Maria Nockin - Page 9

On Sunday afternoon, December 12, 2020, well known operatic soprano Ana Maria Martinez hosted a concert of song from many parts of the world where Spanish is spoken. The singers, from Spanish speaking backgrounds, were at one time or are currently members of the young artist program at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Faced with the inability to perform live opera because of COVID, Opera San Jose opted to film an opera that could be made to fit California health regulations in its new Fred Heiman Digital Media Studio. General director Khori Dastoor chose Jake Heggie’s three-person chamber opera, Three Decembers. Since it’s an opera that needs a big star to play famous actress Madeline Mitchell, Dastoor engaged Susan Graham.

The Five Moons of Lorca is a combination ballet and choral work that tells of the life and death of early twentieth century Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca. He called for a return to the origins of European Theatre and he questioned the social mores of contemporary theatrical practice regarding homosexuality and women's roles.

Los Angeles Opera opens its Digital Shorts Series with Gabriela Lena Frank’s  commissioned revision of The Five Moons of Lorca, (Las Cinco Lunas de Lorca). This collaborative piece involves the work of librettist Nilo Cruz, choreographer Irene Rodríguez, and filmmaker Matthew Diamond. Musicians include countertenor Jacob Ingbar, pianist Nicholas Roehler, and members of the LA Opera Chorus. The Five Moons of Lorca, will be streamed through December 25, 2020.

On Sunday afternoon November 22, 2020, Pacific Opera Project (POP) presented COVID Fan Tutte, an updated version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte’s Cosi Fan Tutte. The perfomance was presented drive-in style in the parking lot of the United Methodist Church on Anacapa Drive in Camarillo, CA. The lot accommodates 90 carefully positioned cars from which patrons see the a live opera performance on a raised stage and hear it on their cars’ FM sets.

On Saturday evening November 21, 2020, Pacific Opera Project (POP) presented two rare, one-act operas by Christof Willibald Gluck, La Corona and Il Parnaso Confuso to a drive-in audience of 90 cars in the parking lot of the United Methodist Church on Anacapa Drive in Camarillo, CA.

From now to November 29, 2020, Los Angeles Opera is featuring The Anonymous Lover Composed by a Black man, Joseph Bologne, also known as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. The cast, made up of members of LAO's Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program, is conducted by Music Director James Conlon. https://www.laopera.org/performances/updated-2021-season/the-anonymous-lover/

On Sunday November 15, Long Beach Opera (LBO) presented Songbook, an online  program of 20 new songs by relatively unknown composers. It was LBO board member, Raulee Marcus, who had the idea to commission songs rather than have a gala fundraiser. LBO created a list of established opera composers who had some link to the company and asked them to be mentors. An illustrious quintet of successful composers: Anthony Davis, David Lang, George Lewis, Annie Gosfield, and Du Yun all accepted.

Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was a Black man born in 1745 to a slave and a slaveholder on the island of Guadeloupe. Few know Bologne wrote operas and most of them have been lost. Only L’Amant Anonyme remains in its  entirety. You can hear some of the stylistic traits of both Mozart and Gluck in L’Amant. Some sonorities found in L’Amant are similar to those found in the works of the above-mentioned composers but there are also marked differences and Bologne’s music certainly deserves to have its own place in the sun.

Los Angeles Opera presents The Anonymous Lover (L'Amant Anonyme), an unjustly neglected 1780 chamber opera by Joseph Bologne, known as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. James Conlon will conduct the orchestra. LAO will stream the performance online on Saturday, November 14, 2020, at 5:00 PM. Tickets are free at: https://bit.ly/3eiBtSF

Cheyanne Coss opened with “Qui la voce,”  Elvira’s mad scene from Bellini’s bel canto opera, I Puritani. Elvira lived in a time when women had no rights, so in opera madness allowed her to proclaim her true feelings. Coss expressed them most eloquently. Terrence Chin-Loy as Des Grieux sang “Ah! Fuyez, douce image” from Massenet’s opera Manon.

Free digital tickets are now available for The Anonymous Lover which premieres online Saturday, November 14, at 5 PM Pacific Time. The Anonymous Lover is a 1780 comic romance by pioneering Black composer Joseph Bologne, known as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Conducted by Music Director James Conlon and directed by Bruce Lemon, Jr. 

This weekend, tenor Frederick Ballentine returns to the L A Opera virtual stage for a spooky Halloween-themed “Living Room Recital.” He partners with mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron and pianist Kunal Lahiry to perform some of opera's most mysterious and scary songs—including the murder scene from Carmen.

On Oct. 23, the Santa Fe Opera and Center for Contemporary Arts presented 'Is This America?' This online workshop featuring scenes from the one-act opera, 'This Little Light of Mine,' took place on October10, 2020, aboard the retired tanker Mary A. Whalen which is-docked in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

We start at the L A Opera website with a ”Living Room Recital.” Michael J. Hawk, baritone, sings a program entitled “Shakespeare in France and on Broadway.” He performs “Mab! la reine des mensonges” (“Mab, Queen of Lies”) from Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod and three arias from Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet.

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, mezzo-soprano Gabriela Flores, a member of the Los Angeles Opera Young Artist Program, partners with guitarist Gilberto Amara for a “Living Room Recital” of Mexican songs on the Los Angeles Opera website. San Francisco Opera’s online streaming of of Verdi’s Attila features Ferruccio Furlanetto.

On Los Angeles Operaa??s website, Ashley Faatoalia, tenor, and Louise Thomas, piano, collaborate for a a?oeLiving Room Recital.a?? They perform songs by Schubert, Williams, Fauré, Bonds and Gordon as well as Spirituals and arias by Mozart, Gershwin and Puccini.

On October 5, 2020, I listened to Arizona Operaa??s Studio Spotlight Series online concert held in the newly named the Shoshana B. and Robert S. Tancer Plaza adjoining the companya??s building on Central Avenue in Phoenix. General Director Joseph Spector greeted the tiny audience of donors and the much larger online assemblage with remembrances of the companya??s former general director, Joel Revzen, and a video about the late chair of the Arizona Opera Board of Directors, Robert Tancer.