Maybe not Caruso’s ‘dream team’ but this revival of Verdi’s blockbuster has its moments.
January 30, 2013
The queen of classical concept albums continues her reign with this collection of Baroque arias, all written for royal women in various states of turmoil and distress. DiDonato’s last Baroque disc, Furore, was all about Handel, but this time the focus is on less familiar composers, whose show-stopping scenas, inspired by the great divas of their era, have DiDonato’s name written all over them. Her warm, down-to-earth persona may not immediately suggest the imperiousness of royalty, but these arias catch queens at their most fragile and human – not to mention their most virtuosic – and DiDonato’s patented blend of vulnerability, visceral energy and sheer agility is precisely what they need. The opening track, Orlandini’s stormy Da torbida procella, finds her in whirlwind mode; but it is the following aria, Porta’s Madre diletta, with its plaintive melismas and gossamer pianissimi, which really sets the seal on this album’s success. As thrilling as DiDonato undoubtedly is at high speed, in this case the disc’s gentler moments are some of its most arresting: Keiser’s simple, radiant Lasciami piangereis a hushed gem, almost eclipsing Cleopatra’s much more familiar lament, Piangerò. Giacomelli’s Sposa son disprezzata– commonly but erroneously credited to Vivaldi, who…Continue reading Get…
January 30, 2013
Opera Australia endorse current artistic leadership amidst impressive financial results. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
January 30, 2013
The Houston opera company says “no thanks” to planned Neil Armfield production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
January 24, 2013
The new artistic director of Opera Queensland reflects on respect for tradition and the allure of innovation.
January 19, 2013
Music education does not just make children more musical; it unleashes their creative powers. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
January 19, 2013
V for Verdi, V for Vendetta: in this dark take on dictatorship, terrorism and betrayal, everyonewears a mask. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
January 17, 2013
From secretary to superstar: the new issue charts Joan’s early years and her inspiring rise to fame. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
January 16, 2013
A bad Christmas may spell the end for the UK’s last high-street music chain. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
January 14, 2013
It’s been a long time coming but at last Ligeti’s 1978 “anti-anti-opera” Le Grand Macabre arrives on DVD in a revolutionary staging by Barcelona’s innovative urban theatre troupe, La Fura Dels Baus. Nekrotzar, the Grand Macabre of the title, arrives in Breugheland (inspired by the Dutch painter Pieter Breughel’s nightmarish visions), and announces the end of the world. In the face of a population entirely absorbed with sex, alcohol and petty politics, however, his apocalypse fails to materialise and life goes on as before. Very much an opera for today, I would argue. This visually compelling production was a highlight of the 2010 Adelaide Festival and has been a hit wherever it has played. We begin with a giant video image of a woman watching TV, surrounded by cigarette ends and gorging on a burger. A sudden seizure and she falls to the floor, her atrophied body metamorphosing into a giant three-dimensional set. This massive corpse is peopled by Ligeti’s grotesque cast of characters who crawl over her flanks, make love in her eye-sockets and enter her various orifices (even at one point from out of her giant vagina). Most remarkably though, the body is used as a giant projection…
January 14, 2013
Handel dons a mohawk: worlds collide in a high-fashion feast of Baroque-punk splendour.
January 13, 2013
The dutchman has given Sydney Festival an injection of classical music. But can he still break even at the box office? Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
January 7, 2013