OPERA SEASON 2018 – 2019 La Scala announced its 2018-2019 Opera season today with 15 titles, nine of which are new productions, and two are La Scala premieres. At the heart of the season remains the Italian repertoire, continuing with the cycle of works of Verdi, Puccini, Verismo (which will return in 2020 with Giordano’s […]
Gaetano Donizetti
La Scala, Milan: Opera and Recital Season 2017 – 2018
A pleasing new season at La Scala seems to tick all the right boxes, with half the programming dedicated to the Italian repertoire, some rarities, important international operas and a world premiere. The season will also mark the 40th Anniversary of Riccardo Chailly’s collaboration with the theatre, and the 95th birthday of Franco Zeffirelli. The […]
Anna Netrebko talks after the opening of Anna Bolena: There’s so much hatred!
On Anna Bolena “It’s like nothing I’ve ever done before! You’re practically shouting in the lower register for half the opera. [Donizetti] wants that nasty, chesty voice — he wants it to sound uncomfortable!” “It’s asking so much of the nerves, the body, the emotion. There’s so much hatred! I never thought I could be […]
Figgis’ Lucrezia Borgia at the English National Opera “really works”
Daily Express critic William Hartston feared the worst as the theatre lights dimmed: WHEN a cinema screen lowered over the stage at the Coliseum at the start of this new production of Donizetti’s rarely performed opera about wicked 15th century Italians, I thought, “Here we go again”. The ENO has a rather dodgy recent history […]
