End of Act I of Mozart’s IDOMENEO at Berlin’s Komische Oper Last night was a performance of Mozart’s IDOMENEO at Berlin’s Komische Oper. It was sad to see so few people in the audience—I would guess that there were only around 250 people in attendance. It was a stark, modern production with a unit set [...]
Seventeen ninety-one was a terrible year for Mozart personally, but a fabulous year for Western Music. The list of masterworks he composed during his final months is simply staggering. Some of the high points are Piano Concerto No. 27, String Quintet No. 6, the Clarinet Concerto, the opera seria, La clemenza di Tito, the incomplete [...]
After attending part of yesterday afternoon’s rehearsal for the Dallas opera’s production of Tristan, I went over and watched the first two acts of the dress rehearsal for SMU’s production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, which is being given this weekend in the Bob Hope Theater on the SMU campus. From what I saw [...]
EDIBLE OPERA One of the best-loved opening scenes in opera, the beginning of Act One of Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème, revolves almost entirely around two things: hunger and extreme cold. As we enter the season of feasting that extends from Thanksgiving Day through Chinese New Year’s and beyond, it’s a good time to push ourselves [...]
