hp's blog

Marionette opera

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:22:26 -0700

I was vaguely aware that there was a marionette company in Seattle that did an opera production each year. And when it crossed my consciousness I would think, "well that would be interesting to attend sometime." This year, we did it. And boy am...

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Opera's man of the hour

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:09:47 -0700

Ladies and gentleman, I given you Juan Diego Flórez and his phenomenal high C's. More about the performance (and his encore) here.

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6 performances, 4 Tristans, 2 Isoldes

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:41:22 -0700

Last night, the Met finished it ill-fated run of Tristan and Isolde, whose whole reason for being was to bring together the two leading Wagnerian singers of the day, Ben Heppner and Deborah Voight. The only problem: due to illness Ben missed 5 of ...

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Packing procastination

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:02:50 -0800

Ten more minutes and really... I'll start packing. We leave tomorrow for Chicago--a mix of personal (family) and business. We are also going to catch (the dreamy) Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the role of Eugine Onegin at Lyric Opera. But enough goofi...

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Pagliacci

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 09:28:26 -0800

We went to our regular subscriber performance last night. This production was even more affecting from our subscriber seats - Main Floor Row P - we're quite close (by preference) to the stage. Many wonderful subtleties in the staging that I misse...

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Antonella Palombi

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 12:40:01 -0800

The Canio in last night's Pagliacci was Antonello Palombi, who Speight Jenkins (General Director of Seattle Opera) has rightly been raving about as a true dramatic Verdi tenor. (Pagliacci is not a Verdi opera, but requires a tenor voice similar to...

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Opera Saturday

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 09:17:19 -0800

One of my opera regrets is never having seen Luciano Pavarotti. But yesterday, on the Met Radio broadcast we got to hear him "live" at the near-peak of his vocal abilities (1977) singing La Boheme. Pavarotti passed away just a few days before my ...

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Paul Potts and Opera

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 07:43:45 -0800

I've written previously about the talks that Speight Jenkins (General Director of Seattle Opera) and Perry Lorenzo (SO Education Director) give at Elliott Bay Books the Friday before the opening of each new production. If anyone from Seattle is re...

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Perfect Fall evening @home

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 12:32:38 -0700

Last night we made a nice dinner, got a fire going, then settled into our respective positions (Drake with the libretto, me with some knitting) to listen to Seattle Opera's live radio broadcast of Iphigenia in Tauris. The production is a big de...

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Vikings

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:28:22 -0700

Seattle's next Ring Cycle is in August of 2009. But we've got a running start on studying up for it via Kenneth Harl's Vikings audio lectures. Wagner drew heavily from Norse mythology for the characters and story of the Ring. So Odin (Woton), F...

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