Any regular Seattle Opera attendee might remember hearing several slightly tenorial shouts of Bravo! after an aria or at the end of a performance, a sound that carried over even the most tumultuous applause. It came from standing room and from a very discriminating opera lover who passed away on November 21. For most of the last fifteen years Dr. Winfield Hutton (or Winfield Dr. Hutton as he … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2015
OPERA AT OLD ELI
Doris Yarick Cross for more than thirty years has directed Yale Opera, a division of the Yale School of Music. She and her husband, Richard Cross, serve as the voice teachers for the program, a mammoth task. Such major artists as Matthew Polenzani, Patrick Carfizzi, Tamara Mumford, and Christian Van Horn have graduated from the program, which in every school year has fifteen artists, chosen … [Read more...]
OPERA IN PARIS
On a ten-day visit to the City of Light I had the opportunity to attend two operas and one superb music rehearsal of three very different works. First came at the Opera de Bastille Laurent Pelly's production of Donizetti’s Elisir d’Amore. Chantal Thomas designed the charming sets, and Joel Adams the contemporary costumes; the production was a revival. Unusual for any theater in Europe, the … [Read more...]
A GREAT LULU
When the Metropolitan Opera rises to its own standard, no opera house in the world presents more engaging, exciting, or satisfying performances. On November 5 the new production of Alban Berg’s Lulu fulfilled every aspect of the composer’s complicated and difficult work. Anyone who comes to New York during its run should try to attend a performance. William Kentridge had a signal success a few … [Read more...]
A DAY TO FORGET
I love Paris. I have visited this city more than thirty times over the last sixty years, and I will continue to love it even after today. I have a warning, however, that might alert future travelers to one problem that had never occurred to me. I can’t say that what happened was operatic but it felt as though it could have been. The day could not have been more beautiful. The trees are turning … [Read more...]