.
Opera Review: 17 May 2009
Lyon,
France
Sordid
Seductress: the Alarming Allure of Lulu
Call her by any name, but
the astonishing Lulu , currently in a production by the Opéra
National de Lyon, is making an indelible mark on the standard opera
repertoire. Joel Kasow offers his review.
Opera eview
Lyon, France
Lyon Gambles on Las
Vegas
Part of the Festival of Lost Heros, Prokofiev's 'The Gambler'
was shifted from mid-19th century Baden-Baden to contemporary Las Vegas
with an army of extras including three chambermaids who washed the windows
for a good ten minutes before the opera began," writes Joel Kasow from
Lyon, France.
News
New York
Brokeback
Mountain as Opera
New York's City Opera has
commissioned American composer Charles Wuorinen to compose an opera based
on Annie Proulx’s short story "Brokeback Mountain."
Opera Review
New York
Satyagraha:
Gandhi According to Philip Glass and the Metropolitan
Opera
Aerialists, puppeteers and stilt walkers mark Philip Glass'
semi-narrative opera about Mahatma Gandhi’s early years in South Africa.
In Sanskrit.
Opera Review
Berlin
Henze's Phaedra: Radical
Composer Offers Few Surprises Unter den Linden
German
composer Hans Werner Henze's new concert opera Phaedra about a
tormented queen infatuated with her stepson. Ciarán McAuley reviews the
world premiere in Berlin.
Archive
Joel Kasow's Opera
Diary
Last Update
Reviews of Wagner's
Parsifal in Geneva, Ravel's L'Heure espagnole and
Puccini's Gianni Schicchi in Paris, Jean-Michel Damase's
L'Héritière in Marseilles and other European productions |
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