By Stephen Brookes • The Washington Post • March 28, 2008
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Opera performed on electric guitars? Sounds like a seriously bad idea, says Peter Kiesewalter, founder of the East Village Opera Company.

"If someone were to say to me, 'Check these guys out. They do opera with a rock band,' I don't think I would go," he says, laughing. "I don't think I have an open enough mind."  read more »

Carmen. Berlin State Opera 2006. Production: Martin Kusej.  read more »

Now that the Dresser knows about the connection between George Bizet's opera Carmen and Alexander Pushkin's poem "The Gypsies," she believes that she has found a new way to think about her departed, green-eyed mother. But first, let the Dresser backup and provide some anchoring details. SEXUAL ALLURE ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON On Sunday, November 16, 2008, the Dresser attended a performance of Washington National Opera's production of Carmen . In the lead role for that day's show was the powerhouse mezzo Denyce Graves. And even performing for a matinee audience typically filled with elderly operagoers, Ms. Graves exuded an unbridled sexuality that exceeded the energy expended by her leading men--Thiago Arancam as Don Jos and Alexander Vinogradov as the bullfighter Escamillo. The Dresser suspects that both Arancam, who bills himself as the Italian Brazilian lirico spinto tenor ( spinto meaning "pushed" and characterized by the capability of being heard over a full Romantic orchestra), and Vinogradov, who possesses a rich bass-baritone, were capable of more vibratory passion in their singing. She also thought the chorus was dragging down the energy.  read more »

In much 19th century opera heroines are confined to 2 roles, the virgin and the tart. There are of course variants on these, virgins can be led astray but only by being deceived and tarts can have hearts. But, of course, if a virgin is led astray then the results almost certainly have to lead to tragedy and similarly for tarts with hearts. This is particularly true of 19th century French opera where complex roles for women are limited and strong roles barely exist. This seems to have become codified in the early part of the 19th century when grand opera based on classical myth gradually made way for the French Grand Opera of the type written by Auber, Meyerbeer and Halevy.  read more »

The first opera to be performed in Verona Arena was Aida in 1913, staged to commemorate the centenary of Verdi's birth. Since then there have been 517 performances of Aida. The opera has been performed every year but one since 1980, it has been performed in over 40 seasons since 1946 but prior to that there were performances of Aida in just 1913, 1920, 1927 and 1936. In fact, since the 2nd World War the Arena seems to have become something of an Aida industry.

The count of performances since 1913 for the top 10 operas is quite revealing, with Aida leading by far:-
Aida = 517
Carmen = 177  read more »

The Glyndebourne Carmen seems to have gone over better than I thought it would. Here are a few responses from the press: The Independent : "This is an evening where Carmen improvises her castanet rhythms on Don Jos's body. If you don't believe me, start phoning for returns." The Times : "Too often, these days, Carmens are pale, thin, complicated girls: more at home, one feels, in the Bodleian Library than a Seville fag factory.  read more »

Vesselina Kasarova and Jonas Kaufmann in Carmen Vesselina Kasarova made her debut as Carmen with Jonas Kaufmann as Don Jos in the new Zurich Opera House Carmen production by Matthias Hartmann , which opened last Saturday 28th of J  read more »

Scottish Opera's 2008/09 season does not contain anything quite as exciting as their evening of short contemporary operas, but it is still a creditable and interesting season. There are 5 operas, 2 are relatively small scale - Cimarosa's The Secret Marriage and Smetana's Two Widows. The Cimarosa opera has a strong cast which includes Rebecca Bottone as Caroline; the opera will be sung in English which makes a great deal of sense in this character driven comedy. Smetana's comedy will star Kate Valentine and Jane Irwin as the two widows and will be conducted by Scottish Opera's new musical director, Francesco Corti; it is being designed by Tobias Hoheisel and directed by Hoheisel in tandem with Imogen Kogge so should be striking and stylish.  read more »

English Touring Opera start their autumn tour at Hackney Empire this week with La Tragedie de Carmen (an abbreviated version of Carmen - more info here) and Dvorak's Rusalka (more here, including - beat that, Royal Opera House - a rehearsal video).WhatsOnStage.com are offering tickets for La Tragedie de Carmen on 9 and 11 October at 10 each - call the box office on 020 8958 2424 and quote 'Whatsonstage' (more details here).

Opera magazine (based in London) published my reviews of Portland Opera's Cinderella and Carmen in the February issue. The magazine is available at Portland's Central Library in the magazine and newspaper room. On the cover of the magazine is Plcido Domingo as Oreste in the Met production of Iphignie en Tauride . This was the production that originated in Seattle and then moved to the Met with Domingo and Susan Graham as the two biggest names. Reviewing for Opera , Martin Bernheimer stated that "The ensemble in New York was more stellar, possibly less well integrated, than that in Seattle."