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☆ Opinion | How to Save Opera in America? Make It New Again.
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-17 | by ( Peter Gelb | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In 1910, Puccini was in New York to supervise the opening night of his opera “La Fanciulla del West,” the Met’s very first world premiere. With the tenor Enrico Caruso and the soprano Emmy Destinn, household names in their day, in the leading roles, “Fanciulla” was a runaway hit. Now, more than 100 years later, with a severe lack of music education in our schools and competition from an ever-expanding array of streaming entertainment options, opera faces its greatest existential challenge. We are fighting to survive economically (our European colleagues are better off with substantial government funding), regain our artistic footing and secure new audiences and donors. This is particularly difficult to accomplish because for decades there has been resistance to substantial artistic change from administrators, academics and critics.

Persons: Lise Davidsen, Giacomo Puccini’s “, ”, Puccini, Enrico Caruso, Destinn, “ Fanciulla ” Organizations: Metropolitan Opera, scalpers Locations: New York, Fanciulla del West

☆ Why Trump’s election fraud falsehoods might cost the GOP the House
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-19 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —Donald Trump’s obsession with election fraud that doesn’t exist in any significant form could drive the country into a government shutdown — and may even put the Republican House majority at risk. But given the tiny House GOP majority and Trump’s looming presence, every step the speaker takes will be perilous – especially if he hopes to cling to his job if Republicans succeed in holding the House in November. Trump seems to be setting the GOP up for an intra-party fight that could turn into a disaster in November. Win McNamee/Getty ImagesA potential self-inflicted wound for the GOP in Trump’s birth stateIronically, Trump was on Wednesday in the state where his stand could wreak the most political damage for House Republicans. Johnson has been happy to indulge Trump’s voter fraud claims – both after the 2020 election and this cycle.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, Mike Johnson, Trump, Johnson, shutdowns, isn’t, Mitch McConnell, ”, Win McNamee, Mike Lawler, Kaitlan Collins, ” Lawler, Marc Molinaro, ” Molinaro, –, we’ll, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Johnson –, —, Kevin McCarthy, Kamala Harris, Republicans don’t, Donald Trump, Frank Franklin II, it’s, relishes, Harris, Joe Biden’s, ” Trump Organizations: CNN, Republican, GOP, Democrats, Capitol, House Republicans, Congressional, New York Republican, Louisiana Republican, Georgia Republican, Democratic, Social Network, Republicans, SAVE, Nassau Coliseum, Trump, New, New York, State, Teamsters Union, “ Locations: Washington, Kentucky, New York, Uniondale, Uniondale , New York, Long, New York City, New, Florida

☆ This Soprano Sings ‘the Sound of the Soul’
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-12 | by ( Zachary Woolfe | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

“Un bel dì,” the title character’s great aria in “Madama Butterfly,” begins with the soprano singing a hovering G flat. Puccini writes in the score that the note is to emerge not just pianissimo, or very soft, but also “come da lontano”: as if coming from far away. The opera is about a young Japanese woman convinced that the American naval officer who abandoned her will return, and “Un bel dì” narrates her fantasy of seeing his ship sailing back into the harbor at Nagasaki. At the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France, Ermonela Jaho condenses that desperate illusion into a haunting filament of tone. What’s more, she sings the note while lying on her back on the floor in this bracingly intimate new production of the beloved work.

Persons: ”, Puccini Organizations: American Locations: Japanese, Nagasaki, Aix, Provence, France

☆ She invited a stranger to join her on vacation in Italy. ‘It went from zero to 100, really, really quick’
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-05 | by ( Francesca Street | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +25 min

“I was like, ‘Okay, let’s see what the guys look like in Vienna,’” Carter recalls. “If I’m going to meet up with this guy, I should FaceTime him to make sure he’s real,” she thought. “I was thinking, ‘This is either going to go really good or really bad,’” Carter recalls. “It went from zero to 100, really, really quick, in terms of comfort. And either I’m going to have to move here, or he’s going to have to move to America.

Persons: CNN — Carter Leathers, Italy –, Carter, Max Ratzenböck, ” Carter, Max, she’d, ’, “, ‘ I’m, ’ ”, whiling, ”, ’ ” Carter, I’d, it’s, I’m, Bumble, Max swiped, Max couldn’t, ” Max, Carter Ratzenböck Carter, Florence –, he’d, “ I’m, We’d, you’re, Carter’s, –, Pretty, Max's, Carter Ratzenböck, Florence’s, ” Here's Carter, marveling, He’s, they’d, ‘ We’re, They’d, Alex Katz, Austria who’d, “ It’s, “ I’ve, Max’s, ” Carter didn’t, Europe – she’d, Carter –, serendipitously, Max it’s, Max – Organizations: CNN, CNN Travel, Austrian, Opera House, Schönbrunn, Ferris, Viennese Opera, Vienna, Intelligence, ”, America Locations: Florence, Italy, Sacramento , California, Europe, California, Rome, Vienna, Austria, Austrian, Tuscany, Italian, Ponte Vecchio, osterias, ”, “, America, Sacramento, San Francisco, Napa Valley, Monterey, Paris, accilimatize, Ponte

☆ Review: The Met Opera’s ‘Turandot’ Returns With a Strong Debut
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Oussama Zahr | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Puccini’s “Turandot,” a verismo opera set in a fabled version of ancient China, makes for an odd love story. Its unlikable romantic leads go largely unfazed by the death and dismemberment they instigate; when they finally share true love’s kiss, they’re standing atop a figurative pile of corpses. On Wednesday at the Metropolitan Opera, the conductor Oksana Lyniv made a strong debut, emphasizing the murderous, life-or-death stakes instead of the fairy-tale Orientalism that has made it a cultural lightning rod in recent years. The reckoning around “Turandot” creates a problem for the Met, because the company’s long-running production, a lavish spectacle introduced by the director Franco Zeffirelli in 1987, is a hit. The gold-and-ecru throne room of Act II still dazzles, and eye-popping exoticism runs rampant, with acrobats, ribbon dancers, curled-roof pavilions and a dragon puppet.

Persons: Puccini’s, ”, Oksana Lyniv, “, —, Franco Zeffirelli Organizations: Metropolitan Opera Locations: China

☆ The Met Opera’s New Season: What We Want to See
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Contemporary works will be front and center in the coming season, the Metropolitan Opera announced on Wednesday, with four company premieres among its six new productions. It will be the fifth opera by Adams that the Met has presented, putting him in the same category as Tchaikovsky and Bellini. The lineup is part of the house’s efforts to attract new audiences by embracing contemporary operas, which are outselling many of the classics. The Met is still grappling with headwinds as it works to recover from the pandemic. In January, the company said it had withdrawn nearly $40 million in additional emergency funds from its endowment to help cover operating expenses.

Persons: Jeanine Tesori, George Brant, Moby, Dick, ”, Jake Heggie, Gene Scheer, “, Osvaldo Golijov, David Henry Hwang, “ Antony, Cleopatra, John Adams, Adams, Tchaikovsky, Bellini, Verdi’s, Aida ”, Strauss’s, Salome, Puccini’s, Simon McBurney Organizations: Metropolitan Opera, Met

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Opera opens its 2024-25 season Sept. 21 with Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” reimagined in a film studio and said Saturday it will present the company premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s “Ainadamar" while reducing its offerings from six main-stage productions to five. Mario Gras's “Butterfly” staging, first seen at Madrid’s Teatro Real in 2017, stars Karah Son as Cio-Cio-San and Jonathan Tetelma as Pinkerton in their company debuts. The six main-stage productions in 2022-23 brought in $9.4 million; the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season resulted in just under $7 million from four stagings. “That’ll be our ninth main-stage opera in Spanish in the company’s 38-year history,” Koelsch said. Tomer Zvulun’s staging of Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” which premiered at the 2019 Houston Grand Opera, opens May 31, 2025, with Quinn Kelsey, Rosa Feola in her company debut and René Barbera.

Persons: Puccini’s, Osvaldo Golijov’s “, Mario Gras's, Karah, Jonathan Tetelma, Pinkerton, James Conlon, Martin, Christopher Koelsch, ” Koelsch, ”, Ana María Martínez, Daniela Mack, Deborah Colker, “, Ian Judge’s, Roméo, Juliette ”, Duke Kim, Amina Edris, Michael Cavanagh’s, Conlon, Erica Petrocelli, Tomer, Verdi’s, Quinn Kelsey, Rosa Feola, René Barbera Organizations: ANGELES, Los Angeles Opera, Teatro Real, Martin Gas, LA, Hollywood, ” Revenue, Scottish Opera, Detroit Opera, Welsh National Opera, Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera Locations: Japan, ”

Ilia Malinin established such a big lead after his peerless short program at the U.S. After starting his program with a textbook quad axel — a jump only Malinin has landed in competition — he doubled a planned quad loop, fell on a quad lutz and doubled another planned quad. He followed with a perfect quad lutz before a mistake on his planned quad loop, which he turned into a double that appeared to slow down his momentum. Malinin recovered to land a quad salchow before falling on his quad lutz. The 29-year-old Brown, performing his “The Impossible Dream” program from last year, opened with two brilliant triple axels — one in sequence with a double — after missing the same jump during his short program.

Persons: Ilia Malinin, axel —, lutz, ”, ” Malinin, Jason Brown, Malinin, axel, Roman Skorniakov, “, Brown, Tracy Wilson, ” Brown, Giacomo Puccini, Pulkinen, ” Pulkinen, Emily Chan, Spencer Howe, Ellie Kam, Danny O'Shea, Valentina, Maximiliano Fernandez, Chan, Howe, Madison Chock, Evan Bates, Christina Carreira, Anthony Ponomarenko, Emily Bratti, Ian Somerville, Amber Glenn, Isabeau Levito, ___ Organizations: peerless, U.S, Camden, HBO, Nationwide, Skate America, Prix de France, Skating, Madison Locations: Columbus , Ohio, Montreal, U.S

[1/5] A member of the teamLab digital art group poses in an installation in preparation for the reopening of their Borderless museum in February at the Azabudai Hills complex in Tokyo, Japan November 17, 2023. The name refers to digital art pieces that blend into each other and encourage guests to wander at their own pace. The relocation is part of Mori's strategy of placing cultural attractions in integrated business and residential projects. teamLab has developed a global reputation for its experimental and interactive set pieces that meld images and senses. Previous projects in Tokyo featured digital art mixed with a sauna experience and a laser light show enhanced performance of Giacomo Puccini's opera "Turandot."

Persons: Kim Kyung, Toshiyuki Inoko, Mori, Giacomo Puccini's, Inoko, Rocky Swift, Simon Cameron, Moore Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Thomson Locations: Tokyo, Japan, Tokyo Bay, Mori's

☆ Japan's TeamLab Readies Renewed Digital Museum in Tokyo Mega Complex
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Nov. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

The name refers to digital art pieces that blend into each other and encourage guests to wander at their own pace. It is due to reopen in February in Mori's new Azabudai Hills complex in central Tokyo. The relocation is part of Mori's strategy of placing cultural attractions in integrated business and residential projects. teamLab has developed a global reputation for its experimental and interactive set pieces that meld images and senses. Previous projects in Tokyo featured digital art mixed with a sauna experience and a laser light show enhanced performance of Giacomo Puccini's opera "Turandot."

Persons: Rocky Swift TOKYO, Toshiyuki Inoko, Mori, Giacomo Puccini's, Inoko, Rocky Swift, Simon Cameron, Moore Locations: Tokyo Bay, Mori's, Tokyo

☆ Review: ‘Florencia’ Brings Spanish Back to the Met Opera
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Zachary Woolfe | More About Zachary Woolfe | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

That happens to be the year the Met last put on a Spanish-language opera, and there’s something amusing in the fact that next to nothing in “Florencia,” which premiered in Houston in 1996, would have surprised an audience back then. You almost want to applaud the impressive, if perverse, achievement of a score that so thoroughly rejects all the galvanic musical developments since the early 1900s, when the opera is set. The action — hardly complex, but crowded — takes place aboard a steamboat in the Amazon rainforest. The passengers are on their way to hear the great diva Florencia Grimaldi sing at the Belle Époque opera house in Manaus, Brazil. There’s a swooning pair of young lovers, and a bickering married couple; a would-be Grimaldi biographer and a mystical narrator; oh, and Florencia, too, somehow unrecognized by everyone else and returning to Manaus in search of her lover, a butterfly hunter she lost long ago.

Persons: Catán, Giacomo Puccini, “ Florencia, Florencia Grimaldi, There’s, Grimaldi, Florencia, Marcela Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez Organizations: Met, Belle Locations: “, ”, Houston, Manaus, Brazil

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 10 years after it was first imagined as an opera, “Grounded” is ready to take flight. With music by Jeanine Tesori and a libretto adapted by George Brant from his own play, “Grounded” tells the story of an F-16 fighter pilot who becomes pregnant and leaves the service. The opera has its world premiere at the Washington National Opera on Saturday, with performances continuing through Nov. 13. And next fall it will open the season at the Metropolitan Opera, which commissioned the work. “It’s not a story about, Oh it’s really hard to be a woman in a man’s world,” Cremo said.

Persons: Jeanine Tesori, George Brant, Paul Cremo, It’s, “, Millie ”, Jeanine, we’ve, ” Cremo, it’s, That’s, ” Brant, Cremo, he’d, ”, Tesori, Brant, —, Jess, Eric, Michael Mayer, Mimi Lien, ” Lien, Emily D’Angelo, ” D’Angelo, can’t, Daniela Candillari, ” Candillari, ” Critics, WNO Organizations: WASHINGTON, Washington National Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Dynamics Locations: Nevada, Manhattan, Canadian, Eric’s, Wyoming, “, New York

☆ How Complete Was Stephen Sondheim’s Final Musical?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-27 | by ( Michael Paulson | More About Michael Paulson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The book, on the other hand, has been revised since Sondheim’s death by its writer, David Ives, and director, Joe Mantello. Mozart’s Requiem, Puccini’s “Turandot” and Berg’s “Lulu” were all left unfinished when their composers died and are now considered classics. “The work that David and Stephen did should absolutely be seen,” said Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public Theater, which was working with Sondheim to develop the show until a few years ago. “I really trust David and Joe, and don’t think they would be putting up something they didn’t feel was finished — not on this scale,” he said. “They’re smart cookies, and if they wanted to do a workshop because it wasn’t finished, they could.

Persons: David Ives, Joe Mantello, Mozart’s, Puccini’s, ”, Lulu ”, David, Stephen, Oskar Eustis, Sondheim, ” James Lapine, George, “, Joe, wasn’t, Steve Organizations: Public

This is a season of transition for two of New York’s most important arts institutions. And Jaap van Zweden, the New York Philharmonic’s music director since 2018, starts his final year in the position with help from Yo-Yo Ma, Steve Reich and Schubert. Grand orchestras like the Chicago Symphony and Staatskapelle Berlin at Carnegie Hall; the Emerson String Quartet’s farewell; and premieres by Kate Soper and Ted Hearne are among the other highlights coming this fall. And Matthew Ozawa’s staging for Detroit Opera aims to be a corrective to stereotypes about Japanese women and culture (Oct. 7-15). DEATH OF CLASSICAL The impresario Andrew Ousley’s bleakly winking concert series, performed in crypts and catacombs, includes the Calidore Quartet, which will present Beethoven’s Op.

Persons: Jake Heggie’s, Malcolm X ”, Florencia, Jaap van Zweden, Ma, Steve Reich, Schubert, Kate Soper, Ted Hearne, Phil Chan, Matthew Ozawa’s, PERELMAN, ”, Mahani Teave, Andrew Ousley’s bleakly, Lowell Liebermann’s, Maxim Lando, Bach’s “ Goldberg, Hanzhi Wang, David Lang’s Pulitzer, “ Organizations: Metropolitan Opera, York, Chicago Symphony, Berlin, Carnegie Hall, Emerson Colonial Theater, Detroit Opera, Trinity Church Wall, Easter Locations: el Amazonas, Boston, American

☆ Renata Scotto Spun an Actor’s Insight Into Vocal Gold
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Oussama Zahr | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Scotto contained multitudes, and that extended to her vocal categorization, too. Some have described her as a lyric by fach and a spinto by temperament, attributing her vocal decline — inevitable for any singer — to the irreconcilability of the two. Her Cio-Cio-San in Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” preserved on two studio recordings, exploits the permeable boundary among those voice types. The progress is not linear; her voice responds to hopes and doubts that the heroine continually surfaces and suppresses. Scotto’s morbidezza — her ability to inflect her middle voice with captivating softness — was arguably her most impressive quality.

Persons: Scotto, fach, —, Puccini, ”, “, Lorin Maazel, morbidezza, Verdi’s, ” Scotto, pesky, It’s, Riccardo Muti’s, Violetta, Lucia, Mimì, Desdemona Organizations: Cio Locations: Puccini’s, “ La

☆ Renata Scotto, Opera Diva Who Inhabited Roles, Dies at 89
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Jonathan Kandell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Renata Scotto, the firebrand Italian soprano and Metropolitan Opera favorite who was acclaimed for her acting and insights into opera characters as much as for her voice, died on Wednesday in Savona, Italy. At her best, in roles like Puccini’s Cio-Cio San in “Madama Butterfly” and Mimì in “La Bohème,” Verdi’s Violetta in “La Traviata” and Bellini’s “Norma,” Ms. Scotto achieved a dramatic intensity that electrified audiences and elicited the highest praise from her fellow opera stars. “Renata is the closest I have ever worked with a real singing actress,” the tenor Plácido Domingo said in The New York Times Magazine in 1978. “There is an emphasis, a feeling she puts behind every word she interprets.”Vocally, Ms. Scotto could not match the sensuousness of Renata Tebaldi or the astonishing technique and range of Joan Sutherland. But Ms. Scotto’s charisma and stage presence made critics overlook her shortcomings.

Persons: Renata Scotto, Filippo Anselmi, ” Verdi’s Violetta, Bellini’s “ Norma, ” Ms, Scotto, “ Renata, ”, Plácido Domingo, Renata Tebaldi, Joan Sutherland, Harold C, Schonberg Organizations: firebrand, Metropolitan Opera, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, Carnegie Hall Locations: Savona, Italy, “, “ La, The

☆ Reimagining ‘Madame Butterfly,’ With Asian Creators at the Helm
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Javier C. Hernández | More About Javier C. Hernández | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The auditorium lights dimmed, and the cast and crew of Cincinnati Opera’s new production of Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly” anxiously took their places. For months, the team, made up largely of Asian and Asian American artists, had worked to reimagine the classic opera, upending its stereotypes about women and Japanese culture. They gathered at the Cincinnati Music Hall one evening last week to fine-tune their creation before its opening last Saturday. “It feels a little like a grand experiment,” said the production’s director, Matthew Ozawa, whose father is Japanese and mother is white. The opera has long been criticized for its portrait of Asian women as exotic and submissive, and the use of exaggerated makeup and stereotypical costumes in some productions has drawn fire.

Persons: Butterfly ”, ”, Matthew Ozawa, Madame Organizations: Cincinnati Music, American Navy Locations: Cincinnati, American, Nagasaki

☆ Can ‘Miss Saigon’ Be Saved? Two British Shows Disagree.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Houman Barekat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Miss Saigon” is back and so, inevitably, is the surrounding discourse. Claude-Michel Schönberg’s musical melodrama about an ill-fated romance between a Vietnamese sex worker and an American G.I. So not everyone was pleased when the Crucible Theater in Sheffield, England, announced it would stage a new production of “Miss Saigon” this summer. Chris (a compellingly lugubrious Christian Maynard) meets Kim (Jessica Lee) in a brothel and they fall in love, but their affair ends abruptly when the Americans withdraw from Saigon. Three years later, Chris, now married to an American woman, learns that he has a young son by Kim.

Persons: Saigon ”, Claude, Michel Schönberg’s, Jonathan Pryce, yellowface, Robert Hastie, Anthony Lau, Cameron Mackintosh, Puccini’s, Christian Maynard, Kim, Jessica Lee, Chris, Kim . Kim Locations: Saigon, American, Vietnam, Sheffield, England, British East, Asian, United States

☆ The Art of Being a Flâneur
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Stephanie Rosenbloom | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

I followed the river toward the Uffizi Gallery where I stopped, enchanted by the scene below. It’s “a search for the delectable, delicious, almost gustatory delights of the moment,” as they put it. Other times, an object or architectural detail that piques your interest — a gate, a gargoyle — provides a portal to another time. Stories of vanished ages can be triggered by a single stone, then explored back home through books and websites. Being in a big city among so many strangers can be at turns exhilarating and disturbing.

Persons: Arno, Fred B, Bryant, Joseph Veroff, Puccini’s, Robert K, Merton, Elinor Barber, bento, Amer, plumb, Edgar Allan Poe’s “, Marie Roget, ”, Walter Benjamin, “ Charles Baudelaire Organizations: Uffizi, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Opera House, Columbia University, Science, Metro, Poet Locations: Firenze, Florence, New York, Tokyo, Japan, Istanbul, Paris

☆ Opinion | Is Musicology Racist?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Regarding the piano, for example, Ewell thinks it “enforces a commitment to whiteness and maleness,” and thus playing it should not be expected of those who teach music theory. Ewell also believes musicology should entail no foreign language requirements, because Greek, Latin, Italian, French and German are “white” languages. If we are to be maximally un-white about the matter, I am hoping he is referring to music theory work in Swahili, Hausa, Amharic or Twi, but it’d be good to have some specifics. Music theory has traditionally been taught with a major focus on the work of the Austrian music theorist Heinrich Schenker, whom Ewell specifically attacked in his 2019 article. The issue was widely condemned as racist in musicology circles, and Jackson was barred from the journal amid calls for his firing as a professor at the university that supports it.

☆ Pretty Yende, South African opera star will perform at King Charles' coronation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Gertrude Kitongo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —“Pretty, are you sitting down?” South African soprano Pretty Yende was performing in Vienna last December when she received a call from her manager. She had just been booked for the biggest gig of her life: a performance at the coronation of King Charles III. As one of three soloists at the ceremony, it’s thought that Yende is the first African to be invited to perform solo at a British coronation. The coronation will not be the first time King Charles has watched Yende perform; he saw the soprano sing at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s 75th anniversary gala, held at Windsor Castle in April 2022. Pretty Yende performs in "Lucia Di Lammermoor" at the Bastille Opera House in Paris in October 2016.

☆ The Maestro Wore Blue: Bringing Pizazz to the Pit at the Met
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Javier C. Hernández | Landon Nordeman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Metropolitan Opera’s music director, dressed in a blazing sapphire jacket and trim black pants, stood before a mirror backstage on a recent afternoon and smiled. “Oh my God, it’s so good,” he said, waving his baton. His outfit was modeled on one worn onstage by a band leader in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic production. Could the golden braid that dangled from his right shoulder be fastened, so it did not create a distraction in the pit? Was the jacket comfortable enough to accommodate the sweeping gestures that the music demanded?

BARONE The book could not be staged as-is now, just as much of opera makes you cringe the closer you look. VINCENTELLI The “Phantom” legacy is most visible in business terms, with a generation of blockbusters that run for years, decades even. The current “Sweeney Todd” revival has luscious orchestrations but the staging and most of the performances are so timid. A couple of years ago I saw “Phantom” at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki. “Phantom” is similar to Puccini not only in its music, but also in its specificity; you can’t really stretch Puccini, conceptually, and with “Phantom,” you have to either go big or go home.

☆ Light show meets opera as new 'Turandot' seeks to lure people back to theatre
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Irene Wang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Cast members perform Giacomo Puccini's Turandot with immersive laser lights created by 'teamLab' during a dress rehearsal at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, Japan February 21, 2023. REUTERS/Issei KatoTOKYO, Feb 24 (Reuters) - A kaleidoscopic light show has helped reinvent Giacomo Puccini's opera "Turandot" currently playing in Tokyo - a production which aims to bring people back into theatres now that the pandemic has eased. The opera, reimagined by American director Daniel Kramer in collaboration with teamLab, the Japanese group famed for its digital art installations, employs dazzling displays of lasers and three-dimensional light sculptures. The light-infused Turandot made its debut in Geneva last year and will be performed at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan until Feb. 26. Reporting by Irene Wang; Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Edwina GibbsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Arias in the throes of war: Ukrainian companies crowned at 'Opera Oscars'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( David Latona | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MADRID, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Two Ukrainian opera houses were awarded this year's "Opera Oscar" for offering up mellifluous cadenzas and virtuosic trills amid power cuts and artillery blasts on their country's territory - allowing audiences to evade, if only for a few hours, the war outside. In recognition of their "outstanding work in challenging circumstances", the opera theatres in the Ukrainian cities of Lviv and Odesa jointly clinched the Company of the Year prize at the International Opera Awards ceremony held on Monday in Madrid's Teatro Real. The jury celebrated their "courage and resilience for continuing to perform despite the dangers and depredations unleashed by the war." Samoan tenor Pene Pati bagged the Opera Magazine Readers' award, the only one decided by popular vote instead of a jury. Soprano Sabine Devieilhe and baritone Stephane Degout, both French, won Female Singer and Male Singer, respectively.

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