Maria Nockin

Bryce Davis and Cilliers opened their recital program with Richard Strauss' and John Henry Mackay's uplifting 'Heimliche Aufforderung' ('The Secret Invitation'). This joyous, celebratory composition was the composer's gift to his bride on their wedding day. Bryce-Davis sang it with exquisite vocal colors. Next was Robert Schumann 'Die Lotosblume' ('The Lotus Flower') in which the poet Heinrich Heine described the beauty of the love between the flower and the moon. Bryce-Davis showed the lyric tones of her voice as she told of this delicate love.

This evening our online show is Los Angeles Opera’s La Traviata from 2006 with: Renée Fleming, Rolando Villazón, Renato Bruson, Suzanna Guzmán, Anna Akhimova, Daniel Montenegro, Philip Kraus, James Creswell, Sal Malaki, and Mark Kelley. James Conlon conducts the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. The stage director is Marta Domingo. Brian Large directs it for TV.

The Copper Queen is a modern opera by Clint Borzoni and John de los Santos that tells of times past in Bisbee, Arizona. It won an Arizona Opera competition that insured its place onstage. Because of the pandemic and the fact that currently audience size is quite limited, The Copper Queen became a film that can be experienced online. 

On October  24, 2021, Los Angeles Opera presented Wagner’s Tannhäuser live online for patrons who cannot get to the theater at this time. Director Louise Muller revived the Ian Judge production of the opera’s Dresden version. A second live streamed performance will be available from LA Opera on October 27. 

On October 22, 2021, Opera Philadelphia began streaming its rendition of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. This staging is a judiciously cut two-hour-and-forty-eight-minute production by Opera Philadelphia, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, San Diego Opera, and Palm Beach Opera. Each company is choosing its own conductor and cast.

Opera Phila streams La Traviata with Lisette Oropesa in her role debut as Violetta for $20.00. This 2015 production from director Paul Curran also stars Alek Shrader and Stephen Powell. Corrado Rovaris conducts, Gary McCann is the set and costume designer, Paul Hackenmueller is the lighting designer.

On October 14, 2021, San Francisco Opera presented Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, in a well-thought-out production with an outstanding cast. Matthew Ozawa directed the action in a prison of the current era. There, Leonore, a prisoner’s wife disguises herself as a male worker and rescues her husband from unjust incarceration.

Tour members meet on the Flying Opera Magic Carpet for a week of American and international performances. Our first stop is at San Francisco Opera, for Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven online October 14, 17, and 30, 2021. Cost- $25.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s short opera, Mozart and Salieri, compares the work of the two musical greats. Now, Mozart and Salieri, is a fine new filmed production from Opera San José available for streaming after Sept. 30, 2021.

In La Voix Humaine, soprano Patricia Racette is enthralling as she engages with each twist and turn of the score as though it is an emotional punch. She created this role in several cities and in each she has pulled the audience into the immediacy of Elle’s predicament. The 40-minute musical work gives the soprano a wide range for expression.

Verdi’s Il Trovatore can be seen live online on Sunday, October 3 at 2:00 pm or on Wednesday, October 6 at 7:30 pm live streamed directly from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Streamed live, they will not be able to be re-visited. Access to these performances is $30.00, available by clicking on the link below.   LINK https://www.laopera.org/performances/2122-season-page/il-trovatore-3/

Los Angeles Opera presents its 2006 rendition of La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi. The performers are Renée Fleming, Rolando Villazón, and Renato Bruson, James Conlon conducts and Marta Domingo directs.LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZywmSJkKYE&t=83s

Lyric Opera of Chicago has recorded Ruggiero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci on film. Last week, the company announced that registration was open for audiences to secure free links to screen the new Pagliacci made at the Lyric Opera House. Audiences can now secure a free, on-demand viewing of this verismo production. More information about the production and reservations are available at lyricopera.org/pagliacci. 

Lyric Opera of Chicago announced that registration is now open for audiences to secure a free link to screen its new, original film production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, made at the Lyric Opera House. Audiences can now secure a free, on-demand viewing of this verismo production. More information about the production and reservations are available at lyricopera.org/pagliacci.

Mid afternoon, our tour group meets on the Magic Opera Flying Carpet at Los Angeles Airport (LAX).  We watch LA Opera’s digital short entitled Gallup, or Na'nízhoozhí in Navajo. The scene incorporates the high desert New Mexico landscape and the city famed for Navajo jewelry. Tour members should wear the  biggest and best turquoise they have for the show!

Raehann Bryce-Davis’s Brown Sounds is a joyous celebration of  Black art, Black bodies, and Black consciousness that we watch on our way to the Bay Area. Bryce-Davis is currently singing Verdi and Wagner at Glimmerglass.

British stage director Netia Jones put her singular stamp on a production of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream seen at the Santa Fe Opera on August 4, 2021. Performed in the opera house, it was simulcast to the lower parking lot where hundreds of patrons watched from the safety of their cars. One can take the entire family in the car.

The singing in this performance made it one of the best Figaros I’ve seen in many years. Despite singing recitative, vocal runs, and high notes with silvery tones for three and a half hours, Ying Fang as Susanna never sounded the least bit tired. Her character was a 20th century woman with dreams of equality. At the behest of conductor Harry Bicket, she and all the other leading artists decorated the repeats in their arias.

We board the Magic Opera Flying Carpet on Saturday morning, July 24, and go straight to the Bay Area for San Francisco Opera’s production of Richard Strauss’ Elektra.Soprano Christine Goerke stars in the title role. Director Keith Warner’s production blurs the line between past and present, myth, and reality. Conductor Henrik Nánási debuts.