Now Playing

Loading streams...

Tagged: opera

Pages

Deceptive Cadence
1:34 pm
Tue May 21, 2013

Gods And Monsters: 5 Unforgettable Wagner Moments

Next imagePrevious image
Credit Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera
The Valkyries, led by Brunnhilde (soprano Debra Voigt, lower left), are the warrior maidens of Richard Wagner's epic Ring cycle.
Credit Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera
Eric Owens plays the greedy dwarf Alberich, displaying his golden ring, in Wagner's Das Rheingold.
Credit Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera
Mark Delevan as Wotan and Deborah Voigt as his daughter Brunnhilde in Wagner's Die Walküre.
Credit APF/Getty Images
Peter Seiffert and Katarina Dalayman as the title characters in Tristan und Isolde, Wagner's cosmic tale of love.
Credit Getty Images
Klaus Florian Vogt sings the role of Walter the brash, young game-changer in Wagner's Die Meistersinger.
Credit Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera
Parsifal (Jonas Kaufmann) lifts the Holy Grail as Gurnemanz (Rene Pape) looks on, in a recent Metropolitan Opera production of Wagner's final opera, Parsifal.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By

Originally published on Wed May 22, 2013 3:02 pm

  • William Berger on 'Parsifal'
  • William Berger on 'Das Rheingold'
  • William Berger on 'Die Walküre'
  • William Berger on 'Tristan und Isolde'
  • William Berger on 'Die Meistersinger'

How much do you know about Richard Wagner? Probably two unfavorable facts: He wrote very long, grandiose operas and was Hitler's favorite composer. As true as they are, those simple examples barely hint at the complexity of this endlessly creative and confounding artist.

Read more
Classical Spotlight
11:56 am
Tue May 21, 2013

Opera Gala Premieres World Class Singers At The Majestic

Next imagePrevious image
Credit The-Wagnerian.com
Jay Hunter Morris
Credit Chris Eudaily/TPR
Artistic Director & Composer Tobais Picker at the TPR Studios
Share
E-mail
Comments
By

The Opera San Antonio (TOSA) presents a "Gala Concert of Stars" at the Majestic Theater this Thursday, May 23 at 7 p.m. These stars include Patricia Racette, Jay Hunter Morris, Dolora Zajick, Daniela Mack, Alek Shrader, Lucas Meacham, and Eric Owens.

TOSA announced Lisette Oropesa is replacing Susannah Biller, who was unavailable due to a schedule conflict.

Read more
Deceptive Cadence
6:58 am
Fri May 10, 2013

Moms In Opera: Women On The Edge

Next imagePrevious image
Credit AFP/Getty Images
Mozart's Queen of the Night (portrayed here by soprano Diana Damrau), in his The Magic Flute, is one of opera's more intense mothers.
Credit Sony
Credit DG
Credit EMI
Credit EMI
Maria Callas in Bellini's Norma.
Credit Decca
Share
E-mail
Comments
By

Originally published on Thu May 9, 2013 1:43 pm

We love mothers for all the Hallmark reasons: for their compassion and patience, not to mention giving birth. But some moms aren't exactly greeting card friendly — and none less so than those who live in the opera house.

This is opera, after all, so we expect the outrageous. But operatic moms seem to be disproportionately portrayed as murderers, harpies or generally women on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Your Normas, Medeas, Butterflies, Queens of the Night and Clytemnestras.

Read more
Deceptive Cadence
7:16 am
Fri May 3, 2013

What Do You Get Valery Gergiev For His 60th Birthday?

Credit Marco Borggreve / courtesy of the artist
Conductor Valery Gergiev, who turns 60 today.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By Anastasia Tsioulcas

Originally published on Thu May 2, 2013 12:03 pm

Read more
Deceptive Cadence
12:04 am
Sat April 27, 2013

Madame Mao's Hollywood Fantasies

Next imagePrevious image
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see+ Gallery, Beijing, and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
A Chinese and a North Korean embrace in a pledge of everlasting (political) love. From Raid on the White Tiger Regiment, 1971.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
The "model works" engineered by Jiang Qing combine elements of 1930s Hollywood fantasy, Peking opera and classical ballet with heaping doses of political dogma.The Red Detachment of Women, 1973.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
The aesthetics of classical Peking opera, with its stylized performing techniques and facial gestures, was an important element of the "model works" that Jiang Qing and her collaborators created. Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, 1969.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
Another Zhang still from Raid on the White Tiger Regiment, 1971.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of see+ Gallery, Beijing, and Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto
Photographer Zhang Yaxin created incredible and indelible images as stills from the array of "model" operas and ballets planned and sanctioned by the Chinese government during the Cultural Revolution.A Chinese and North Korean solider embrace in Raid on the White Tiger Regiment, 1971.
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
Some of the model works were expanded into a range of theatrical, politically acceptable iterations. First composed as an opera in 1964, The White-Haired Girl was also adapted into an opera-ballet and a film. The White Haired Girl, 1974.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By Anastasia Tsioulcas

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 3:56 pm

During the chaos and oppression of China's Cultural Revolution, one curious new theatrical genre was born — and it was the child of the Communist Party. Jiang Qing (a.ka. Madame Mao), a former stage and screen actress and the notorious wife of Mao Zedong, led the creation of yang ban xi: "model works" that were meant, in words attributed to Chairman Mao, to "serve the interests of the workers, peasants, and soldiers and [conforming] to proletarian ideology."

Read more

Pages