Berlioz' Béatrice et Bénédict returns to Boston for the first time since the early 1990s thanks to Opera Boston’s new production. Opening night is Friday, October 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Cutler Majestic Theatre at 219 Tremont Street in Boston. Two other shows are set for Tuesday, October 25 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday October 23 at 3 p.m. The show's dialogue is in English and singing is in French. The cast includes performers new to Boston and others who've been on stage here before. Mezzo-soprano Julie Boulianne, tenor Sean Panikkar, and Baritone David McFerrin are all debuting in the Hub. Returning cast members include soprano Heather Buck, mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor, baritone Robert Honeysucker, bass Andrew Funk, and actor Phil Thompson have all performed in Boston before. Tickets are available online at the www.CutlerMajestic.org or by phone at 617-824-8000.
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Madame White Snake begins with a borrowed umbrella and ends with a storm to drown the world. Opera Boston's international commission, composed by Zhou Long and librettoed by retired Boston trial lawyer Cerise Lim Jacobs, presents a rather structured, symmetrical argument between Love and Truth, with no clear winner but a vast body count.
Discretion is the dumber part of valor.
Every review of Dimtri Shostakovich’s opera The Nose is obligated to contain at least one nose joke, so I’ll get mine out of the way now: The spirited Opera Boston production at the Cutler Majestic Theatre makes the case for this rarely performed modernist masterpiece to enjoy a higher profile - get it? - in the repertoire.
"Virtue" was the theme of last Wednesday's Opera Boston Underground show, and its seven varieties were interpreted with varying degrees of precision by seven young singers. Baritone Graham Wright took a direct route to Courage, "Mut" from Schubert's Winterreise, and Julia Mintzer personified at least three or four virtues all at once, waiting for her husband to return from the Crusades in Henri Duparc's "Au pays ou se fait la guerre." There was lonely tower, a white moon, cooing birds in a willow, but the results of Mintzer's brooding, seductive mezzo were more immediate and vivid than all that. We neglected our Great Pumpkin Ale and allowed our artichoke dip to cool.
A couple of weekends ago, this Bostonist's mom dropped off a children's book, withdrawn from the New Britain Public Library, titled Adventures of Richard Wagner. The mischievous protagonist, "little Dicker," slides down banisters, carries wet puppies in his woolen cap, and hand-copies the score of Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz. The last few pages had been pulled out, so who knows how this ends?
Giuseppe Verdi's rapidly complicated, frequently histrionic, infrequently performed opera Ernani plays like a telenovela on fast-forward with the volume turned up.
Upstairs was the teeming Cambridge Common; outside, the usual smokers' conversations. "Dude, you spit on my nachos." "No, I spit next to your nachos." And downstairs, Opera Boston Underground had returned to the Lizard Lounge for another well-attended performance.
Women ended up on tables, a lot: in rapture, in protest, in flagrante delicto, and asleep. As the Cutler Majestic's red velvet curtain rose last night, we saw the heroine in a heap of wedding dress on a dining table, an image that echoed throughout the opera. Semele, the reluctant bride, is the best-developed character in the work, foolish, but sympathetic, but so petulant, even before she leaves the groom at the altar and runs off with a married deity—even before she opens her mouth.
--Haven't you always wanted to go to an event called HARVAPALOOZA? Well, now you can. Local band The Franklin Kite bring a special combination of musical prowess and astrophysics knowledge to Tommy Doyle's, where they'll play alongside Maya and The Trolleys to commemorate the palooza that is Harvard. Or something like that? Anyway, the show starts at 9 and it's totally free. A dance party will follow, so put your best foot forward. Hopefully it's not the left.
Bostonist loves ourselves some opera, but sometimes theaters and and concert halls and opera houses all seem too obvious. In a city where you can get it with your oysters, or your popcorn, you should be able to get it with your beer: this is why Opera Boston Underground is inevitable.
The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny will open at the Cutler Majestic Theatre tonight, February 23, 2007 7:30 pm. Other showtimes include Sunday, February 25, 2007, at 3:00 pm and Tuesday, February 27, 2007, 7:30 pm. For more information, visit Opera Boston's website.
The state of the sidewalks around Boston kept us on our asses this weekend. Not so much of the figurative kind where we sat at home and skipped a show because it was too hard to get around. No, more the literal kind where we kept falling down because of that damn 2" layer of ice that was pretty much everywhere. This week they tell us that the temperature is rising by week's end....
In case you haven't heard the next week promises to show us the winter we've been missing out – only minus the snow. Cold temperatures (below freezing every day!) will be the rule according to the current outlook. Perfect time to head out to your favorite music venue. There's no better way we can think of to stay warm. This week you'll find the old, the new, the nerd, and some classical among the...
