This interview was conducted in Maestro Conlon’s office at the Los Angeles Opera, whose facilitation is gratefully acknowledged: ***** [Below: Maestro James Conlon; resized image, based on a photograph, courtesy of the Los Angeles Opera.] Wm: Many of the American vocal artists I have interviewed did not choose musical careers until well into their college [...]
Entries from March 2011
An Interview with Conductor James Conlon, Part 1
March 29th, 2011
Tags: 2008-2012 William's Interviews
Jonas Kaufmann’s Concerts Come to California – Los Angeles Opera, March 11, 2011
March 25th, 2011
German tenor Jonas Kaufmann is a sure box office draw in the major opera houses of Europe. Now in his early 40s, with a young family, his activities are centered in the likes of Munich, Berlin, Bayreuth, London, Zurich, Vienna and Paris. In fact, since his foray into Chicago as des Grieux in Massenet’s “Manon” [...]
Tags: 2005-2012: William's Reviews
Strong Cast for Peter Sellars’ Reconceptualization of Handel’s “Hercules” – Lyric Opera of Chicago, March 16, 2011
March 20th, 2011
In Greek mythology, as told us by Ovid and by Sophocles in his play The Women of Trachis, the centaur Nessos raped Hercules’ second wife, Dejanira, and Hercules mortally wounded Nessos in revenge. The dying centaur tricked Dejanira into believing that if she saved his blood, it could be re-used as a kind of love [...]