Deception. Rebellion. Jealousy. Betrayal. Lust. Torture. Murder. Suicide. Catholicism. It’s all here. I finally saw Tosca! It was an opera concert, but honestly was as fully staged as you could expect it to be and still be in a concert hall … Continue reading NSO’s Tosca
featuring lots of people; more details below Wagner’s music is great. Like, great in the same way that saying Mt. Everest is large. I don’t know how the man could stand himself, though, really, or how anyone else could even … Continue reading NSO’s Parsifal
featuring the Ningbo Symphony Orchestra, Creation Opera Institute, and more I have opined before that opera is a rarity here, so I wasn’t going to miss the chance to see one of the more famous pieces in the repertoire being … Continue reading Ningbo Symphony’s Carmen
featuring: Annapaola Leso Samuel Déniz Falcón David Pallant Director/Choreographer: 孫尚綺 (Sun Shang-chi) Music Director and Conductor: Manuel Nawri Ensemble KNM Berlin (Violin soloist: Theodor Flindell) Taipei Chamber Singers …and more. I’ve been mesmerized by Glass’s Einstein on the Beach now for some … Continue reading Glass’s The Photographer
Featuring: Taiwan’s 國家交響樂團 (NSO) Wotan- Jukka Rasilainen Fricka- Jamie Barton Hunding- Andrea Silvestrelli Sieglinde- Anja Kampe Siegmund- Simon O’Neill Brünnhilde- Jennifer Wilson (and more) Carlus Padrissa, Esteban Muñoz, Roland Olbeter, Chu Uroz, and the crew of La Fura dels Baus … Continue reading NSO’s Die Walküre
The TSO continues their presentation of Carl Orff’s operatic works, which began with last year’s performance of Die Kluge in their old stomping grounds the Zhong Shan Hall. That was the primary reason I didn’t go… But tonight we got Der Mond, a … Continue reading TSO’s Der Mond
(cover image by Ian Baldwin) I started this (last) month’s series by talking about how difficult it was for me to appreciate and discover opera the way I listen to music (headphones, no visuals, no subtitles, etc.), but I discovered … Continue reading A Month of Opera in Review
performed by Anne Sophie Von Otter, Ian Bostridge, Deborah York, Bryn Terfel, et al., the London Symphony Orchestra, and Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, or below in this recording led by Kent Nagano For idle hearts and hands and … Continue reading Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress
performed by the “Soloists, Chorus & Orchestra Of The Moscow Chamber Theatre” and the Leningrad Philharmonic under Gennady Rozhdestvensky, or below (in English) by the Royal Opera conducted by Ingo Metzmacher The Nose loses all meaning if it is seen just as a … Continue reading Shostakovich: The Nose
performed by Taiwan’s 國家交響樂團 a.k.a. National Symphony Orchestra a.k.a. Taiwan Philharmonic, or below in a trailer for the work from The Royal Opera This is a concert (opera) review, and less so a discussion of the opera itself, but I’m … Continue reading NSO’s Il Trittico
performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado and all the people in this recording (Act 1 with subtitles below, Abbado and the Vienna State Opera) Still, alles still, als wär’ die Welt tot (Still, all is still, as if the … Continue reading Berg: Wozzeck, op. 7
performed by Jessye Norman, László Polgár and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, or below by Anne Sofie von Otter, John Tomlinson and the Berlin Philharmonic under Bernard Haitink (There’s also an English version with Gwynne Howell, Sally Burgess and … Continue reading Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle
performed by Janis Martin and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, or by the astoundingly talented Jessye Norman at the Metropolitan Opera under James Levine (the only one I can find with subtitles), or in a higher-quality video below featuring … Continue reading Schoenberg: Erwartung, op. 17
Performed by the Orchestre National de France under Bernard Haitink, with Anne Sofie von Otter, Wolfgang Holzmair, Laurent Naouri, et al., or below by the Vienna Philharmonic and many more under Claudio Abbado So here we are with our first opera of … Continue reading Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande
I’ve spoken before about how difficult it is for me to explore and begin to enjoy opera the way I listen to most other music. For me, as for most people, it’s an auditory experience, and I’ll listen to music while I’m … Continue reading 20th Century Opera: a series
in this recording, by lots of people, for a long time (The above video is just before the first scene from Act I, and is called Knee Play 1. I’ll discuss the knee plays and the form of the piece below, … Continue reading Glass: Einstein on the Beach
featuring Mary Birnbaum, available here or in iTunes Opera is kind of like, I don’t know, let’s say foie gras, or olives, or port wine, or good whiskey… It’s not something you enjoy every day (well, maybe that last one), … Continue reading Podcast: Otello (and opera) Overseas
Is there any other? with Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra (國家交響樂團) under Maestro Shao-Chia Lü (呂紹嘉), stage director Carlus Padrissa, a co-production of Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, with full credits shown below This performance on … Continue reading Wagner’s Das Rheingold
as below: The end. Opera is one of the best things ever. And it’s something we don’t get nearly enough of here in Taipei. Unfortunately, we’ll likely be getting even less of it now that the opera house, built in … Continue reading Opera: Verdi’s Otello
This will be a short one. Salient points as follows: Mozart in Mandarin and Min nan (instead of German recitative) No English (or even German) marquee (the former I understand why not) Local political issues infused into centuries old German opera … Continue reading ESO’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail
This is only my third opera, but after my incredibly awesome experience with Fidelio back in the summer, I was eager to revisit the National Theatre. This time, we enjoyed Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, the Taiwanese premiere, with the never-ceasing-to-impress Taipei Symphony Orchestra and lots of other … Continue reading Opera Review: Eugene Onegin
Fugue for Thought 