Browsing all posts in "Benjamin Britten".
Brewer Rolls Her Rs with Rrrrrrelish as Lady Billows
by Melissa Wimbish Benjamin Britten’s comedic chamber opera Albert Herring included an L.A. debut for Christine Brewer…one outside of her ordinary “oeuvre.” The Wagnerian soprano shook the faces of L.A. opera-goers in the role of Lady Billows. Check out the Operagasm review rundown! You’re such a tease!: “Aficionados of big voices have been waiting for Christine [...]
Opera Company of Philadelphia Announces 2012-2013 Season
The Opera Company of Philadelphia is pleased to announce the 2012-2013 Season, featuring five new productions at the Academy of Music and the Perelman Theater and a cast of much-anticipated debuts and returning star voices! “The 2012-2013 Season features a carefully-planned blend of classics along with important works that will be new to many of [...]
Yale in NY Opens Season with Britten’s Serenade & Walton’s The Bear
Yale in New York David Shifrin, Artistic Director opens the 2011-12 season with dramatic and poetic music from Benjamin Britten and William Walton: Vocal Britain: Britten’s Serenade & Walton’s The Bear Featuring Yale School of Music’s exceptional faculty, students, alumni, & guest artists, including singers from YALE OPERA WILLIAM PURVIS, horn LINDEN STRING QUARTET [...]
The Turn of the Screw: Who’s haunting you?
by Carol Perry Operas can be many things: romantic, suspenseful, dramatic…lengthy; but not often does an opera set out to chill its audience with a subject matter best suited for flashlights and a campfire. I, as a performer and observer alike, have enjoyed and appreciated opera in all of its subcategories, but I longed for [...]
Screwy Plot, Perfect Production!
by Melissa Wimbish Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera in two acts, The Turn of the Screw, seems to have met its perfect resting place at Glyndebourne. Check out the Operagasm review run-down! Forget bubbly, let’s hit the Scotch!: “Glyndebourne opera-goers needed something a little stronger than Champagne to soothe lacerated nerves during the long interval at the [...]
Castleton Festival Opera Delivers Britten!
(Chronicle Music Critic) “Britten’s chamber operas, most of them written for the intimate setting of the Aldeburgh Festival, are conceived in a spirit of utter transparency. The instrumental writing is spare, the text-setting crisp and the dramaturgy – whether in a serious or comic vein – swift and direct. That was the guiding principle behind [...]
No red HERRING from Royal Academy
Agnes Cory of Musical Criticism.com raves about Britten’s Herring….. With veteran stage director John Copley in charge, I expected high standards at the Royal Academy Opera’s production of Albert Herring. However, I was astonished to find such a level of competence both on the stage and in the orchestra pit, which could be the envy of [...]
Britten bedazzles in Houston
by Erica Papillion-Posey Scott Cantrell of the Dallas Morning News gives glowing reviews to Houston Grand Opera’s production of Britten’s ‘Turn of the Screw’ calling it a tour de force! Read on: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/013109dnmetturnscrew.1b2fe00.html
Boston Lyric Opera Finds New Venue
by Christie Connolley The Boston Lyric Opera is using a new venue that promises to mirror the eerieness of the subject matter in Britten’s Turn of the Screw. The company transformed a Boston area castle into a performance venue for their February performances of the opera. Andrea Shea of wbur.org has all the details: http://www.wbur.org/2010/02/03/opera-new-space
Quote of the week
“It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony.” – Benjamin Britten
