opera
“Billy Budd”: sex, revolution and sea in jaw-dropping opera
March 4, 2014In 1888 Herman Melville began the philosophical novella Billy Budd. Perhaps one could say that composer Benjamin Britten and his librettists E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier "completed" it with their adaptation.
Read moreGo see Duke Ellington’s sweet, tangy “Queenie Pie”
February 14, 2014Ellington was one of the most versatile figures in music of the 20th century, but most people do not know that from the 1930s on, Ellington worked intermittently, all the way up to his death in...
Read moreIn Verdi’s “Falstaff,” all the world’s a jest
November 18, 2013What better way to celebrate Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi's bicentennial than with a production of Falstaff?
Read moreNew York City Opera contract talks in crisis
December 2, 2011New York City Opera, one of the city's cultural treasures, stood at a crossroads this week, after contract talks broke down Nov. 30 between management and its two main unions.
Read moreCommunism at the opera
October 4, 2010Communism has taken over the stage at the Los Angeles Opera, and soon will be occupying opera houses in Vienna and Paris!
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