For American Opera Projects’ reading this weekend of his first opera, the theatre composer Stephen Schwartz has mustered a mighty trio of sopranos. Alongside the imperial Lauren Flanigan in the leading rôle of Myra, Séance on a Wet Afternoon features L. A.’s Hila Plittman, the Dawn Upshaw of her generation: and Caroline Worra, going from strength to strength. Time Out New York features my salute to Caroline here.
November 15, 2008It has its risible moments. When wide-eyed Dawn Upshaw, channeling Kafka via Kurtág, describes “coitus as punishment for the happiness of being together,” one can’t help murmuring to oneself that, perhaps, she’s doing it wrong. read more »
November 11, 2008DECEMBER 15, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
NEW YORK CITY OPERA’S INCOMING GENERAL AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ANNOUNCES REVAMPED FESTIVAL FORMAT, PLANS FOR 2010 SEASON; INTERVIEW FOLLOWS SEASON SCHEDULE read more »
November 7, 2008The piece itself is completely mad: gorgeous, but mad. To grasp Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, which the MET staged tonight for the first time since 1906, imagine David Del Tredici injecting bits of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius into Chabrier’s L’Etoile: an insouciant operetta/ballet periodically stun-gunned by jolts of pure Catholic fear and trembling. And did I mention the Rákóczy March? read more »