Italian Opera Composer Gaetano Donizetti is usually identified – along with Rossini and Bellini – as one of the principal exponents of the bel canto school of the early 19th century, which, in the legends about the history of opera that gained currency in the late 19th and 20th centuries, was in decline by the [...]
Entries Tagged as '2005-2012: William’s Commentaries'
“Lucrezia Borgia” – The Dramatic Foundations of Donizetti’s Opera
September 27th, 2011
Tags: 2005-2012: William's Commentaries
Gods and Nibelungs on the Pacific Coast: the Three Ring “Siegfrieds”
June 26th, 2011
The following summarizes the story line of the third opera of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungs”, with my impressions of three very different approaches to performing the opera, from respectively the Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera and San Francisco Opera. For the two previous features in this series, see: Gods and Nibelungs on the Pacific Coast: the [...]
Tags: 2005-2012: William's Commentaries
Opera in Live Performance, Thoughts and Assessments at the End of 2010, Part Three
January 29th, 2011
This web-post continues previous discussions about the expansion of opera’s standard repertory. (See Opera in Live Performance, Thoughts and Assessments at the End of 2010, Part One and Opera in Live Performance, Thoughts and Assessments at the End of 2010, Part Two.) Preparing for the Verdi Bicentennial We are just over 23 months from the [...]