Contents
FRONT OF HOUSE EDITORIAL Verdi’s legacy
LETTERS Your views and suggestions
NEWS & NOTES Political fallout at Glyndebourne; Peter Brook’s brief brush with opera; Russian opera controversy at La Scala
REVIEWS - LIVE REVIEWS San Francisco Opera Mozart/Da Ponte Trilogy (42); Longborough Opera Siegfried (46) Paris, Theatre de Champs Elysées Giulio Cesare (48); Teatro Dell’Opera, Rome I Puritani (50) Halle, Handel Festival Orlando (52); German roundup: Hamburg Opera Tannhäuser, Frankfurt Opera Fedora, Bavarian State Opera Les Troyens (5457); Bergen International Festival Salome
- RECORDINGS New releases on CD & DVD including: Recital discs by Kindra Scharich and Isabel Bayrakdarian, Boito’s Nerone, Janáček’s Jenůfa; Opera Now Choice: Thalberg’s operatic piano transcriptions, with pianist Francesco Nicolosi. Feature: Jakub Jósef Orliński: Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater; Polish songs
- SPOTLIGHT World Wide Opera Guide and answers to this issue’s Quiz (p71)
COVER PHOTO: ELISA SEITZINGER/ FESTIVAL VERDI PARMA
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10
SERRA
ROBERTO
PONTET
INCENT
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I, PARMA
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FESTIVAL
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‘Verdi saw himself as an entertainer,
though that didn’t exclude his also having important things to say – in his case, often about
the unification of Italy’
CONTENTS
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Cover feature: GIUSEPPE VERDI A special Opera Now focus Giuseppe Verdi and his legacy Karyl Charna Lynn takes us on a visit Verdi country, the region in and around the city of Parma, home to a major annual festival that bears the composer’s name and celebrates his work Between virtuosity and verismo: Verdi’s place in the th century Exploring the tug of war in Verdi’s operas between the demands of the drama and the need for the performers to demonstrate their virtuosity’ Verdi and Shakespeare Although Verdi and Shakespeare lived centuries apart, their theatrical genius had much in common, as Helena Matheopoulos explains Verdi – by his greatest interpreters The composer’s genius, distilled in the words of some of his finest exponents from Carlo Maria Giulini to Leontyne Price
Baroque specialist George Petrou discusses the new production of Giustino, the first Vivaldi opera to be performed at the unique Baroque theatre in Drottningholm, Sweden, which he will be conducting and directing.
Travels with my Opera Glasses Professor Anthony Ogus experiences hits and misses in a visit to Germany’s eastern opera houses My Favourite Things Baritone Brindley Sherratt, on mountain biking and the Great British Breakfast Quiz Test your opera knowledge
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