#opera-and-theater

#opera-and-theater

For all its historical trappings, 1776 isn't a pageant, and it doesn't behave like one. It's a talky, funny, occasionally cranky chamber piece about a group of men stuck in a room, led by the stubborn, relentless John Adams, arguing their way toward independence.

Wagner's reputation can be both a headache and an irresistible challenge to opera directors. Though opera usually demands strict fidelity to the music as it was written, there is traditionally more leeway in staging decisions.

Rigoletto's librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, replaced the king with the Duke of Mantua, who is just as morally bankrupt as the original. The opera premiered in 1851 in Venice and has been a popular production to roll out with both name recognition and one of those golden tunes that almost everybody has heard: La donna e mobile, which becomes haunting in the context of the actual plot.

The piece is steeped in Schopenhauer's meditations on the futility of worldly striving and the necessity of accepting oblivion. It is also infused with Wagner's paganistic worship of desire and his matchless ability to translate longing into perpetually unresolved musical phrases.

I don't want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it's like, 'Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this anymore.' All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason.

In Siegfried, the third part of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Richard Wagner shifts the focus away from the troubled world of the gods towards the energy of youth on earth. This is storytelling through opera, where the theatre is crucial and the music sublime.

So another word about tickets. They did finally announce single-game tickets were going on sale, but only for games though June. It's not enough to keep season plans limited to those requiring fans to buy more tickets than they can use, feeding the secondary markets which the Mets also get a cut of, but "make-your-own-plan" fans like me who've reliably occupied seats for decades,

The Austrian pianist's expressive, emotional playing may grab the headlines, but it's the unerring sense of underlying architecture that's the thread through her long career. We heard that here, not just within each of the works, but in the shared foundations, and sometimes secret connecting passages, she revealed between them.

When attending the ballet used to mean lining up at the box office or will-call window for a chance to score seats, you can now buy ballet tickets easily online, through the respective company websites or through third-party sites like Stubhub, Vivid Seats and SeatGeek.

Andre de Ridder is either brave or stupid. He has accepted the role as the music director of English National Opera its chief conductor and keeper of its musical flame. He will take up the role formally in 2027. The post has been empty for several anguished years, sparked by Arts Council England's 2022 announcement that the company would lose all its funding unless it moved out of London.

With a familiar narrative, an enchanting storyline, and an enduring message of hope, Cinderella is a ballet that appeals to all generations. Eugene Ballet's production of the classic work this month incorporates the efforts of multiple generations of dancers and staff. Former artistic director Toni Pimble choreographed the production, which is set to Sergei Prokofiev's Cinderella score, performed live by Orchestra Next.

In one of classical ballet's most celebrated, multifaceted, and difficult roles, Aurora matures over the course of the ballet, growing froman effervescent teenager sizing up suitors at her 16th birthday party, to an ethereal vision conjured to draw the prince to her bedside, and finally, to a bride, regal and self-assured. It's a fiercely demanding role set to Tschaikovsky's soaring score that requires persuasive acting skills and formidable technique.