Giuseppe Verdi

Verdi's Operatic Requiem Featured This Weekend

John Clare — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:51:15 +0000

This weekend the San Antonio Symphony is joined by soloists and choirs to present Verdi's Requiem. The program will include three choirs and four soloists, in addition to a full orchestra.

"It was natural to feature Verdi during this anniversary," says conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing. "It truly is operatic, and you'll hear that with our amazing soloists, choruses."

April 12 & 13, 2013 at 8 p.m., Majestic Theatre

Giuseppi Verdi's 'La Traviata,' The Opera Of Operas

Ron Moore — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:59:13 +0000

There are a handful of operas that define the genre; their time period irrelevant and their themes go to the very heart of the human condition.

We live with these creations daily without our knowing it and they are the very musical air we breath. They exist in the opera house, on the the concert stage (without scenery), in the recital hall (as excerpts, arranged for piano), in the elevator, on the radio, in the lightest cartoons and the darkest dramas - and yes, in the shower.

The Met Presents Verdi's Epic Masterpiece 'Don Carlo'

Ron Moore — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:25:57 +0000

Giuseppi Verdi's "Don Carlo" was a Behemoth, a lumbering monster. It featured variant openings, duets and trios and choruses to burn, ballet music that now only exists as a separate concert work, and most importantly, a great psychological/musical narrative frame -- the reason for all the elaboration and development.

What most of us know begins in a tomb in Spain and builds out an old and new subtext of European history, the battle of reactionary politics and the spirit of the Reformation. This background weaves this ideological struggle into a love story of great power.

Giuseppi Verdi’s 'Il Trovatore' - The Vindication Of Opera

Ron Moore — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:10:47 +0000

One of opera's most comical and telling facts was that Giuseppe Verdi was poised at the height of his middle period -- between "Rigoletto" and "La Traviata" -- to first tackle nothing less than "King Lear," until finally deciding on "Il Trovatore" (The Troubadour).

Could any two themes be less alike?

The Met Stage Is Full Of Egypt With Verdi's Spectacle, 'Aida'

Ron Moore — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 17:03:57 +0000

There are so many genres of opera. There are the exquisite chamber operas that are close to plays like Strauss’ "Capriccio" of Gluck’s chamber operas. There are the operas of morality or ideology like Beethoven’s "Fidelio" or Mozart’s "Idomeneo." Some works highlight verismos raw emotions and atonal expressionism, decadent excesses like Berg’s "Lulu" or the opera of scandal, like "Salome" and the late romantic opera as epic poetry, "The Ring." The list goes on and on.

Verdi’s Indestructible Masked Ball: 'Un Ballo in Maschera'

Ron Moore — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:27:40 +0000

Few, if any, operas can bear comparison with the gestation, preparation and final execution of Giuseppe Verdi’s "Un Ballo in Maschera." It is the work that definitively closes his middle period; preceded by "Traviata," "Rigoletto," and "Il Trovatore" and followed by his supreme masterworks "Don Carlo," "Aida," "Otello" and "Falstaff."