Browsing all posts in February, 2012.

Doperaganger

by Christie Connolley Doperaganger (dŏp’ər-ə-găng’ər) – Another person that is eerily similar to your favorite opera star, but isn’t them.  This month a picture from the newly released Metropolitan Opera brochure featuring Anna Netrebko and rocker Slash from Guns N’ Roses.  The similarity is uncanny. Got an idea for a doperaganger?  Let us know at [...]

Google Shows Love to Rossini Today! Happy Birthday, Gioachino!

This story was originally published in The Guardian. Here’s a snippet! Please leave a comment below — surely there’s something to be said about Rossini. by Martin Kettle If you’re using Google today – and most probably you are – you’ll have noticed the Google doodle, marking Gioachino Rossini‘s 220th (or should that be 53rd?) birthday. Anniversaries [...]

iTunes Download of the Week

by Melissa Wimbish Yesterday evening, I was a privileged member of a packed house in Friedberg Hall at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. What an evening of Brahms delight! Symphony No. 3 and the Second Piano Concerto were just freaking delicious as the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, brilliantly guided by Leon Fleischer, took us into the [...]

Question of the Week

by Melissa Wimbish “You’re fired!” If you could be Donald Trump for a day and fire anyone in the classical music business — who would you can and most importantly…WHY? Multiple answers allowed! Let ‘errrrr rip!!!!!!! Feel free to submit anonymously. And be tactful! xo  

Dvorak’s ‘Rusalka’ set in a brothel is met by boos at the Royal Opera House

(via The Telegraph) – The modern re-telling of the classic opera re-casts Rusalka as a prostitute in a small-town brothel and features “girls running around in their scanties”, in the words of this paper’s critic. It is the Royal Opera’s first ever, and some say long-overdue, staging of Dvorak’s tragic opera, which is based on [...]

Operagasm Bitch Session!

We asked and you answered! We know there are a million reasons you love the work that you do.  We know those are things that get you out of bed in the morning.  But there are those things that keep you up at night tossing and turning, burning with resentment! As we conclude the anti-love [...]

Florida Grand Opera Announces 2012-2013 Season

MIAMI – February 28, 2012 – Florida Grand Opera (FGO) announces its 72ndcontinuous season of grand opera. Boasting a classic selection of works as well as the return of company favorites in leading roles, the 2012-2013 productions include: Puccini’s La bohème, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), Bellini’s La sonnambula, and Verdi’s La traviata. La bohème The new season begins [...]

Lyric Opera of Chicago Announces 2015-16 World Premiere

Lyric Opera of Chicago announces 2015-16 world premiere Bel Canto commissioned as part of Lyric’s Renée Fleming Initiative. Music by composer Jimmy López, libretto by playwright Nilo Cruz, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, directed by Stephen Wadsworth; based on the best-selling novel by Ann Patchett. Soprano Danielle de Niese stars in central role. Anthony Freud, general [...]

WNO’s Comme Ci Comme Ca Cosi

by Christie Connolley Anne Midgette of the Washington Post, as you can imagine, has no shortage of opinions on The Washington National Opera’s current production of Cosi fan Tutte.  Check out just a few of them in the Operagasm Review Rundown! Time Warp: “It’s a challenge to believe in these characters, and even more of [...]

Quote of the Week

“Mah voice don wuuuurrr.” – from this clever song on Sound Cloud (do you not relate?)