Singingscholar

LATEST ARTICLES ( 293 )

• Nights at the Opera: 2014

  

  However belatedly, I decided to round up a personal "best of" list for the last calendar year. It's always an enjoyable experience of revisiting... Read more

  Posted on 14 January 2015 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Blogging Backlog, Or, from Deutschland to Dissertation

  As the Monty Python peasant says, "I'm not dead yet!" A mixture of malaise in cultural readjustment and madness in dissertation-writing, however, put me very... Read more

  Posted on 12 January 2015 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Ich Habe Genug: Bach and Brahms with the BSO

  

  This past weekend took me to Boston; having learned that Bryn Terfel and Rosemary Joshua would be performing in Brahms’ Requiem with the Boston Symphony... Read more

  Posted on 26 October 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Compiersi Debbe L'opra Fatale: Macbeth at the Met

  

  This won't end well. Macbeth, Act II. Photo (c) Met Opera What a difference a performance makes. I saw Verdi's Macbeth at the Met a few seasons ago, and left... Read more

  Posted on 04 October 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Le Nozze Di Figaro: E Schiatti Il Signor Conte...

  

  Act II: Majeski, Mattei, Abdrazakov, Petersen. Photo (c) Ken Howard/Met Opera The season having been saved, the Met opened with an engagingly sung,... Read more

  Posted on 24 September 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Richard Tucker Day: A Reverential Mission and a Free Concert

  

  One of my favorite things about Tucker Foundation events is the relentlessly informal atmosphere that pervades the preliminaries, regardless of how showy the... Read more

  Posted on 30 August 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Sommerpause

  

  Johannisnacht 2014, Mainz A Confession, Gentle Readers: sadly, the last few weeks of the regular opera season around here coincided with successive academic... Read more

  Posted on 22 July 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Old Forms, New Festivals: Chamber Music Fest Rheinhessen

  

  One of the things I love about this region is that there always seems to be room for another music festival. The Chamber Music Fest Rheinhessen was founded by... Read more

  Posted on 20 July 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• La Liberté Pour Nous Conspire? Guillaume Tell

  

  Fighting over the future: Guillaume Tell, Act III. Photo © Bayerische Staatsoper A confession, with apologies to those whose opera-related obsessions center on... Read more

  Posted on 04 July 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Lady in the Dark: Vergiss Für Einmal Den Weltschmerz

  

  The many selves of Liza Elliott: Lady in the Dark Act IPhoto © Staatstheater Mainz/Martina Pipprich Matthias Fontheim, departing Intendant of Mainz's... Read more

  Posted on 21 June 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Interval Adventures: Firenze!

  

  As Gianni Schicchi reminds us, Florence is a beautiful city. I was delighted to have the opportunity to revisit it, with an academic conference to attend, and... Read more

  Posted on 19 June 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Voglio Fare Il Gentiluomo: Mainz's Don Giovanni

  

  Parasite or political protestor? Don G. on the margins. Photo © Staatstheater Mainz/Martina Pipprich In Mainz's new Don Giovanni, opera's most famous amoralist... Read more

  Posted on 26 May 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Reading List: Rein GOLD

  

  Elfriede Jelinek's 2013 Rein Gold is a text of many complexities, not the least of which is its genre. The prose work is subtitled as a “Bühnenessay,” an essay... Read more

  Posted on 20 May 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Tosca: Ne Voglio Altra Mercede

  

  Budapest's opera house, central stair The Hungarian State Opera is a beautiful house. "I don't say it is nicer than Vienna's," said the woman who ran the pensio... Read more

  Posted on 15 May 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Miláčku, Znáš Mne, Znáš? Rusalka in Budapest

  

  My experience of the Budapest Festival Orchestra reads like an optimistic statistician's assessment of the effects of orchestra tours on cultural tourism. Read more

  Posted on 11 May 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Trug Des Herzens, Traum Der Ahnung: Tristan Und Isolde in Frankfurt

  

  Liebesnacht: Ryan/Wilson in Act II Photo © Oper Frankfurt/Wolfgang Runkel It seemed appropriate to me to begin the month of May with Frankfurt's Tristan und... Read more

  Posted on 03 May 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Ma La Legge Non Ode Consiglio: La Gazza Ladra in Frankfurt

  

  La Gazza Ladra and the theater of justicePhoto © Oper Frankfurt/ Wolfgang Runkel I confess that, in trying to summarize the plot of La Gazza Ladra (Die Diebisch... Read more

  Posted on 27 April 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• De' Fantasmi Lo Spavento: La Forza Del Destino

  The above trailer was what swayed a visiting friend towards Wiesbaden's current run of La Forza del Destino, as we looked for a piece to experience together. Read more

  Posted on 24 April 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Das Leiden Unsers Herren: Singing Through the Triduum

  I've been having an unusual Holy Week this year. The most hours I've spent in church have been spent not in services, but in singing. Read more

  Posted on 19 April 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA

• Weil Alles So Schlecht Ist: Aufstieg Und Fall Der Stadt Mahagonny

  

  Dancing in the storm: denial as utopia in MahagonnyPhoto © Lena Obst/Staatstheater Wiesbaden On Thursday, I took myself to the Staatstheater Wiesbaden's... Read more

  Posted on 28 March 2014 CULTURE, THEATRE & OPERA