Maria Nockin - Page 10

THE BLACK CAT is multimedia stage work that tells Edgar Allan Poe's gothic story with action, music, dance and projections. On January 19, 2019, Long Beach Opera presented its United States premiere at the Beverly O'Neill Theater.

Are you wondering what you and your love should to do on Valentines Day? Ballet Arizona is presenting the world premiere of Ib Andersen's THE FIREBIRD to music by Igor Stravinsky at Symphony Hall from February 14 to 17, 2019.

Opera Santa Barbara (OSB) celebrates its 25thanniversary on Saturday evening January 26, 2019, with a GALA CONCERT and spectacular party honoring Marilyn Gilbert who co-founded the company with the late Nathan Rundlett. The event will begin with a champagne reception for all ticket holders before the 6:00 pm concert.

Los Angeles Opera and Pacific Opera Projects have a number of interesting offerings for late winter and spring of 2019. LA Opera presents performances of the classic film, THE LOSER, on February 22 and 23, 2019, at The Theatre in the Ace Hotel. It will feature the West Coast premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang's compelling new score.

Los Angeles Opera presented the premiere performance of HANSEL AND GRETEL. The opera's original libretto is steeped in nineteenth century culture but Richard Sparks' translation, originally for the 2006 LA presentation of the opera, brought the text up to date and made it most appealing to contemporary children.

Henri Murger, the author of the original French book, described Bohemia as bordered on the North by hope, work, and gaiety, on the South by necessity and courage, and on the West and East by slander and the hospital. His characters, all based on real people he knew, wanted to free society of its strict bourgeois moral code and some of their ideas have taken root over the century and a half since the book's publication.

On Sunday October 28, 2018, Pacific Opera Project (POP) presented Giuseppe Verdi's well-loved opera, LA TRAVIATA to a full house at Occidental College's Thorne Hall in Pasadena. Director and Designer Josh Shaw presented a traditional production with a unit set that spoke of flowers and the beauty of the earth despite the terrors of disease in the 19th century.

Carl Theodore Dreyer and Christian Jul wrote VAMPYR, basing it on aspects of Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 publication, IN A GLASS DARKLY, a collection of five short stories of mystery and the supernatural. Subtitled THE DREAM OF ALAN GREY, the movie tells of a young man's strange experiences in the North-Central French village of Courtempierre. They may have been real or just dreams, we cannot be sure.

On October 20, 2018, Los Angeles Opera presented Philip Glass's SATYAGRAHA which tells of Mahatma Gandhi's early years in South Africa. SATYAGRAHA means truth, the real, the good combined with force or insistence. It is most often associated with Gandhi's nonviolent protests and resistance to racist laws. What he achieved by passive means was amazing at the time and remains a wonder today when racism is once again knocking on our doors.

Sean Panikkar is a tenor who appears in leading opera roles around the world. He is also a member of the crossover tenor trio, Forte, as a result of his foray into the world of America's Got Talent. This month he sings the role of Mohandas K. Gandhi in Philip Glass's SATYAGRAHA at Los Angeles Opera.

The story bridges the dichotomy between the civilian perception of war and the conditions experienced by soldiers. It shows the reason why veterans often choose not to tell their war stories to anyone who has never been to war. As The Soldier says repeatedly: "I never talk about this." Bill Morrison's film illustrates the resulting loss of innocence and the gnawing fear brought about by living in danger.

Los Angeles Opera assembled an all-star cast for its opening night revival of Verdi's DON CARLO on September 22, 2018. James Conlon led approximately 75 musicians as they embarked on another excursion into the dark world of sixteenth century Spain and the Inquisition. Verdi's DON CARLO tells a fascinating tale that is not quite historically accurate but makes good drama.

On August 17, 2018, The Grand Teton Music Festival presented Leonard Bernstein's 1957 musical, WEST SIDE STORY. In the intimate, wood-lined Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village, Wyoming, Music Director Donald Runnicles led the festival orchestra, which is composed of of players from fine ensembles from across the globe. The orchestra's music was 'surround sound' in the fullest sense of the term. Patrons not only heard but experienced Bernstein's Blues, Mambo, and Cha-Cha with all their senses as the rhythms encompassed the hall.

ARIADNE is an opera that shows the beauty of great voices and this cast had plenty to offer. Amanda Echalaz, whose voice has significant heft to it, sang Ariadne with beautiful rose velvet tones. She was a bit of a witch in the prologue, but in the opera, her voice rolled out over the audience like waves in the ocean. Offering pathos at the beginning, Echalaz's use of a tapestry of vocal color made her transition to Bacchus's lover credible

On July 28, 2018, 13 years after its premiere, Santa Fe Opera presented John Adams and Peter Sellars' DOCTOR ATOMIC. This new production featured bass-baritone Ryan McKinny as the volatile scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The opera, which takes place during the last few days before the first atomic bomb test, shows Oppenheimer battling with his mental demons as he tried to deal with the impending use of his scientific discovery to destroy an entire city and its inhabitants. McKinny showed the audience the human side of the scientific genius and I doubt that operagoers who saw his portrayal will soon forget it.

Daniela Mack is Isabella, an Italian pilot, who makes an emergency landing in Algiers and is captured by its ruler, the Bey. He wants an Italian girl for a wife but she loves Lindoro, the Bey's Italian slave. L'ITALIANA has lots of good bel canto singing and plenty of comedy to keep you smiling all evening. There are three more performances, Aug 3, 9 and 17.

MN: What would you like operagoers to know about DR ATOMIC? RMcK: I hope folks are able to arrive with an open heart and mind. As with any librettist Peter Sellars and composer John Adams collaboration, what we are creating is not traditional opera. In this case, it almost feels like a kind of ceremony-a celebration of this land and a display of mourning for what happened here in the desert 75 years ago.

Dolora Zajick's Institute for Young Dramatic Voices (IYDV) offers free master classes as well as a free concert of songs and arias sung by students with piano accompaniment. All these events are held at Nightingale Hall, 1335 North Virginia Street, Reno, NV, and no tickets are required for any of them.