By Jay Sekulow
The left's outrage over the IRS turns to a plea to 'move on'
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
"Show Boat" is Francesca Zambello's directing debut in her role as artistic director of the WNO, succeeding Placido Domingo.
Verdi: The Complete Works (75-CD boxed set) Decca.
Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut is a gentle, lighthearted movie that works as a vehicle to showcase the considerable talents of its aging stars.
Diana Damrau recalled when she learned the Metropolitan Opera's new production of "Rigoletto" would be set in the glitzy Rat Pack-era Las Vegas of 1960, not 16th-century Mantua.
Dustin Hoffman's directing bow at 75 finds a perfect match in the well-heeled subject of "Quartet," a charming tale of aging musicians whose passion for life continues undiminished in a stately English manor filled with humor, caring and of course great music. This optimistic fairy tale about aging and the continuing possibilities it offers for emotional satisfaction should strike the fancy of older audiences who turned the British indie "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" into a breakout hit released around the world. Leading a cast of real-life musical veterans, Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay put the stamp of quality on a lush-looking production, albeit one that adheres to genre rules with an iron grip.
A 482-year-old youth has arrived in Washington as part of a campaign many see as aimed at countering Italy's current negative economic image.
The famed La Scala opera house inaugurated its 2012-13 season Friday with the Teutonic classic `'Lohengrin" as it launched dual bicentennial celebrations of its own Giuseppe Verdi and German icon Richard Wagner.
Richard Wagner won over La Scala's ardent Verdi followers during the gala season premiere on Friday with a production of `'Lohengrin" that packed surprises -- including the last-minute arrival of German soprano Annette Dasch in the role of Elsa after two singers fell ill with the flu.
The dual bicentennial of the births of composers Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner is turning into a dueling bicentennial.
Riccardo Muti, the master conductor, is sounding an ominous note, and it isn't rising from the orchestra pit.
When the financially strapped Washington National Opera became affiliated with the Kennedy Center a year ago, some skeptical WNO members likened it to putting one's head into the open mouth of a lion that hadn't had its lunch. What a difference a year can make.
Giuseppe Verdi's third opera, "Nabucco," is a surprisingly relevant look at political issues — including religious fundamentalism, nation-building, conflict in the Middle East, resistance to foreign occupation, even genocide — that are as critical now as they were in 587 B.C., when the story takes place.
Daniel Barenboim will conduct Wagner's "Lohengrin" for La Scala's gala season opening next December, as the famed Milanese opera house launches a yearlong musical celebration of the dual bicentennial of the births of composers Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner.
It isn't every day that a conductor concedes an encore for an opera chorus. Even rarer is asking the audience to sing it, but maestro Riccardo Muti has just done so for the love of homeland.
It isn't every day that a conductor concedes an encore for an opera chorus. Even rarer is asking the audience to sing it, but maestro Riccardo Muti has just done so for the love of homeland.
Verdi was just 29 when he wrote the opera and recently had suffered the deaths of his wife and his two young children.
He spent weeks on end in Italy, researching in the archives at Teatro alla Scala in Milan (where "Nabucco" premiered) and visiting Verdi's home in Busseto, where, he says, "I spent days just soaking in the soul of the man."
