Arthur Lazere
Our earlier review from Berlin with current performance schedules La Scala holds a place close to the heart of all opera lovers, whether or not they have ever been there to hear a performance. Dating ...
Arthur Lazere
Online references on Janacek Leoš Janacek lived over about the same span of years as did Puccini and his first successful opera, Jenufa, premiered in the same year (1904) as did Puccini's Madame Butterfly. ...
Harvey O'Brien
The libretto for Handel’s Julius Caesar by Nicola Francesco Haym was adapted from renditions of the story popular in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Far from the dark tale of shadowy morality and political intrigue concocted by ...
Harvey O'Brien
Schiller: Don Carlos and Mary Stuart Verdi With a Vengeance : An Energetic Guide to the Life and Complete Works of the King of Opera (2000),William Berger Online references on Spanish history ...
Arthur Lazere
Sir John Falstaff is the most famous comic character in the Shakespeare canon, appearing in no less than three of the plays. With roots in the commedia dell'arte, Falstaff is a braggart, a lecher, a con man, and a ...
Arthur Lazere
Samson et Dalila, Saint-Sa�ns' only opera to remain in the active repertory, doesn't get a lot of respect. When it was revived at the Metropolitan Opera a few years back, New York Times critic Bernard Holland called it a ...
Arthur Lazere
The Capulets and the Montagues are families well known from Shakespeare, and their clan-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, are the iconic embodiments of young love--love that resists family prohibitions even if the results are tragic. Bellini's 1830 opera is ...
Arthur Lazere
Online references on Spanish history El Cid, from the Spanish/Arabic meaning lord or chief, was the nom de guerre, as it were, of an 11th century Castilian knight, Rodrigo D�az, Count of Bivar. He ...
Arthur Lazere
If changes in social mores since mid-19th-century Paris render aspects of La Traviata awkwardly dated, the passion and poignancy of its star-crossed lovers transcends both geography and generations. Based on the 1848 Dumas fils novel and his 1852 play, ...
Arthur Lazere
Zarzuela is the unique Spanish form of musical theater/operetta, made up of text both spoken and sung, with solos, duets, ensemble pieces, choruses, and dances as well. It is characterized by a focus on the holidays and festivals, customs, ...
