Opera Review: Night at the Museum

New York City Opera Renaissance presents Tosca.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Painted set design depicting the Church of Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome.
Painting by Adolfo Hohenstein, © 2016 New York City Opera Renaissance.

This week, at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater, located at the north bastion of the Time Warner Center, the New York City Opera officially came back to life. Now dubbed New York City Opera Renaissance, the company's first offering since coming out of Chapter 11 is the same opera it started with way back in 1944: Puccini's Tosca. With its painted trompe l'oeil flats and discount rococo furniture, this was a very traditional, somewhat stodgy production, using the set and costume designs by Adolfo Hohenstein that date from the opera's world premiere in 1900.

Concert Review: A Fixed Explosion of Ideas

The Orchestra of St. Luke's plays Pierre Boulez.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

 Pierre Boulez and his student the conductor Pablo Heras-Casado.
Photo by Priska Ketterer © 2012 The Lucerne Festival.

From his heaven-storming early piano works to his current place as a grand statesman of modern music, there is no overstating the importance of composer and conductor Pierre Boulez. On Saturday afternoon at the Rose Theater in the Time Warner Center, the Orchestra of St. Luke's unveiled their first concert of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL: Circles of Influence: Pierre Boulez. This concert celebrated recent works (including four U.S. premieres) and examined the Boulezian influence on contemporary European composers.

The Business of Revivals

Impresario Michael Capasso may save two failed opera companies.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

In his proposal for a New York City Opera Renaissance, impresario Michael Capasso
suggests mounting Franco Zeffirelli's production of Tosca (above)
in Lincoln Center's intimate Rose Theater.
Act I of Tosca. Photo © Teatro Opera di Roma.

In a dramatic turn of events worthy of the operatic stage, two recently darkened New York opera companies have unveiled a plan to join forces and come back to life. The proposal, linked to yesterday on parterre.com (and readable here) comes from Michael Capasso, the general director of the recently dimmed Dicapo Opera. The new hybrid opera company would be called (wait for it)

NEW YORK CITY OPERA RENAISSANCE.

Opera Review: Off the Rack

The Budapest Festival Orchestra presents Le Nozze di Figaro.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Iván Fischer (lower right) supervises the good-natured insanity in Act II of
Le Nozze di Figaro at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival.
Photo by Richard Termine © 2013 Richard Termine.

One of the most eagerly anticipated events of this year's Mostly Mozart Festival is the return of conductor-director Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Mr. Fischer, who mounted a superb Don Giovanni two years ago) have returned to Lincoln Center with a new production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, seen Tuesday night at the Rose Theater.