Editorial
Metropolitan Opera Critic Required
Opera Britannia is looking for a further critic to join Richard Garmise (Chief Critic, USA) in reviewing at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. The successful critic must have previous experience at writing opera criticism, whether in print or for an online reviewing service. If you are interested in joining us, please email me with some examples of your work and details of your specialised interests. The email address is: info@opera-britannia.com
Metropolitan Opera Finances
A few years ago, a friend at a party who worked for one of our largest investment banks asked me, "Richard, do you know how to end up with a small fortune at Lazard Frères? Give us a large fortune." Such memories came to mind, inevitably, in reviewing the tax returns and accounting statements of the Metropolitan Opera for the year ending July 31, 2009, which have just been released. One has to emphasize that all these numbers constitute nothing more than a snapshot of the moment, which don’t take into account more recent developments, and are, even as presented, in summary form. But the statements show a decline of almost 20% on investments (down to $246 million), and an almost equal decline in the total asset picture (down to about $423 million) at the same time as liabilities have increased, including continuing (and not uncommon) obligations to the pension fund. Read More>>
Editorial Update: 20/01/10
Over the next few days you may notice a few peculiar things happening with the website as we undertake some necessary changes. Some of the reviews are likely to be missing their photographs on a temporary basis, as we re-organise the layout of the website. The biggest change will be to the Opera review page, where we will not only separate opera and oratorio reviews, but each opera company/venue will have their own unique review page. This will make it much easier for you to find reviews by company, rather than having to trawl through a very long list of operas which were previously sorted only by chronological date. Read More>>
Editorial Update 15/01/10
I am delighted to announce that Opera Britannia is now back online and more importantly, securely. For those readers who did not come across our Twitter and Facebook updates, we have since Christmas Eve been the target of a group of hackers determined to bring the website offline. We haven't as yet got to the bottom of the reason, aside from the fact that "political causes" were stated as the official cause! Naturally it has taken a considerable amount of work on the part of everyone involved with the website to make it as secure as possible. Read More>>
Domingo Cancellation
Placido Domingo has withdrawn from Tamerlano at The Royal Opera, following news that he needs to undergo "medically recommended preventative surgery". It is believed that he has been suffering from abdominal pains whilst performing in Tokyo and has been advised that an operation is required, with a rest period of approximately six weeks to follow. This has no doubt produced quite a headache for The Royal Opera who have heavily advertised Domingo's presence in this years schedule of operas. He is still due to perform in Simon Boccanegra in June, but one suspects that both The Royal Opera and the paying public will be on tenterhooks as to the likelihood of his participation.
News
Aida Cast Change
Luciana D'Intino has withdrawn from the role of Amneris in the new David McVicar production of Verdi's Aida at The Royal Opera, on grounds of ill-health. No further information is available at present, but the role of Amneris is now being taken over by Marianne Cornetti, who was last seen at The Royal Opera in September 2009 as Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo.
Satyagraha Remix at the ENO
Audience participation is taken a step further with the ENO’s Satyagraha Remix, inspired by the opera of the same name by Philip Glass. Members of the public are 
invited to join composer Anna Meredith, sound designer Sam Godin and the classically trained Indian singer Falu, in an evening where they can record Satyagraha-inspired loops that will form part of the “Remix”. Read More>>
ENO Wins Southbank Show Award.
For the third year in a row, the English National Opera have won the Southbank Show Award in the opera category. This time the award was made for David Alden's critically acclaimed sell-out production of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes. The previous two wins were for their joint production of Lost Highyway and Punch & Judy with The Young Vic, and also for David McVicar's controversial, but well received production of Britten's The Turn of the Screw. Read More>>
Elisabeth Söderström dies aged 82
News has just broken that the great Swedish soprano Elisabeth Söderström, died on Friday morning due to a stroke. Her professional debut was as Bastienne in Mozart's rarely performed Bastien et Bastienne at the Drottningholm Court Theatre in 1947. Although closely associated with the Royal Swedish Opera, she performed at all the major opera houses around the world. Her UK debut was at Glyndebourne in 1957, where she would return to sing numerous Strauss and Mozart roles, with which she was to become so closely identifable, including Octavian, the Composer, the Countess in Capriccio and Susanna. She was also famous for her interpretation of some of Janacek's female heroines, not least Kat'a and Jenufa, where in both cases she made distinguished recordings with Sir Charles Mackerras that have remained unsurpassable in the recording catalogue. Her first appearance at Covent Garden was with the Royal Swedish Opera as Daisy Dodd in Blomdahl’s Aniara in 1960. Söderström was an astonishingly versatile artist, who brought great commitment and beauty of voice to everything she did.
Poetry Corner
Biography: Mary Robertson is an Emeritus Professor in Neuropsychiatry at University College London and visiting Professor at St George’s Hospital Medical School, London. Aside from being an opera devotee, Mary is a published poet and photographer.
(New poems added: 04/08/2010)
more >>
News updates
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Five: 15, Opera Made in Scotland
Scottish Opera, Glasgow, 26th May 2010
Scottish Opera once again offers an evening of pint-sized operas as the culmination of a commissioning process that sees five composers paired with five librettists to produce new work each lasting 15 minutes. This is the third and apparently final year in which this format has been followed. The results are a shining showcase for composers of new work in Scotland. This year’s batch began with Zen Story, which captured the concept of the opera miniature perfectly. Read More>>
Podcasts
Out and About
Opera Britannia's US column
With this first column of Out and About, the Editor has given me an opportunity to share with you news and a perspective on opera, which comes not only from the major houses in New York, but from important New York recitals, from performances in the smaller venues in the city where new or rare works are done, and from events outside of New York City. Upcoming columns will be devoted to recent important productions in the mid-West, and to a new opera in Boston starring male soprano Michael Maniaci. I also look forward to reviewing works and recordings which have passed undeservedly from the public eye, as well as offering some general reflections, musings, and, inevitably, complaints, about the state of opera in general. I hope a good time will be had by all.
Metropolitan Season Announcement
The big news this week comes from the Metropolitan Opera, which on Monday announced its plans for the 2010-2011 season, which includes two Met Opera Premiers (John Adams's Nixon in China and Rossini's Le comte Ory), five additional new productions, including the first two parts of an awaited Robert Lepage Ring, 11 HD transmissions, Music Director James Levine's celebration of his 40th Anniversary with the Company, a tour of Japan and, buried a bit deeper in the fine print, an increase of 6% for subscriptions, and 11% for individual tickets. Read More>>
CD Reviews
The Sacrifice (James MacMillian): Chandos
There can be no doubt whatsoever that James MacMillan’s The Sacrifice is one of the most accessible contributions to the world of British opera since Benjamin Britten, with audiences responding 
even as warmly as they did to Thomas Adès’ The Tempest. Both these works were broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and each of these broadcasts has been cleaned up and recently issued on double CD (Adès on EMI, 2009; MacMillan on Chandos, 2010). Both operas also have composers who enjoy successful careers as conductors, but while Adès conducted The Royal Opera House forces at Covent Garden, it was unfortunate that on the night when The Sacrifice was broadcast from the Wales Millennium Theatre with Welsh National Opera, MacMillan was unwell and was therefore forced to hand over the reins to Anthony Negus.
Recital Reviews
Joyce DiDonato in Recital
Wigmore Hall, 26th January 2010
Joyce DiDonato is very obviously a great favourite with London audiences, and on the very day we finally officially emerged – pro tem, at least – from eighteen months 
of recession by the magnificent margin of point squit of a zillionth, it was nice actually to encounter something quite so uncomplicatedly positive as her recital. Opera singers, in the up-close and personal context of a recital room, fall into extremely contrasting categories, ranging from the all-singing, all-dancing Ethel Merman-esque firecrackers (Cecilia Bartoli) to the half-barmy and catatonic (um, better exercise some discretion here, I suppose) by way of sassy, sweet ‘n simple, straightforward or sepulchral, the raunchy or the reverential, the bullish or the businesslike.
DVD Reviews
Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier (Decca)
Evidently, productions of Der Rosenkavalier have a habit of outliving their directors. In a positive flurry of recent revival activity that has seen the work severally staged at
Covent Garden, the Metropolitan and, as preserved on this DVD, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, each of the original directors was no longer around to supervise his show's latest outing. This matters less, of course, in stagings that cleave close to the scenic and theatrical givens of the work as conceived by Hofmannsthal and Strauss in microscopic detail, than in ones like that under consideration here that avail themselves of varying degrees of liberty and licence.
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