Following up on last year’s announcement:
“James Levine is making a comeback.”
“Defying opera world doubters who thought he was too ill, weak or disengaged, the longtime and much loved music director of the Metropolitan Opera plans to return to the podium for the first time in two years, for a May 19 performance by the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and for three productions at the opera house next season.”
Read more about this at Arts Beat, The New York Times Arts section.
Check out these two good news/bad news reports from the world of opera. First, an article from The Dedham Transcript (Needham, Mass.) on the demise of Opera Boston. Then, a New York Times look at how small opera companies are trying to fill the void left by the drastic reduction and displacement of New York City Opera.
“James Levine, the Metropolitan Opera’s ailing music director, has withdrawn from conducting at the house this season and the next, the Met and Mr. Levine said on Friday (Dec. 9). Levine cancelled the last remaining dates on his schedule — two cycles of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in April and May — and withdrew from all productions he had planned to lead next season.”
Read more about this at Arts Beat, The New York Times Arts section.
“More than ever,” Anthony Tommasini wrote in the July 7 New York Times, “composers are busily breaking down walls between stylistic categories. Opera in particular has been a poacher’s paradise. We have had folk opera, jazz opera and rock opera. Bono, who collaborated with the Edge on the music and lyrics of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” called the show “Pop-Art opera.” Whatever that means. But of all such efforts, mixing opera with the Broadway musical might seem by far the most natural combination. Then why are so many efforts to crisscross that divide so bad?”
Read the complete article at http://tinyurl.com/6fqdn8m.
Check out the May 8 article in The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer about Americans’ relationship with opera. Visit The odd story of American opera fans.
Reviewed by Tony Villecco
I admit I had some trepidation when I heard that a community theater group was attempting Master Class, Terrance McNally’s ode to his muse, Maria Callas. Any uncertainty was dissipated by a riveting presentation given in Owego by the Ti-Ahwaga Community Players.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: One of BAMirror’s goals is to be an online salon, a place where you can join in a conversation about the arts. I’m going to share some of my recent reflections and hope that you will chime in (like that musical allusion?) with some thoughts of your own.
Ever since the final curtain call of Tri-Cities Opera’s recent production of “The Elixir of Love,” I’ve been thinking about surtitles (those subtitles “over” the stage that translate the lyrics) and how they have affected my opera-going experience. I saw my first opera, “Tosca,” at TCO at age 10. I read the synopsis in the program, which gave the plot and a general gist of the famous arias. After that, I had to rely on the staging, the singers’ body language and the emotion of the music to follow the story, because I didn’t speak Italian. But that was fine. I was swept up, transported and completely hooked into a lifetime of loving opera.
As an adult, I joined the TCO chorus and found myself learning some of the scores twice, because shows were offered in both the original language and in English. (There were six performances over two weekends in those days.) Comedies were always in English so that you could catch the verbal humor, a programming decision I heartily supported despite the sometimes awkward phrasing. But the dramas, the tragedies? Couldn’t they just let things be? Read the rest of this entry »
Share the things you liked (or didn’t). Give suggestions for shows to see. Help start a dialogue among the art lovers of Greater Binghamton.
Reviewed by Tony Villecco
Giacomo Puccini’s one-act comedy, “Gianni Schicchi’ was presented March 12-14 as a showcase for Tri-Cities Opera’s singers in training, and almost all of the young performers delivered a lively and fully committed reading of the score in a fully staged, English-language production at the TCO Opera Center, 315 Clinton St., Binghamton. The intimate nature of the performance was enhanced by the cabaret-style seating and the use of entrances throughout the auditorium (and through the audience). Read the rest of this entry »
Reviewed by Tony Villecco
Tri-Cities Opera last weekend presented a vocally and dramatically searing production of Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca” at The Forum in Binghamton. From the beautiful sets and lighting right down to the smallest details, TCO successfully proved that, with mature adult voices, the difference really is in the singing. Read the rest of this entry »
Reviewed by David L. Schriber
What an exciting evening Friday,Nov. 6, as the Confucius Institute of Chinese Opera at Binghamton University (CICOBU) formally opened. We were among the 1,000 or so persons filling the Osterhout Concert Theater at BU’s Anderson Center to witness the inauguration and an hour-long sampler of classical Chinese opera. It was a delightful evening’s entertainment that carried the sense of a historic beginning for a new art form in Greater Binghamton. Read the rest of this entry »
Review submitted by Tony Villecco
To open its 61st season, Binghamton’s Tri-Cities Opera has produced a visually and vocally sparkling “Le Nozze di Figaro.” Mozart’s perennial favorite, based on the story by Beaumarchais with libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, has retained all of its humor and pathos, commenting on the division of class structure with as much relevance today as when it premiered in 1786. But make no mistake, it is the music that shines, and the majority of these young singers rose to its challenges. Read the rest of this entry »
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Barb Van Atta
Sharon Ball
Broome Arts Mirror 