In 2009, I personally reviewed 48 performances of operas at 11 different opera companies in the United States and Germany. Time and logistics make it impossible to see every production at every company I visit each year. However, I have managed to attend at least one performance of every main season production mounted by the [...]
Entries from December 2009
Grading Gockley’s San Francisco Opera 2009: Another Straight A Average
December 25th, 2009
Tags: 2005-2010: William's Commentaries
Mario del Monaco’s Overpowering Otello: S. F. Opera’s San Diego Tour – November 5, 1959
December 14th, 2009
In 1950, the American debut of 35 year old operatic tenor Mario del Monaco took place at the San Francisco Opera. His American debut role was Rhadames in Verdi’s “Aida”. Making her American debut with del Monaco was the soprano in the title role, 28 year old Renata Tebaldi. She had first sung the role [...]
Tags: 50 Year Anniversaries
Florez and DiDonato Dominate Los Angeles Opera’s “Barbiere di Siviglia” – December 6, 2009
December 9th, 2009
The title of Gioacchino Rossini’s most famous work, identifying the occupation of a chief character, Figaro, derives from the subversive French play by Beaumarchais that helped accelerate the national campaign against aristocratic privilege that culminated in the French Revolution. Not quite three decades later, the Revolution, including its Napoleonic aftermath, was over. Rossini prepared a [...]