Filed under: photography
August 11, 2015 • 11:00 pm Comments Off on “What Do You Think You’re Looking At?!”
“What Do You Think You’re Looking At?!”
August 9, 2015 • 4:24 pm Comments Off on Seattle Opera’s Nabucco Falls Flat
Seattle Opera’s Nabucco Falls Flat
The cast and orchestra of Seattle Opera’s Nabucco. © Philip Newton
My Bachtrack review is now live.
(I think I managed to catch all the autocorrects that
were turning “Nabucco” into “Nabisco.”)
On paper, Seattle Opera’s new production of Nabucco sounded enticing. General Director Aidan Lang generated buzz about the ‘innovative staging concept’ we should anticipate for the company’s first-ever presentation of Verdi’s third opera. Seattle Opera had meanwhile undertaken a rebranding effort that included a design facelift of its website to emphasise large, bold visuals — with billboard-style tags announcing Nabucco: ‘BETRAYED’ ‘TWISTED’ “EPIC’.
Filed under: directors, review, Seattle Opera, Verdi
August 9, 2015 • 9:41 am Comments Off on O Tempora, O Mores
O Tempora, O Mores
August 8, 2015 • 8:07 am Comments Off on Zozobra, with Gloombox
Zozobra, with Gloombox
I happened upon this miniature version ofthe legendary Zozobra in the lobby of the Hotel St. Francis in Santa Fe.
According to the official “All about Zozobra” site, Zozobra, “also known as Old Man Gloom (OMG),” was created by local artist William Howard Shuster, Jr., in 1924 and became part of the annual Fiestas de Santa Fe starting in 1926.
Made of muslin and stuffed with shredded paper, Zozobra is an eerie, groaning, flailing character who appears to be part ghost and part monster.
Amid fireworks and the ceremonial dances of ghosts and fire a growling Zozobra is set ablaze and it is said as the fire consumes the beast so go the feelings of gloom and doom from the past year.
[Howard] was inspired by the Holy Week celebrations of the Yaqui Indians of Mexico, where an effigy of Judas, filled with firecrackers, is led around the village on a donkey, and ultimately set afire. Shuster and his friend, E. Dana Johnson, a local newspaper editor, came up with the name Zozobra, which was defined as: “anguish, anxiety, gloom,” or Spanish for “the gloomy one.”
Filed under: photography, travel
August 7, 2015 • 1:22 pm Comments Off on The Standard Rep at Santa Fe Opera: Summer 2015
The Standard Rep at Santa Fe Opera: Summer 2015
Alex Penda as Salome; photo © Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera, 2015
Along with my Cold Mountain coverage, here’s the round-up review of three opera productions I wrote for Musical America, in the order in which they impressed me: Salome, Rigoletto, and The Daughter of the Regiment). (Sorry for the paywall, which prevents me from presenting the whole text here.)
SANTA FE — With the world premiere of Cold Mountain and the announcement of a newly commissioned opera about Steve Jobs by Mason Bates, Santa Fe Opera has been in the media spotlight over the past week. The company is also emphasizing its versatility in this summer’s three productions of familiar fare.
Filed under: directors, Donizetti, review, Richard Strauss, Santa Fe Opera, Verdi
August 5, 2015 • 12:20 am 1
Cold Mountain Almost Reaches the Top
Isabel Leonard (Ada) and Nathan Gunn (Inman); photo by
Ken Howard/courtesy of Santa Fe Opera
The world premiere of the opera Cold Mountain by composer Jennifer Higdon and librettist Gene Scheer took place this past Saturday at Santa Fe Opera. My review has now been posted on Musical America. I can only give a brief snippet of the review here, which is behind Musical America‘s paywall:
SANTA FE — The event that’s been generating the biggest buzz this summer at Santa Fe Opera is Cold Mountain, which received its world premiere over the weekend. For Jennifer Higdon’s debut opera, set to veteran librettist Gene Scheer’s adaptation of the much-acclaimed Charles Frazier novel, the company has assembled a thrilling cast of principals and a first-rate production team.
Filed under: Jennifer Higdon, librettists, new opera, review, Santa Fe Opera
August 3, 2015 • 8:20 am Comments Off on Nabucco Comes to Seattle
Nabucco Comes to Seattle
This weekend brings Seattle Opera’s first-ever staging of the early Verdi breakthrough. Here’s an introduction to Nabucco I wrote for Washington National Opera a few seasons ago:
Verdi composed more than half of his entire oeuvre for the stage in the mere dozen years between his debut opera and Rigoletto (1851), generally considered the turning point when “early Verdi” morphed into a fully mature master.
And an audio preview I wrote for the same production can be found here.
UPDATE: My review has now been posted here.
August 2, 2015 • 8:38 am Comments Off on Odds and Ends…with Storm Approaching
Odds and Ends…with Storm Approaching
Filed under: photography
July 30, 2015 • 8:45 pm Comments Off on Alien Earworm
Alien Earworm
I’ve been working on a note for Howard Hanson’s most-popular composition — the Symphony No. 2 (“Romantic”) from 1930, a Boston Symphony commission (same vintage as Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms).
And this is an earworm I cannot dispel (the second theme from the first movement, which cycles back several times later on):
So what is it that makes for an earworm?
Filed under: Uncategorized
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 