Vancouver Opera Blog (Free subscription) | 04/11/2009
Although we won't let ALL the cats out of the bag, we can tell you who will be singing what at the Golden Anniversary Concert November 6. But you must be there to check out our very special guests! (shhhhhhh!) VO Golden Anniversary Concert Program Friday, November 6th, 2009 Orpheum Theatre - 7:00 PM Maestro Jonathan Darlington – Conductor/Host Michael Cavanagh - Director Guest Soloists Vancouver...
New York Times (Free subscription) | 03/11/2009
Plácido Domingo gives a sterling performance in Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra" in Berlin. In Stuttgart, Stefan Herheim's production of "Der Rosenkavalier" imagines the opera as an erotic fantasy.
That's me on the Left! (Free subscription) | 10/10/2009
The Metropolitan Opera’s Peabody and Emmy Award-winning series The Met: Live in HD continues for its fourth season, featuring nine live transmissions. All performances begin at 1 pm ET. Don’t miss the chance to experience the Met live at your local movie theater! Tomorrow the season starts off with Tosca . Other operas in the series include: • Verdi’s Aida (Oct. 24 and Nov. 11)...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 08/07/2009
The great Ferruccio Furlanetto is now 60 – and at the top of his game, writes Martin Kettle Ferruccio Furlanetto is still buzzing. "What a sensational night," he says, of the opening performance of The Barber of Seville at the Royal Opera House on Saturday. "The atmosphere is still electric here." With its cast headed by the young Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez,...
San Francisco Sentinel (Free subscription) | 28/05/2009
Donald Runnicles concludes his remarkable 17-year tenure as San Francisco Opera’s music director and principal conductor Donald Runnicles has been music director of San Francisco Opera since 1992. During the 2008–09 season he lead the Company in four main-stage productions: Simon Boccanegra, Die Tote Stadt, Idomeneo, and La Traviata. This Friday night, May 29th, he leads a [...]
The Stage (Free subscription) | 22/04/2009
Placido Domingo is set to star in Handel's Tamerlano and Verdi's Simon Boccanegra as part of the Royal Opera House's 2009/10 season.
Buuzz.com (Free subscription) | 22/04/2009
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Royal Opera House has recruited tenor Placido Domingo to help ride out the recession next season with a historic double in which he sings tenor in Handel's "Tamerlano" and baritone in Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra."
The Globe and Mail - Music News (Free subscription) | 13/04/2009
Simon Boccanegra By Giuseppe VerdiCanadian Opera CompanyPaolo Gavanelli, baritoneMarco Guidarini, conductorAt the Four Seasons CentreIn Toronto on Saturday nightThe greatest Verdi opera we almost never hear opened Saturday night in a production worthy of it.
An Unamplified Voice (Free subscription) | 29/01/2009
Stephanie Blythe was in magnificent voice last night for the season's second-to-last Orfeo. My impressions of the whole were more or less the same as last time , but there was some performer turnover. First, James Levine left (he's conducting, as previously noted, Verdi's Simon Boccanegra with the Boston Symphony), allowing Kazem Abdullah to make his Met debut. Abdullah, a 29-year-old from Dayton ,...
The Rehearsal Studio (Free subscription) | 27/10/2008
The 2008–09 season of the San Francisco Opera is beginning to feel a bit like a seminar in an undergraduate humanities program. We began with a production of Giuseppe Verdi's Simon Boccanegra , which offered up a tragic perspective on republicanism as practiced in fourteenth-century Genoa. We then moved on to the cultural studies (featuring a major sidebar on the sociology of mothers-in-law)...
Out West Arts (Free subscription) | 28/09/2008
Hvorostovsky et al Photo: Terrence McCarthy/SFO 2008 I just woke up from San Francisco Opera’s final performance of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra and while I know I’m very late to this party, I thought I’d make a few comments. I would generally agree with what seems to have been the consensus about this run – it was very well sung, but burdened with a banal, poorly directed...
Civic Center (Free subscription) | 23/09/2008
It's too bad that mainstream critics have to review the opening night performances at the San Francisco Opera because invariably operas get much better (and occasionally worse) during their month-long run. A case in point is the current production of Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra," which I've seen in three different performances now, starting with the drunken, dreadful opening night crowd and...
New York Times (Free subscription) | 16/09/2008
Dmitri Hvorostovsky may not be a classic Verdi baritone, but his singing in the title role of “Simon Boccanegra” displayed an exquisite lyricism and haunting beauty.
San Fransisco Chronicle (Free subscription) | 08/09/2008
Technically, guests of the San Francisco Opera Ball gathered in the city by the bay, but they may have felt as if they'd gathered under a Tuscan sun for the 86th season-opening gala. Verdi's tragic "Simon Boccanegra" set a sartorial and geographic theme,...
Civic Center (Free subscription) | 07/09/2008
The San Francisco Opera Company opened its 86th season on Friday night with Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra" and a line of valet parkers on Van Ness... ...who were actually running to their proffered vehicles. "Simon Boccanegra" is probably my favorite Verdi opera, along with "Don Carlo." Both operas are heavily involved in questions of politics, ethics, and the intersection...
Videos