Choreographer Kenneth von Heidecke has returned to the Dallas Opera to work his magic on our dance-loaded production of AIDA. Gregory Sullivan Isaacs, special contributor to “Dallas Voice” has more on his extraordinary life and remarkable talent – here. (Photo courtesy of…uh…me) Suzanne Calvin, Manager/Director Media & PR
Frankly, she was already an internationally acclaimed star but, nevertheless, there is a marvelous Busby Berkeley ”42nd Street” quality to the now-legendary Metropolitan Opera debut of soprano Latonia Moore, who stepped into the title role of Aida without a single onstage rehearsal – and for an international radio broadcast. Get all that and more in Gregory [...]
That seems to be what the opera universe has to say about the skyrocketing career of Texas-born Latonia Moore, starring in the Dallas Opera’s AIDA, opening for the first of six performances on October 26th. Hers is a story worthy of a Busby Berkeley or Frank Capra movie – minus the inevitable “Capracorn” – and it’s [...]
In this star-spangled month of July, the question that comes to mind is “What are the defining characteristics of an American Opera?” Should it be opera on identifiable American themes? Operas merely set in one of the fifty states? Or exhibiting a particularly American musical idiom? Operas composed by men and women who claimed the [...]
The word that the Dallas Opera has commissioned British composer Joby Talbot and American librettist Gene Scheer to tackle the world’s highest peak, metaphorically speaking, is eliciting a variety of reactions. “The Dallas Observer” writes that the still-to-be-created opera EVEREST, slated for production in February of 2015, is our “most adventurous commission to date.” Read [...]
It was an amazing thing to see: 15 thousand people, most of whom stayed all the way through the curtain calls and many of whom–I’ll bet–walked away with a completely different impression of this art form we call “opera.” It was a grand night for the Dallas Opera, The Dallas Foundation, and Cowboys Stadium, but [...]
Admittedly, a rather silly headline, but we already knew Shawn could sing. In fact, he was evidently a Wunderlich-inspired wunderkind! Read tenor Shawn Mathey’s charming interview with Gregory Sullivan Isaacs at “Theater Jones,” as the two tenors indulge in a little shop-talk and wonderful tales of Shawn’s dad, tenor/conductor Richard Mathey. Get it all here and [...]
Gregory Sullivan Isaacs of “Theater Jones” calls it “an evocative, moody production of one of the most beautiful operas ever written, performed with a consistent degree of musical excellence that few other opera houses could match.” Read Gregory’s review here. But I regret to report that not everyone was quite so enchanted with the opening performance [...]
There’s just something about Laurent Naouri that goes beyond gifts or talents. I think it’s the sense that he is an artist of genuine class, a gentleman who would rather listen than speak and, when he does speak, a man worth paying attention to. Check out his thoughts on a life intertwined in opera, both onstage and off, and musings [...]
Longer lasting, that is, than either of the ill-fated protagonists in “La traviata” opening this evening at the Winspear Opera House. From the Dallas publication “The Voice,” here’s an intimate look at the lives of one of opera’s most fascinating team: renowned stage director Bliss Hebert and equally renowned production designer Allen Charles Klein. Read it [...]
