Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Oh, look! Actual content!

Here's an article about Washington's next season. As per the Facts of Life theme song, we have Radvanovsky as the B-cast Lucrezia Borgia (though SR is nobody's second fiddle) and Guleghina singing Turandot, otherwise known as "the role wherein 50% of the notes are ones she can't sing."

Oh, hey, it's January! What other news can we dig up?

Dallas is fulfilling a lot of people's dream by putting on Roberto Devereux. The linked article doesn't provide casting info, though the photo suggests local favorite/local source of virulent backlash skepticism Stephen Costello will be on hand. Other good news: Dallas' last season at the Fairgrounds Music Hall.

And it gets better: they've already announced 2009-2010 (that's a PDF, btw, if it's going to crash your browser or tie things up) in the new house. There's an opera of Moby Dick by Jake Heggie starring Ben Heppner, which is exciting if you look at it from a certain angle. Then if you scroll down you get more casting info on both seasons, for instance promising young tenor James Valenti is in the Boheme, and Manuela Custer about whom I heard excited rumblings a year or two back is in Italiana. Also Hasmik "Will Travel" Papian is Elisabetta or Cunegonde or Flosshilde or whatever the lead in Roberto Devereux is. The way I function, as usual, the main character in Roberto Devereux is Beverly Sills.

There's a little info here about L.A. They're getting Wilson's Butterfly, which aren't you a little bit curious at least?

More news as it breaks. Probably after everyone else has already reported it, but you get what you pay for.

9 comments:

Lisa Hirsch said...

Thank you for THAT, which is allowing me to scoop everyone in the Bay Area about the Heggie opera, a San Francisco co-commission.

JSU said...

Most exciting thing about that Moby-Dick, IMO, is that Gene Scheer (An American Tragedy) is doing the libretto.

Henry Holland said...

Oh, look! Actual content!

Hahahaha, I wish you posted more, but hey, quality v. quantity, yes?

Thank you for THAT, which is allowing me to scoop everyone in the Bay Area about the Heggie opera, a San Francisco

Considering how bad Dead Opera Walking was/is, I'd call that a Pyrrhic victory! :-)

How does the article about Los Angeles Opera *not* mention the Achim Freyer productions of Rheingold and Walkure but devote a paragraphy to The Fly? Huh? In any case, if Darko Tresnjak's production of Braunfels ravishing Die Vogel is half as good as his looks, it should be a winner.

I love this time of year, when opera schedules start coming out. Lyric Opera of Chicago should announce soon....

Oh, and Maury? Pace the thread over at the Wellsungs, Death in Venice is an incredible opera. Really, it is. The ENO production that NYCO is getting in the first Mortier season is easily the best of the four DiV productions I've seen; sadly, I don't think NYCO will have the gorgeous and very talented Tadzio, Benjamin Paul Griffiths.

Elderly lady to me at the ENO production: Are you enjoying the production, young man?
Me: Yes, very much so. I especially like the dance aspect, which is hard to pull off.
Her: Oh, quite, it's very well done, isn't it?
Me: It helps that the young man dancing Tadzio is beautiful. I firmly believe that there's few things more beautiful in this world than a beautiful Englishman.
Her: [pauses, thinks] Yes, but only to a certain age.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Now that is hilarious.

I may have to visit for the Braunfels!

Maury D'annato said...

Thanks, Henry, hasn't been much to post about, as I haven't gone to much, but I try.

I'm afraid Death in Venice is just a thing I'll never love, though...maybe some day. Never say never and all.

Maury D'annato said...

Lisa: my scoop is your scoop!

Maury D'annato said...

JSU: I mean, Moby Dick is awfully firmly a novel. I saw Laurie Anderson's take on it some years back, and it was disappointing, and I think if anyone could pry it off the page by force of genius and strangeness, it'd be Laurie Anderson. Ok, yes, it was highly abstract, a reaction more than a version, but even so, it was a bit leaden.

Anonymous said...

I actually saw the Wilson Butterfly a number of times here in Amsterdam, and thought it was pretty effective, especially the final scene. The stilised movements may be jarring to some, but I thought it succeeded to a high degree in removing a few possible coatings of sugar from the opera and presenting it more firmly as drama/tragedy.

Unknown said...

Yes, very excited about the new Winspear House, which I've seen rising from the foundations every time I take the ride out to the northeast from downtown Dallas. It's a big thing for the Arts District there, which is burgeoning and wonderful.