“Vanessa” had the kind of pedigree you rarely see in a world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera. Samuel Barber, who was already famous for his Adagio for Strings, composed the score. Gian Carlo Menotti, his partner and an experienced hand at opera, wrote the libretto and directed. Cecil Beaton, mere …
Paul Plishka, an American singer acclaimed for his sonorous, liquid bass tones and near-perfect diction during a career at the Metropolitan Opera that spanned a half-century, died on Monday in Wilmington, N.C. He was 83. His death was confirmed by his wife, Sharon Thomas, who did not cite a cause …
You don’t expect to see security guards roaming the foyer of the Hannover State Opera, a well-regarded, midsize opera house in a midsize central Germany city. But before the Saturday premiere of “Echo 72: Israel in Munich,” a new opera about the attack on Israeli athletes by Palestinian militants at …
Is it oil? Is it youth? Is it tactile? Invisible? For Wagner, the magic gold that is stolen from the bottom of the Rhine at the start of his four-opera “Ring” cycle, setting the plot in motion, was a tangible, shiny nugget. It is embedded in the riverbed, his libretto …
The Palais Garnier in Paris is among the world’s oldest theaters that still functions more or less in its original state. And long before the appearance of the selfie-stick, the Garnier was a place not just to see art, but to be seen. At a 150th anniversary gala on Friday, …
Even before news of his death broke on Thursday, the spirit of the director David Lynch hovered over the Prototype Festival. For 12 years, this annual showcase of experimental opera and music theater has hewed to a Lynchian aesthetic, with works that mine emotional extremes and blur the boundaries of …
Otto Schenk, the prolific Austrian director whose lavishly traditional productions for the Metropolitan Opera and the Vienna State Opera thrilled generations of music lovers, died on Thursday at his home on Lake Irrsee in Austria. He was 94. His death was announced by his son, the conductor Konstantin Schenk. In …