Opera

New production of “Tristan” opens Saturday at McCaw

August 1, 2010

By R.M. Campbell Wagner’s monumental “Tristan und Isolde”  is not a stranger to Seattle Opera: it has never been approached lightly. The opera is too important, too central to the Wagner canon, too demanding to be treated with anything less than awe and respect. The last time the company mounted the opera, in 1998, it [...]

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Grimsley sings Kurwenal again in Seattle Opera’s new production of Tristan

July 31, 2010

By Philippa Kiraly It was Speight Jenkins, general director of Seattle Opera who persuaded bass-baritone Greer Grimsley that he should sing Wagner. That was for the 1994 production of “Lohengrin,” and Grimsley has sung in nearly every Wagner production here since. Talking with him as he prepares to sing Kurwenal in “Tristan and Isolde” which [...]

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Road report: Twilight of the Gods, LA Ring

June 9, 2010

By Jonathan Caves On the last night of the first complete Ring Cycle at Los Angeles Opera Symbolism took the lead: from the moment the curtain dissolved and the stage lights came up we were presented with an array of symbols from across the whole cycle. Loge: hanging over the stage foreshadowing the inferno to [...]

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Road report: Siegfried; LA Ring

June 5, 2010

By Jonathan Caves Siegfried is a problem child: the character can be one of the most annoying characters in all of opera and all too often this opera is the weak link in a Ring Cycle. This was definitely the case last night at The Chandler Pavilion. After the excellent production of Die Walküre (the [...]

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Road report: LA Ring, Die Walkure

June 1, 2010

By Jonathan Caves Last night’s production of Die Walküre as part of the LA Opera Ring Cycle vividly brought home to me a couple of unique aspects of this production.

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Road report: LA Ring, Das Rheingold

May 31, 2010

By Jonathan Caves Overall I really enjoyed the production and I am glad to say that the masks did not, at least to my ear, interfere with the singing. I also must state up front that this is indeed a very literal production – I did not see anything that wasn’t in the libretto – [...]

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Quarter notes: Amelia trailer

May 11, 2010

Seattle Opera is up with their Amelia trailer on YouTube. If RM Campbell’s review doesn’t make you want to see Speight Jenkins’ first commissioned opera, surely this trailer will.

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Seattle Opera premieres Amelia

May 11, 2010

By R.M. Campbell During the past 25 years or so of Speight Jenkins’ tenure as general director, Seattle Opera has traveled in many music waters. However, none involved commissioning a work. That absence was rectified this weekend at McCaw Hall with an often compelling and poignant “Amelia.” The climate for new operas has changed considerably [...]

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Haptadama comes to a close at Olympic Sculpture Park on Saturday night

May 9, 2010

With Haptadama: The Seven Creations of Ancient Persia, Eric Banks unexpectedly challenges audiences to reconsider how they think about opera. It’s not that Banks is dabbling in new forms or means of expression – although he does have a tremendous gift for contemporizing ancient languages and melodies in ways that observe texts, respect original ideas, [...]

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Quarter notes: Le Grand

May 8, 2010

Gyorgy Ligeti supposedly spent the last years of his life worried that when he died no one would remember him or his music. His worries weren’t entirely unjustified. The work of many, many composers has slipped into obscurity. For Ligeti, an artist on the fringes of the musical mainstream, the possibility of anonymity is even [...]

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Only the Vancouver Opera could go to (Nixon in) China

April 14, 2010

By Colton Carothers Nixon in China is the operatic interpretation of Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China.  Equally historic was Vancouver Opera’s staging of John Adam’s Nixon in China in its Canadian premier for Vancouver’s Cultural Olympiad near the end of March.  With an Olympic sized cast and an Olympic sized budget, you would expect [...]

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Amelia sneak peek

April 7, 2010

Reminder: I’ll be live blogging the Amelia sneak peek tomorrow afternoon.  Check back here at 2 pm and you can access my live blog of the event.  To watch the live blog, click the link below and a new window will open up.  Or, if you prefer, you can click the Live Blog tab at [...]

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Quarter notes: Levine, the Ring, and Amelia

April 5, 2010

Ring fever has hit Los Angeles. Levine pulls the plug on the rest of the Met season. Morlot returns to Seattle to fill in for Roberto Abbado.  More than a few SSO musicians are looking forward to his return.  According to the SSO, Dutilleux and Morlot are close.  Will the second date be as good [...]

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Quarter notes: Chamber Music Madness, the Met, James Gaffigan, and La Traviata

April 4, 2010

On this Easter Sunday some classical music bits and pieces to tide you over. Chamber Music Madness, a local organization that helps kids grow as musicians is looking for a new executive director.  String players with good administrative and fundraising skills should apply. Vanity Fair is out with a piece questioning whether the Metropolitan Opera’s economic model [...]

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Ariadne opens at Meydenbauer in Bellevue

April 3, 2010

By R.M. Campbell Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos” is a opera with many, sometimes opposing, characteristics. It is deft and sophisticated, a piece intended for refined tastes. High art is forced to mingle with low art, each looking unfavorably upon the other. With the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program spring production, which opened Thursday night [...]

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Falstaff closes out Seattle Opera’s Verdi survey

March 8, 2010

Seattle Opera’s 2009/2010 season began with the spectacle of Wagner’s Ring and will end with the uncertainty of a new opera – Daron Hagen’s Amelia – the first commission for the company in decades. In between, a series of three Verdi operas have provided reliable entertainment and an overview of Verdi’s output. The Verdi festival [...]

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The Fisher Ensemble “At the Hawk’s Well”

February 28, 2010

By Harlan Glotzer Entering the Chapel at the Good Shepherd Center this evening, I was struck with the calm and focus of a dedicated artistic space. This was largely due to the beautiful ambiance of the stage and sonic arena created by the Fisher Ensemble for the world premiere of the piece At the Hawk’s [...]

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Il Trovatore Returns to Seattle Opera

January 18, 2010

By R.M. Campbell Verdi’s “Il trovatore” has been regarded as a joke, with great tunes; a unsurpassed example of Romantic melodrama; one of the last breaths, in 1855, of an earlier era of Italian opera, a work nearly impossible to stage with any credibility today. Enrico Caruso once quipped that all one required for a [...]

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Lisa Daltirus gets to the heart of Verdi’s Leonora

January 14, 2010

In Verdi’s three most popular operas – La Traviata, Rigoletto, and Il Trovatore – the heroine suffers a tragic fate.  In Traviata, Violetta loses love, gets sick, and dies just after one final encounter with her beau.  Gilda, the heroine in Rigoletto, decides to sacrifice her own life to spare that of the Duke’s – [...]

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