On March 2, Eve Queler ascended the podium one last time as Music Director of the Opera Orchestra of New York to conduct a concert performance of the same work that inaugurated the company back in 1972: Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine. Following the thunderous applause that greeted her entrance, Ms.…
An exploration of the grand exotic – Anticipating OONY’s performance of Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine
Grand Opera, what is it? To the common man, and certainly to many an opera company’s PR departments, all operas ranging from Mozart’s to Giordani’s are grand operas. But Grand Opera, or rather French Grand Opera, is commonly defined by operas composed primarily for the French stage between the years 1828 to roughly 1868.…
Minnesota Opera | Donizetti: Maria Stuarda
Minnesota Opera’s production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda opened last Saturday, January 29 at the Ordway theatre to an enthusiastic, near sold out house. Patrons who attended last year’s first installment of the so-called “Tudor Trilogy”, Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, were instantly brought back to director Kevin Newbury’s vision of the English court.…
When Queens Attack – Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda goes to Minnesota
As the plane skids on patches of ice along the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport runway, my eye turns to the window to witness the exotic landscape of white snow that awaits me once outside the plane. Yet, a Southern boy must suffer to get his fix of Donizetti, and as the weight of carry-on bags crush my left shoulder during my search for the bus terminal, my mind races towards the events that await me as Minnesota Opera premieres Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda this Saturday. …