Opera Review: The Three Faces of a Composer

The Met (finally) revives Puccini's Il Trittico.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Three faces of Il Trittico: Marcelo Alvarez and Amber Wagner in Il Tabarro, Kristine Opolais
in Suor Angelica and Plácido Domingo in Gianni Schicchi. Photos by Ken Howard.

No work by Puccini has suffered more neglect and critical ignorance than Il Trittico, his "triptych" of three single act operas that premiered at the Metropolitan Opera one hundred years ago. Part of what has hurt the reputation of this work: comprised of three operas designed to be performed together and in a certain sequence, is the unfortunate habit producers have of playing these works individually, or pairing them "Cav-Pag" style with operas by other composers.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Luisa Miller

Placido Domingo returns (but not as the tenor lead) in Verdi's opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

We're the Millers: Sonya Yoncheva (right) is Luisa and Placido Domingo is her ill-starred father in Verdi's Luisa Miller.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera marketing department is trumpeting that this year's revival of Luisa Miller features soprano Sonya Yoncheva paired with a very familiar name: Placido Domingo. However, those materials neglect to mention that Mr. Domingo is not playing Rodolfo, the handsome young hero in Verdi's Luisa Miller, but rather the role of Luisa's father, a part usually taken by a baritone of the first rank.

They're Back From the Dead

And they're ready for Tosca: The New York City Opera Renaissance.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Original art from Iron Maiden's No Prayer for the Dying.
Painting by Derek Riggs © 1990 Iron Maiden/CBS Records.

The above headline suits the giddy anticipation that some opera lovers in New York have regarding the resurrection of the New York City Opera, the long-running company that bit the dust in 2013. In stories reported yesterday in The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, it was announced this week that the New York City Opera Renaissance will move forward with its plans to bring the historic company out of bankruptcy and get back to the business of putting operas on the stage.

Opera Review: Old Money, New Voices

The Met revives Richard Strauss' nostalgic Arabella.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Half empty, or half full? Malin Byström in Arabella.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2014 The Metropolitan Opera.

Richard Strauss' Arabella is a girl with a bad reputation.

This is the last of the composer's collaborations with his favorite librettist Hugo von Hoffmannsthal. Arabella was planned to be a second raid on the mix of romantic comedy and Viennese nostalgia that made Der Rosenkavalier the duo's biggest success. Hoffmansthal died leaving only Act I as a finished work. (Strauss worked from his drafts of the second and third acts.) When Arabella premiered (in 1934) the Great Depression was still on. The Nazis were in power. The opera, a sentimental love story set around a grand evening out in Vienna, was destined to join the ranks of Strauss' lesser stage works.

Opera Review: Einstein on the Beach

Reposted from The Classical Review.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Helga Davis (left) and Kate Moran perform Knee Play No. 2 from Philip Glass and Robert Wilson's Einstein on the Beach at the BAM NextWave Festival. Photo by Stephanie Berger © 2012 Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Like a comet that only passes earth once every 20 years, Einstein on the Beach has returned to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. This new touring production of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s collaboration—presented as part of the BAM NextWave Festival—keeps the opera’s anarchic spirit intact while still packing an impressive theatrical wallop.

Read the entire review here at The Classical Review.