The Passion of Opera

Over the past two weeks I had the wonderful opportunity to return to Vienna, where I studied in 2011 and posted many of the reviews on this blog. While I was there, I attended three more operas at the Wiener Staatsoper, bringing my standing room total there to 29 operas (and one Volksoper opera - for 30 standing room operas in Vienna): Puccini's La boheme , Massenet's Werther , and Strauss' Elektra . All three were excellent, particularly the latter two. Upon my return to the United States last week, I immediately was at a performance of the revised version of Philip Glass' Appomattox . This performance was also quite interesting for me, as it is the second Glass opera I have seen and very different from his Satyagraha  in London. As a bonus: a quick review of a concert by The Tenors (formerly The Canadian Tenors) performing one man down. Reviews will be shorter than a standard review, but the performances raised a few interesting points I want to record. Vienna ...

I have always been fascinated by Richard Strauss' Elektra. Despite never having listened to it in full, it has always been iconic to me of Strauss' dichotomy between viennese slice of life productions, such as Der Rosenkavalier or Arabella, and his emphasis on mythology often incorporated elements of Freudian psychology and madness, such as Salome , Elektra , and to some extent Ariadne auf Naxos . Having heard many of Strauss' other operas but never the iconic Elektra , I was excited. This production by the Royal Opera House won great acclaim from the audience in the house and reviewers. I appreciate the production, especially for its consistency, but found it slightly less convincing. Synopsis and general information:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektra_(opera) Elektra | Richard Strauss Credits: Director | Charles Edwards Set Design | Charles Edwards Costume Designs | Brigitte Reiffenstuel Lighting Design | Charles Edwards Movement Director | Leah Ha...

Just wanted to throw out there quickly that I've been a bit slow in getting through the mass of blogging I have to do between this and  To Float on a Wayward Wind  while also trying to do stuff and travel while in London in addition to classes and work. It's a bit crazy. Still, I have been to Strauss' Elektra at the Royal Opera House and to English National Opera's production of Beethoven's Fidelio . Both had their highs and lows and reviews will be coming out shortly. I may shortly be at ENO's Madama Butterfly  and would love to see ROH's Les vêpres siciliennes , though scheduling this has been difficult. Meanwhile, The Passion of Opera has broken 30,000 lifetime views and keeps going strong. Thank you for your support and I'll have new reviews up shortly!!

At the end of my studying abroad in Vienna papers and exams overtook me, making it impossible to keep pace with reviewing operatic performances even as I continued to attend them. Since returning from Vienna, school, work, and other events have interfered in my completing reviews of 12 performances I had the opportunity to see as my time in Vienna came to a close. This lack of closure, however, has had a domino effect, leading me to feel like I couldn't review other performances, DVDs, write on various topics, etc. thereafter until I finished things up. At this point, now that I finally have the opportunity and have mustered the willpower, I've decided the best way to get this done is to seek middle ground. Writing a post each for the twelve performances in as much depth as my previous posts would require far too much time and effort. Additionally, it is impossible for anyone to see these performances with the same production and performers and I don't remember the details ...