“The acting, with certain exceptions, is quite restrained. With an opera, one’s doing in a way the opposite and bringing out the latent psychological and emotional meaning. The music underlines the power of the feeling. In some ways, I found that operatic subjects, whether it’s a source that you use or a real-life thing, are subjects that seem to invite a further dimension that in a way would bring them to some kind of new stature.
Category: music
The Jazz Clarinetist Who Acted As New Orleans’ Musical Ambassador To The World
“Unlike other musicians whose lives were marked by marital strife, substance abuse and run-ins with the law, Mr. Fountain lived a blissful existence with Beverly Lang Fountain, his wife of 64 years, and a sizable number of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”
Before HD: When The Met Brought Opera To America By Touring America
“From 1883, the year the Metropolitan Opera was founded, until 1986, the company went on extensive annual tours across the United States with occasional excursions abroad. … The scale of the Met tour, with orchestra, chorus, soloists, scenery and costumes, was massive. The typical mode of transportation was by train. In the first season, the company began with 13 performances in Boston from a repertory of 10 different operas as well as a concert.”
‘Most Concert Halls And Opera Houses Are Just Too Big,’ Says New York Times Chief Classical Critic
Anthony Tommasini: “Inevitably, a sense of separation, of sound traveling across distance, affects performances in spaces the size of most concert halls. Less imposing halls need to be found for the symphonic repertory.”
Elena Doria, 90, Longtime Director Of Met Opera Children’s Chorus
“A soprano who joined the Met in 1966 as a member of its adult chorus, Ms. Doria took the helm of the children’s group in 1986. For the next 23 years, until she stepped down in 2009, she superintended her charges – who ranged in age from about 5 to the early teens – through weekly classes at the opera house, through stage rehearsals and, like an operatic Momma Rose, from the wings at every performance.”
Conductor Myung Whun Chung Cleared Of Embezzlement Charges At Seoul Philharmonic
The charges, which many observers considered fabricated, arose from the stormy end of Chung’s tenure as music director and his conflicts with the orchestra’s notoriously combative former president, who was forced to resign at the end of 2014.
Study: Concert-Goers Are More Satisfied With Their Lives
“Total wellbeing scores were significantly higher for people who reported that they danced or attended musical events,” the researchers report. Compared to people who did not participate in these activities, members of both groups gave themselves significantly higher ratings on several important scales, including life achievements, relationships, and community.
Albanian National Opera And Ballet Chief Quits Over Tiny Budget
“The total budget of Albania’s Ministry of Culture for 2016 has been set at just over 9 million euros – but only some of this is allocated for the country’s main cultural institutions. The National Theatre of Opera and Ballet gets about 2 million euros but the institution hosts the biggest artistic troupe in the country and also contains within it the national symphonic orchestra and the folk ensemble.”
Is Donald Trump’s Favorite Opera Aria Maybe A Little Bit … Fascist?
The GOP presidential nominee used to use Pavarotti’s famous recording of “Nessun dorma” from Turandot at rallies (until the tenor’s heirs told him to stop). It’s unclear how much Trump really knows about Turandot, but there certainly are scholars convinced that the work has Fascist overtones, and Puccini himself was an admirer of Mussolini (to whom Trump is sometimes compared).
When Do Musicals Cross The Line And Become Operas? Anne Midgette Considers
“What’s the difference between an opera and a musical? Theories abound. Some say opera is through-sung while musicals include spoken dialogue (although there are many operas with spoken dialogue; think Carmen). Some say opera is unamplified, while musicals are mic’d (except that there are many operas written for amplification, and many musicals that weren’t). But ask Stephen Sondheim … and you’ll hear that it has to do largely, simply, with the expectations of the audience. Sondheim should know.”