Sunday, February 22, 2009

"Bizet Is More Than Carmen and Verdi More Than Aïda" at Monday Noon Series

The Center for the Humanities at UMSL's Monday Noon Series will present "Bizet Is More Than Carmen and Verdi More Than Aïda" on March 9, at 12:15 p.m. in the J.C. Penney Conference Center.

Suzanne Wohl, who has facilitated numerous classes on musical composers, opera, drama, and literature at the Lifelong Learning Institute for older adults at Washington University and for OASIS, a nonprofit educational organization for mature adults, will go beyond Carmen and Aïda to explore Bizet's Les Pecheurs des Perles (The Pearl Fishers) and Verdi's La Forza del Destino.

The Monday Noon Series is a free cultural series featuring presenters from many ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds exhibiting a diverse array of talent and expertise. Subjects range from art, dance, and music to political, social, and environmental conditions.

Light refreshments will be served.

Click here for more information, a complete schedule, and driving directions.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis 2009 Schedule

Click here for ticket information.

La bohème -- Giacomo Puccini

Saturday, May 23, 8:00 PM
Thursday, June 4, 8:00 PM
Saturday, June 6, 8:00 PM *
Wednesday June 10, 8:00 PM
Friday, June 12, 8:00 PM
Sunday, June 14, 7:00 PM
Wednesday, June 17, 1:00 PM (Matinee)
Saturday June 20, 8:00 PM *
Saturday June 27, 1:00 PM

Salome -- Richard Strauss

Saturday, May 30, 8:00 PM
Wednesday, June 3, 8:00 PM
Friday, June 5, 8:00 PM
Thursday, June 11, 8:00 PM
Saturday, June 20 1:00 PM (Matinee)
Wednesday, June 24, 1:00 PM (Matinee)
Sunday,, June 28, 7:00 PM

Il re pastore (The Shepherd King) --
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Sunday, June 7, 7:00 PM
Saturday, June 13, 8:00 PM
Tuesday, June 16, 1:00 PM (Matinee)
Thursday, June 18, 8:00 PM
Wednesday, June 24, 8:00 PM
Friday, June 26, 8:00 PM

The Ghosts of Versailles -- John Corigliano

Wednesday, June 17, 8:00 PM
Friday, June 19, 8:00 PM
Sunday, June 21 7:00 PM
Tuesday, June 23 1:00 PM (Matinee)
Thursday, June 25 8:00 PM
Saturday, June 27, 8:00 PM

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Madama Butterfly High Definition Screening at SLAM

In St. Louis, the Metropolitan Opera's Saturday matinee performance of Puccini's Madama Butterfly will be shown at the St. Louis Art Museum, on March 7, at 12:00 p.m. The running time will be 3 hours 21 minutes with two intermissions.

Cristina Gallardo-Domâs returns to the title role in the late Anthony Minghella’s production opposite Marcello Giordani. Patrick Summers will conduct.

Tickets for the HD broadcast are $22 ($15 for members of the Saint Louis Art Museum, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, or Metropolitan Opera, and children 12 and under).

Tickets are available in person at the Museum or through MetroTix. Tickets purchased through MetroTix will incur a $2.75 service fee per ticket; the service fee is waived for tickets purchased at the Museum.

According to the Museum's web site:
The Museum theatre seats 480 people. The screen is approximately 12 feet by 22 feet, and the opera broadcasts will be received in high-definition via satellite. The auditorium uses a widescreen, high-definition projector at 1080i. The sound system is Dolby 5.1 digital surround.

Click here to find other venues carrying this HD broadcast.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Met's 2009-2010 Season

Tosca | September 21 2009- May 13 2010

Le Nozze di Figaro | September 22- December 12 2009

Die Zauberflöte | September 23 2009- April 15 2010

Aida | October 2 2009- April 3 2010

Il Barbiere di Siviglia | October 3 2009- March 4 2010

Der Rosenkavalier | October 13 2009- January 15 2010

La Damnation de Faust | October 21- November 17 2009

Turandot | October 28 2009- January 28 2010

From the House of the Dead | November 12- December 5 2009

Il Trittico | November 20- December 12 2009

Les Contes d'Hoffmann | December 3 2009- January 2 2010

Elektra | December 10-29 2009

Hansel and Gretel | December 14 2009- January 2 2010

Carmen | December 31 2009- May 1 2010

Stiffelio | January 11-30 2010

Simon Boccanegra | January 18- February 6 2010

Ariadne auf Naxos | February 4-20 2010

La Fille du Régiment | February 6-22 2010

La Bohème | February 20- March 20 2010

Attila | February 23- March 27 2010

The Nose | March 5-25 2010

Hamlet | March 16- April 9 2010

La Traviata | March 29- April 24 2010

Armida | April 12- May 15 2010

Die Fliegende Holländer | April 23- May 14 2010

Lulu | May 8-15 2010

Monday, February 9, 2009

Christine Brewer Masterclass Open to Public

Sarah Bryan Miller of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Christine Brewer will give a masterclass to students at McKendree University on Tuesday, February 17, at 4:00 p.m.

Click here for complete details.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Eugene Onegin Reviewed in the Financial Times

Martin Bernheimer gave the current Met production of Eugene Onegin a rather lukewarm review in the February 2 edition of the Financial Times.

Bernheimer said that conductor Jirí Belohlávek, "inspired rich sonorities in the pit and maintained broad tempos without dissipating tension. He sympathetically supported an uneven cast. Unfortunately, he sometimes muted Tchaikovsky’s brooding agonies and throbbing ecstasies."

Click here to read what Bernheimer had to say about Thomas Hampson and Karita Mattila.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

A Scene from the Met's "Lucia di Lammermoor" Dress Rehearsal

Click here to watch a scene from the dress rehearsal of "Lucia di Lammermoor" at the Metropolitan Opera, courtesy of the New York Times.

The Metropolitan Opera's Saturday Matinee Broadcast Schedule

Metropolitan Opera's Saturday matinee broadcasts are carried by Classic 99.1 FM KFUO, in St. Louis.

Eugene Onegin
February 14, 2009 / 12:00 pm CT
Jiri Belohlávek; Karita Mattila, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Piotr Beczala, Thomas Hampson, James Morris

Adriana Lecouvreur
February 21, 2009 / 12:00 pm CT
Marco Armiliato; Maria Guleghina, Olga Borodina, Plácido Domingo, Roberto Frontali

Il Trovatore
February 28, 2009 / 12:00 pm CT
Gianandrea Noseda; Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Marcelo Álvarez, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Kwangchul Youn

Madama Butterfly
March 7, 2009 / 12:00 pm CT
Patrick Summers; Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, Maria Zifchak, Marcello Giordani, Dwayne Croft

March 14, 2009 / 12:00 pm CT
Jiri Belohlávek; Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Stephanie Blythe, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Kristinn Sigmundsson

La Sonnambula
March 21, 2009 / 12:00 pm CT
Evelino Pidò; Natalie Dessay, Juan Diego Flórez, Michele Pertusi

Das Rheingold
March 28, 2009 / 12:00 pm CT
James Levine; Wendy Bryn Harmer, Yvonne Naef, Jill Grove, Kim Begley, James Morris, Richard Paul Fink, Franz-Josef Selig, John Tomlinson

L'Elisir d'amore
April 4, 2009 / 12:00 pm CT
Maurizio Benini; Angela Gheorghiu, Rolando Villazón, Franco Vassallo, Simone Alaimo

Die Walküre
April 11, 2009 / 11:00 am CT
James Levine; Christine Brewer, Waltraud Meier, Yvonne Naef, Johan Botha, James Morris, John Tomlinson

Siegfried
April 18, 2009 / 11:00 am CT
James Levine; Christine Brewer, Jill Grove, Christian Franz, Gerhard Siegel, James Morris

Götterdämmerung
April 25, 2009 / 11:00 am CT
James Levine; Christine Brewer, Margaret Jane Wray, Yvonne Naef, Christian Franz, Iain Paterson, John Tomlinson

Friday, February 6, 2009

"Opera Isn't Hollywood"

The New York Times passes on word from Variety that director William Friedkin has withdrawn as the director of an operatic version of "An Inconvenient Truth" that was to have premiere at La Scala on May 11, 2011.

The Times says:
In departing the production, adapted from the environmental documentary featuring former Vice President Al Gore, Mr. Friedkin, the director of "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection," cited "irreconcilable creative differences" with the poet J. D. McClatchy, who is writing the libretto. But Giorgio Battistelli, the composer of the opera, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that Mr. Friedkin left "for personal, not artistic reasons," and criticized the director for his use of special effects in the production, saying, "Opera isn’t Hollywood."