Opera Warhorses

Even in a period when economic realities have forced opera companies to cut back on plans, the West Coast continues the extraordinarily ambitious mountings of Wagner’s major works.
A year ago, we highlighted upcoming performances of Wagner’s “Ring” in our feature California Rings Up Wagner – 2009-2010. A similar feature in the previous year also included anticipations [...]

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I suspect that most opera goers spend rather little time thinking about the contributions that librettists make to the world of opera. Most will know that Wagner wrote all the words to his operas. Probably, most opera aficionados will associate the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte with Mozart, and Arrigo Boito with Verdi, and Hugo von [...]

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In midyear 2008, I highlighted the operatic works of Benjamin Britten in a “Quests and Anticipations” feature, entitled In Quest of Britten – A 2008-09 Itinerary. During that period, I reviewed performances of Britten works at the Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera and the Hamburg Staatsoper and my colleague Tom reviewed another at the [...]

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