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Music

Upcoming

Concert version of La Sonnambula, tomorrow night, Concert Opera of Philadelphia Temple University‘s production of Don Giovanni, April 20th and 22nd Massenet’s Manon at the Academy of Vocal Arts, late April/early May Falstaff at the Academy of Music, also early May I can already tell it’s going to be a busy spring…

Backstage at the Academy

Huzzah! The Academy of Music is having an open house tomorrow. Apparently they’re going to let people wander around the set of Porgy and Bess. (Note to self: I really need a digital camera.) If there’s time to go, I’ll post about it. Later: The open house was indeed fun, though I was in something […]

We love Bellini

[One more post, and then I’m going to bed. Must…keep…reasonable…hours…] The Opera Company of Philadelphia just announced its ’07-’08 season, and I did a little happy dance when I saw that they’re doing Bellini’s Norma in the spring. I’ll certainly go see Rigoletto in October, and maybe the other two as well (Hansel and Gretel […]

Local Baroque concert, anyone?

Hey, Philadelphian readers — anyone else going to hear Tempesta di Mare‘s concert this weekend? (Here’s the notice about it that caught my attention.) Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I’m planning on going to the Saturday night concert at St. Mark’s. C’mon, it’s free! And speaking of music in churches, perhaps this is the result of […]

Fun with search engines

So several weeks ago I mentioned that I was thinking of using Google Co-op’s Custom Search Engine tool to put together a search engine entirely devoted to things operatic. Now I have. So far, it searches Operabase, Operaglass, the Aria Database, Operissimo, the websites of a bunch of major companies, the Lied and Art Song […]

Cenerentola review

I saw the Opera Company of Philadelphia’s production of Rossini’s Cinderella (or La Cenerentola if you use the Italian version of the title) with a friend last Friday, and she remarked, as we descended from the terrifying heights of the Amphitheatre level at the Academy of Music,* that she hadn’t seen anything as inventive at […]

Briefly noted

No time to blog, really. Owing to class projects and visiting friends and general busy-ness, this week and next are a complete madhouse — in a good way, but a madhouse nonetheless. However, I do have time to note in passing: I spent yesterday at the ACRL Delaware Valley Chapter’s conference on "The Future of […]

Operatic trivia question of the week: Shakespeare librettized

Several nights ago, over dinner, a friend who reads this blog (hi, Christa!) posed the following question: How many of Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted into operas? Off the top of our heads, we came up with five: Verdi’s Otello, Macbeth, and Falstaff; Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette; and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A quick […]

Coming soon to a theater near you

So how about that news from the Met that they’re going to transmit performances into movie theaters? Personally, I think it’s a neat idea, even though I’m not really a huge fan of opera on screen; for me, it’s just close enough to live performance to make me wish I were watching a live performance. […]

Addio

Oh, no. Lorraine Hunt Lieberson has died. There are no words; go listen to her here or here instead.