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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: opera

opera stories: 38 news summaries

1 - 20 of 38 Stories | 1 2 Next >>

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Opera Diva Faces Jail
in NY Cell Phone Tiff

Soprano shoved restaurant manager after complaints

Oct 23, 09 5:34 AM CDT
(Newser) - An Argentine opera singer could face jail after a fight broke out in a New York restaurant over her cell phone screeching. Soprano Gabriela Pochinki, 41, and her daughter were shouting into a cell phone on speaker and refused to stop after fellow diners complained. Security camera footage shows the... More »

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cell phones • restaurant • opera • trespassing

ARCHITECTURE REVIEW

 2 New Theaters 
 Make Dallas a Hotspot 

One traditional, one progressive, they reaffirm the Big D's vibrancy

Oct 15, 09 9:13 AM CDT
(Newser) - Dallas has several museums and concert halls that would be the envy of any city, but until now they've seemed more like standalone monuments than elements of a city center. Two new venues opening this Sunday have transformed downtown, "giving the area the cultural stature Dallas has long been... More »

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theater • architecture • Texas • Dallas • opera • Norman Foster • Rem Koolhaas

OPERA REVIEW

 Met Audience Boos Drab Tosca 

Critics pan new production of Puccini opera

Sep 22, 09 8:48 AM CDT
(Newser) - New York's Metropolitan Opera opened its season last night with a gala production of Puccini's Tosca, a crowd-pleasing war horse given an aggressive new staging by the Swiss director Luc Bondy. The black-tie crowd was not pleased with the stark, modern production, erupting in boos during the curtain call. Critics... More »

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New York • opera • reviews • Metropolitan Opera • Peter Gelb

 'Twitter Opera' 
 Wins Over Londoners 

900 authors wrote Twitterdammerung libretto in tweets

Sep 7, 09 1:16 PM CDT
(Newser) - The first-ever Twitter opera—a melding of high tech and high art with a libretto written in chunks of 140 characters—received an unexpectedly positive reception when it opened pver the weekend, the Washington Post reports. One critic called Twitterdammerung “an accident waiting to happen.” But it “... More »

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music • social networking • Internet • London • opera • reviews • Royal Opera House • Twitter • tweet

(Newser) - England’s world-famous Royal Opera House is getting with the times by launching the world’s first Twitter libretto, the Independent reports. Participants send lyrical tweets to @youropera, which will be set to familiar and original opera music in The Twitter Opera next month. Some critics worry it cheapens the... More »

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entertainment • England • opera • Royal Opera House • Twitter

Opera Sounds Good, But How Does It Smell?

New work opening at Guggenheim blasts
23 scents at audience

May 20, 09 8:57 AM CDT
(Newser) - A new opera premiering at the Guggenheim Museum in New York later this month will be a feast for the ears, the eyes—and the nose. Green Aria, a 30-minute "scent opera" years in the making, pairs music with 23 distinct odors blasted at the audience via individual... More »

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classical music • opera • scent • sense of smell • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum • perfume • fragrance

 José Carreras 
 Retires From Opera 

62-year-old's departure leaves one of Three Tenors

May 8, 09 9:34 AM CDT
(Newser) - Unable to perform at the level he considers acceptable, José Carreras will retire from opera, the least prominent of the Three Tenors tells the Times of London. Unamplified lead roles in opera houses are more than the 62-year-old Spaniard can handle, he said. “If I can do concert recitals,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
retirement • opera • Luciano Pavarotti • tenor • Placido Domingo • The Three Tenors • Jose Carreras

analysis

 Few Blacks Followed 
 Anderson's Lead 


Apr 6, 09 5:01 PM CDT
(Newser) - Marian Anderson shattered a racial barrier when she sang at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, 1939—70 years ago this week—yet despite planned tributes, the power of the moment has faded, Alex Ross writes in the New Yorker. Most young people know nothing of Anderson, and "black... More »

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African Americans • classical music • opera • jazz • black women

opera review


 High-Concept 
 Sonnambula 
 Misses at Met 


Mar 23, 09 2:35 PM CDT
(Newser) - Most operas weave pretty far-fetched tales, but that isn't license for directors to retell them in ironic or mocking ways, Alex Ross writes in the New Yorker. Reviewing two recent productions at the Met, Ross hails a faithful staging of Verdi's Il Trovatore—but dismisses a high-concept version of Bellini's... More »

MORE ABOUT:
classical music • opera • Metropolitan Opera • Bellini • Giuseppe Verdi

Newbies' Passion for Opera 'Like Love at First Sight'

Research suggests if you don't swoon first time, opera may not be for you

Mar 18, 09 8:30 AM CDT
(Newser) - The passion that opera fans feel for the art form is more akin to love at first sight than a slow-growing desire, Reuters reports. A sociologist focused on fans in the cheap seats who hadn't been brought up on opera, and found they tended to have an intense, explosive attraction... More »

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music • love • opera • psychology

(Newser) - Natalie Dessay is still butting heads with opera purists after twenty-some years in the business. The zesty soprano, an actor at heart, upsets some critics by adding theatrical gestures and even screams to her roles. "At least it's alive," Dessay says of her style. Opera, on the other... More »

MORE ABOUT:
classical music • opera • Metropolitan Opera

Troubled NYC Opera Names Dallas Conductor New GM

Company names Steel new GM after chaotic year

Jan 15, 09 7:17 AM CST
(Newser) - The New York City Opera, the deeply troubled company based at Lincoln Center, has named Dallas-based director and conductor George Steel as its new general manager. The announcement comes after last fall's departure of Gerard Mortier, the Belgian iconoclast who promised a shake-up of the opera but quit before he... More »

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New York • classical music • opera • New York City Opera • Metropolitan Opera • Lincoln Center • Gerard Mortier • George Steel

 Rock Opera 
 Humanizes 
 'Deep Throat' 

Bumpy life of Deep Throat star hits LA stage

Oct 15, 08 2:05 PM CDT
(Newser) - Slut or victim? Porn star or feminist? A Los Angeles stage production tackles the contradictions of Linda Boreman—better known as Linda Lovelace, of 1970s hit Deep Throat, the Los Angeles Times reports. The creators of Lovelace: The Rock Opera “wanted to know Linda as a person, beyond the... More »

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theater • pornography • Los Angeles • opera • rock opera • Linda Lovelace

Met Lifts Curtain on Opera You Don't Have to Dress Up for

Icon will stream shows, broadcasts online

Oct 15, 08 10:31 AM CDT
(Newser) - New York's Metropolitan Opera will soon be offering a new viewing experience: online streaming of performances dating back to 1937. Next week, on the 125th anniversary of its first show, the Met will unveil its online, on-demand service, reports the New York Times. If you can get past the glitches,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
opera • Metropolitan Opera • subscription music • streaming video

(Newser) - The age of iPods has drawn opera from its stuffy confines into city streets, cinemas, and websites, Mike Ashman writes in Gramophone. After the BBC was inspired by flashmobbers to broadcast an opera from Paddington Station a few years ago, impresarios caught on: Now opera companies from the Met to... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Internet • opera • Metropolitan Opera

 'Grateful' Symphony Debuts  

Baltimore to unveil work based on various Dead classics

Jul 27, 08 2:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will debut this week an opera derived from the music of the Grateful Dead, on what would have been Jerry Garcia’s 66th birthday. Titled Dead Symphony No. 6, each movement goes truckin' on a different Dead song. The Grateful Dead is “long overdue to... More »

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music • opera • composer • Baltimore • Grateful Dead • Baltimore Symphony • bands

 'The Fly' Morphs Into Opera 

Cronenberg classic debuts in Paris

Jul 3, 08 1:35 PM CDT
(Newser) - David Cronenberg’s horror classic The Fly has metamorphosed into something new: an opera. This new, unholy horror-opera hybrid was unleashed on Paris last night, garnering at least somewhat enthusiastic applause, Bloomberg reports. Intact were all the things that made the movie memorable: its tragic love plot, hideous monster and,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
opera • Paris • horror • The Fly • David Cronenberg

No-Longer-Fat Lady Sings Part She Was Denied

Slimmed-down Voigt mocks 'little black dress' incident online

Jun 11, 08 8:34 AM CDT
(Newser) - In 2004 Deborah Voigt, one of the world's most gifted sopranos, was dismissed from a London production of Ariadne auf Naxos for being too fat to fit in the little black dress that the director insisted was integral to the production. On Monday Voigt, who has gone from a size... More »

MORE ABOUT:
obesity • London • weight loss • opera • Royal Opera House • Deborah Voigt

 Global Warming, the Opera 

La Scala plans operatic version of Al Gore's climate change documentary

May 30, 08 4:45 AM CDT
(Newser) - It started out as a slide show, became an Oscar-winning documentary and best-selling book, and now Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth is about to become a full-length opera, reports the AP. Milan's La Scala opera house has commissioned Italian composer  Giorgio Battistelli to set Gore's stark warning on global warming... More »

MORE ABOUT:
climate change • Al Gore • global warming • opera • composer • An Inconvenient Truth • La Scala

Vivaldi Opera Revived 278 Years Later

Czech musician tracks down long-lost work
in Germany

May 4, 08 5:57 PM CDT
(Newser) - A long-lost opera by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi has resurfaced nearly 280 years after its Prague premiere, BBC reports. Argippo, a tale of love and deception set in an Indian maharaja’s court, was first performed in 1730 but vanished soon after, leaving only a libretto. But that was enough... More »

MORE ABOUT:
music • Germany • classical music • Czech Republic • opera • Prague • aria • Antonio Vivaldi • preservation

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