NEW YORK – A Spectacular Puccini Tribute: New York City Opera’s Outdoor Concert at Bryant Park, a celebration of musical grandeur and blinding sonic radiance.
NEW YORK – Foreign Experiences at the Roulette Intermedium, a fun, imaginative, and engaging product of incredible artistry.
NEW YORK – On Site Opera presents The Immersive Coffee Cantata Experience, telling their tale through virtuosic strains of splendid singing, hilarity, and elegance while faces remained lit with smiles and gratitude in this truly immersive delectation of exquisite music, drama, dance, costuming, humor, taste, aroma, and warmth.
The On Site Opera production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute was a night of magical enchantment, charismatic strains, and sublime artistry. Moreover, the characters roamed about the garden and interacted with the audience, creating an intimate, immersive experience nearly impossible in a concert hall. With superb singing, a refined but effectual musical accompaniment of piano, and two accomplished flutists, listeners were transported to a mythical realm of captivating imagination and charm. The audience’s experience was transformative, transcending into the boundaries of reality through engagement in the rich tapestry of the opera’s narrative, characters, and music.
Soloists in the ON SITE Opera production of Puccini’s Il Tabarro were consistently marvelous and presented a thrilling performance of a seminal artwork with the support of a splendid chorus, orchestra, and production team. With fine sound, staging, and costumes rendered in a unique maritime setting, we extravagantly experienced the opera’s dramatic and emotional depth characterized through Puccini’s rich, evocative inventions. The performance was a memorable, compelling, and immersive experience.
This production of Iolanthe by MasterVoices at Carnegie Hall portrayed the essence of superlative artistry coupled with modern technological tools. Audience members were masterfully delivered full access to every quip, idiom, and reference intended by Gilbert and Sullivan. During the production, laughs, chuckles, cheers, and other affirmations continued. Applause occurred frequently, and the denouement was acknowledged through an extended standing ovation and multiple bows. The soloists, dancer, orchestra, costumes, choreography, and lighting were superb. Sperling’s conducting was masterful, precise, effective, and expressive.
The Art Bath Salon Series program was 21st century-multimedia at its finest, but with the intimacy of the Parisian salons made famous by the likes of Gertrude Stein, Gustave Courbet, and Franz Liszt. In this inviting artistic environment with stimulating badinage, patrons experienced and marveled at film, sculpture, painting, dance, photography, and music created by world-class artists and performers.
The The ACO presents Healing Bach featured sopranos Sherezade Panthaki and Corrine Byrne, mezzo-soprano Sylvia Leith, countertenor Daniel Moody, tenors Brian Giebler and Lawrence Jones, and bass-baritones Edmund Milly and Joseph Parrish. This astounding coterie of gifted musicians presented continuously breathtakingly beautiful and inspired performances.
With the production’s delights of flamenco dancing, passionate arias, magnificent costuming, staging, lighting, soaring melodies, and powerful drama, we ultimately gasp in awe at the power of Bizet’s Fate theme, akin to the tragedy of the last act in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with its piercing melancholy. Carmen’s impact is profound, in part due to Bizet’s launching of the verismo school, where contemporary characters live true to life.
Hamlet was not written for dance numbers but for murders. But there are ample opportunities for arias. The recent Macbeth version, directed by Sam Gold, added original songs to altered text. A full-length opera of Hamlet is ambitious.
