Recommended recordings: May 2015
Antonio Pappano at ROH Insights ©ROH/Sim Canetty-Clarke 2012 Il trittico (CD – Warner Classics) The three disparate musical canvases that make up Puccini ’s operatic triptych require the most skilled...
View ArticleTranscendent Beauty: Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande
Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande is probably the most important contribution to the history of musical theatre for the seemingly contradictory reason that it did not stem from anything that had been...
View Article44 years separate Rosina and Figaro on La Scala stage
Lilly Jørstad, a student at the La Scala Academy, made her debut this weekend in Barber of Seville opposite Leo Nucci and Ruggero Raimondi. Graham Spicer tells s all about it here. But nota bene: Lilly...
View ArticleAppalling: Academy fires student after she makes La Scala debut
The Norwegian mezzo-soprano Lilly Jørstad, who has been singing Rosina at La Scala this week, has been told by the La Scala Academy that she is ‘unsuitable’ to complete her studies next year. The...
View ArticleOligarch Must Pay Sculptor For Illegal Knockoffs He Had Made, Says Court, But...
“Last week a federal judge ordered Russian-born, Florida-based billionaire Igor Olenicoff to pay sculptor John Raimondi $640,000 for having unauthorized copies of his work made in China and installed...
View ArticleOne is as one does
On this day in 1970 the musical Coco closed at the Mark Hellinger Theater after 333 performances. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D0PAy9naQI Happy 74th birthday bass Ruggero Raimondi...
View ArticleOpera Favourites #2 - La giovane scuola
Some of the finest hours of the Italian melodramma are to be found in this post dedicated to the generation of the 1860s. This consistent group of composers were able to create a new style by evolving...
View ArticleOpera Favourites #3 - Il Cigno di Busseto
Undisputed master of the melodramma and creator of a thousand magical operatic moments, Verdi is a composer I revere with utmost deference, and certainly deem as Padre dell'Opera Italiana, yet I've...
View ArticleYee Haw! A Met Opera Round-Up (Part Two): Losing One’s Head Over ‘Anna...
The Tawdry Ways of Operatic Royalty Sondra Radvanovsky as Anna Bolena (Photo: Ken Howard) Opera is such a fascinating subject! There’s no end to the plots and personalities depicted in them; a steady...
View ArticlePassion (für) Johannes
A very Happy Easter to all MIMIC's friends. Back to our beloved Johannes Brahms, and a few lovely Mendelssohn classics as a perfect complement... Johannes Brahms Liebeslieder Walzer Op. 52a Neue...
View ArticleDiamond bracelets
Born on this day in 1852 Frank W. Woolworth, creator of the five and ten cent store. //www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnZ3ZlnmUQA Born on this day in 1810 composer Félicien David....
View ArticleSite unseen
Giuseppe Verdi was so unhappy with the first production of his Giovanna d’Arco at La Scala in 1845 that he swore an oath to himself that he would never entrust that theatre with a prima again. His...
View ArticleShe brought new string quartets to Carnegie Hall
The death is reported of the violinist Anahid Ajemian, founder of the Composers String Quartet which played new American music on a regular basis from the 1960s at Carnegie Hall and Columbia...
View Article‘Tale’ of the unexpected
Things have taken a rather Teutonic turn on my Mixcloud page as of late, so, despite the absence of a single French singer, I am happy to finally add Les contes d’Hoffmann to the playlist in a Salzburg...
View ArticleGeh such dir die Stars vom vergangenen Jahr!
On Monday, the Met kicks off its 132nd season with a new production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde by Mariusz Trelinski, with Sir Simon Rattle leading a premiere cast of Nina Stemme, Ekaterina...
View ArticleDon Giovanni - The Birth of Romantic Opera
That tragic, distressing D Minor which opens this immortal masterpiece projects us towards its most poignant scene, the hair-raising entrance of the Convitato di pietra, with its Wagnerian...
View ArticleThe Ensamble Lírico Orquestal´s “Rigoletto” passes muster
The Ensamble Lírico Orquestal defines itself as "an independent alternative producing projects of classical and lyric music". It isn´t accurate, for opera is also classical. In fact they programme...
View ArticleWhat kind of fool I am
On this day in 1962 the Leslie Bricuse–Anthony Newley musical Stop the World I Want to Get Off opened on Broadway. //www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulaQMN4xgGw Born on this day in 1807 composer and voice...
View ArticleStrike up the banned
Jonny spielt auf, the second opera by 26-year-old composer Ernest Krenek, was such a huge success after its 1927 Leipzig premiere that in the following season it was performed 491 times in Germany...
View ArticleJourney to the center of the mirth
From 2008, Unnatural Acts of Opera recalls 1988, when Rossini’s Il viaggo a Reims invaded the Wiener Staatoper. Corinna: Cecilia Gasdia Marchesa Melibea: Lucia Valentini-Terrani Contessa di Folleville:...
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