Free Republic

The Met opened its season on Monday night with a new production of Puccini’s “Tosca� by the adventurous Swiss-born director Luc Bondy. When Mr. Bondy and the production team appeared on stage during curtain calls, the audience erupted in boos. If there were cheers among the jeers, they were drowned out.

Sarah Palin isn’t vice president. And she probably won’t ever be president. Heck - she’s not even a governor anymore. But the Alaskan pol has achieved one measure of fame - someone’s written an opera about her. “Say It Ain’t So, Joe,” a presentation by Guerilla Opera, opens Saturday at Boston Conservatory’s Zack Box Theater. The work is composer Curtis Hughes’ musical take on America’s favorite moose-hunting winker, you betcha. It focuses on that contentious - and sometimes comical - debate from October 2008 between Palin and Joe Biden, though the show also includes cameos from Hillary Clinton, Gwen Ifill,...

She was dumped by a boyfriend who no longer wished to follow her around the world. She found herself heartbroken and sick and finally went to a doctor who said he had news -- at 39, she was with child. Impossible, she replied: Throughout her previous 17-year marriage she tried repeatedly to get pregnant,

p>The Schenectady Light Opera Company is buying a former Catholic church downtown and will raise money to convert the property into a 300-seat theater and performing arts center. The Light Opera Company, an 83-year-old community theater group, signed a contract with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany to buy the former St. John the Baptist Church on Franklin Street. St. John the Baptist, said to be the oldest church in Schenectady, closed June 24, one of 33 worship sites that will be closed or merged in the diocese over the next three years. The first mass was held at St....

Bono and The Edge have described their forthcoming Spider-Man musical as "dizzy" and "not a straight take on the myth". Turn Off The Dark, the production the Dublin band has written music and lyrics for, is set to open on Broadway in New York in 2010. They also confirmed American actress Evan Rachel Wood would play the part of MJ and revealed more about the other characters. ...Bono said: "We've got a new villain, it's a girl. It's a very extraordinary role. We've taken it to a much more dizzy place than you'd expect. We've got big tunes. We're very...

A Norwegian firm has created technology that allows a Web browser to also function as a Web server, allowing individuals to share their files or communicate with others directly from their own computers. Opera Software's new technology is available as part of a beta for its browser, Opera 10. The feature, called Opera Unite, enables users to push content and establish communications without the need for third-party companies, such as Facebook, AOL or Flickr. Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner called it a giant leap in the Internet, dubbing it Web 5.0. "We're enabling every single user, every single computer to...

a group of bewhiskered men gathered in the bowels of the Paris Opera to launch a project which, by definition, they could never see to fruition. First, 24 carefully-wrapped wax records were placed inside two lead and iron containers. These were then sealed and locked away in a small storage room, with instructions that they remain undisturbed for 100 years. The man behind this musical time-capsule was Alfred Clark, a New Yorker who headed the London-based Gramophone Company and provided the records. And, in truth, once the ceremony was over, he had achieved his primary objective of drawing attention to...

John Adams, one of the most revered living classical composers, has claimed that he is blacklisted in his native America and is being followed by the security services. The 61-year-old musician has accused the United States of being in the grip of a political and moral panic and has complained that he is now grilled by airport immigration officers whenever he flies home because of his controversial reputation.

IN DIRECTOR David Cronenberg's 1986 movie "The Fly" -- remember "Be afraid. Be very afraid"? -- scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) commits a fatal error when he combines his own genes with those of a common housefly. At Los Angeles Opera these days, another dicey blending of species is taking place: Film directors are mutating into opera directors -- with, it's hoped, less alarming results.

Be afraid, be very afraid: David Cronenberg's 1986 horror flick, "The Fly," has undergone a bizarre metamorphosis. It's now an opera. The new incarnation, with tenor Placido Domingo conducting a score by Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore ("The Lord of the Rings"), isn't as gory as the movie. Audiences will be spared close-ups of the title character's fingernails falling off as he makes the transition from mild-mannered scientist to giant insect. Still, for an opera, it's pretty scary - even if there are touches of dark humor. Giggles broke out among those invited to Monday's dress rehearsal when a mezzo-soprano belted...

The French Revolution reveals the titanic struggle between good and evil. During the terror, over 40,000 Frenchmen were executed just for holding fast to the Catholic Faith and objecting to the worst excesses of the Committee of Public Safety. The blood lost in the years of 1792-1794 staggers the imagination even in the retelling and the campaign against the Church was as diabolical as it was cruel. Contemplative religious communities had been among the first targets of the fury of the French Revolution against the Catholic Church. Less than a year from May 1789 when the Revolution began with the...

...In January 1983, for a production of Strauss’s “Elektra” at the Canadian Opera Company, Mr. Mansouri introduced simultaneous English translation of the libretto on a horizontal video screen above the proscenium, a system popularly known as supertitles. (Mr. Mansouri used the term Surtitles, a registered trademark of the Canadian Opera Company.) Beverly Sills, who ran the New York City Opera at the time and was always on the lookout for ways to entice new audiences, quickly seized on the technology. She introduced a similar titling system at the New York State Theater in September 1983 for a new production of...

They should call it, Madame Butterfly Ballot: First it was the film and the book. Now the next stop for Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” is opera. La Scala officials say the Italian composer Giorgio Battistelli has been commissioned to produce an opera on the international multiformat hit for the 2011 season at the Milan opera house. The composer is currently artistic director of the Arena in Verona. Other suggested titles: The Liar of Seville; La BoPrivate Jet.

MILAN, Italy - First it was the film and the book. Now the next stop for Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" is opera. La Scala officials say the Italian composer Giorgio Battistelli has been commissioned to produce an opera [...] for the 2011 season

Opening of La Fille du regiment tonight. He repeated Ah! mes amis! The only thing I've heard encored in 35+ years at the Met is Ah Pensiero (a chorus piece). I've never heard a soloist repeat anything. ML/NJ

A German opera house is to unveil a provocative new production staged in the ruins of New York's World Trade Centre. It features naked pensioners and Mickey Mouse masks, Hitler salutes and Elvis impersonators. The self-consciously outrageous September 11th staging of Verdi's 'A Masked Ball' has been dreamed up by Austrian director Johann Kresnik. He has described the concoction as a populist critique of modern American society, aimed at showing up the disparities between rich and poor, which attracting a large audience. It will be a different, a provocative masked ball on the ruins of the World Trade Centre," he...

Italian tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano, to whom Luciano Pavarotti owed his launch to stardom, died in Milan on Monday. He was 86. Di Stefano died after a long coma caused by an attack during a robbery at his Kenyan holiday home in late 2004. Fellow Italian tenor Pavarotti, who died last year, had his big break when Di Stefano dropped out of a performance of "La Boheme" at London's Covent Garden in 1963. Pavarotti performed as the stand-in and a star was born. Local media said Di Stefano had never fully recovered from the savage beating he received from unknown...

The soprano Anna Netrebko, pregnant and engaged, has withdrawn from this summer’s Salzburg Festival, Agence France-Presse reported. She was scheduled to sing at the festival opposite the tenor Rolando Villazón in Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet.” Ms. Netrebko, 36, a Russian-born Austrian citizen (right, with her finacé, the Uruguayan-born baritone Erwin Schrott, 35), is in Vienna, filming Puccini’s “Bohème” with Mr. Villazón as her leading man. She also was to sing in Massenet’s “Manon,” opening on April 4 at the Vienna State Opera, The Associated Press reported. Her manager, Jeffrey Vanderveen, said she “will keep her engagements as long as her...

Swedish opera star Tito Beltran has lashed out at his adoptive country ahead of his forthcoming rape trial, describing the country as "worse than Chile during the dictatorship". Believing himself to be the victim of ethnic discrimination, the popular tenor has vowed to burn his Swedish passport after the trial. "Swedes are as racist as they come," Beltran told Chilean newspaper Las Últimas Noticias. "This country doesn't tolerate 'blackheads' [svartskallar], of which I am one," he added. Beltran, 42, is accused of raping an 18-year-old nanny at a hotel in Nötesjö in Skåne following his participation in a Rhapsody in...

Over the years I have been an active participant in the ongoing fight for open and interoperable Web standards. I have always opposed those who would force proprietary technologies where open alternatives, often superior, exist. From 1994, I worked at CERN and W3C to help make sure there were good specifications for the Web. In 1999, I joined Opera to make sure there was at least one browser that implemented those specifications right. We have worked hard to do that. Unfortunately Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the biggest browser of all, did not. Today we have taken a stand. Opera has filed...

Metropolitan Opera – Live in HD Series – 2007-08 12/15/2007 - 4/27/2008 “The Met’s experiment of merging film with live performance has created a new art form,” said the Los Angeles Times of the groundbreaking series of live, high-definition performance transmissions to movie theatres around the world. In 2007-08, the Met offers its second season of international HD transmissions—this time with eight live events, up from last year’s six, and eight encore (recorded) events. Don’t miss the chance to enjoy thrilling, world-class opera at your neighborhood theatre!The first performance is this Sat. MET - Romeo et Juliette 12/15/2007 Roméo et...

Wife's tears for Pavarotti September 08, 2007 MOURNERS in their hundreds yesterday gathered in the town square of Modena to pay their respects to the town's favourite son, the tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who died on Thursday, aged 71. The crowd applauded as pallbearers carried the singer's white coffin into the cathedral, where a funeral today will draw dignitaries from opera, politics and culture. On the Piazza Grande, hundreds gathered for the first evening of public viewing. Police on horseback stood at attention as mourners shuffled up the steps into the cathedral to view Pavarotti, dressed in his trademark white tie...

ROME (AP) - Luciano Pavarotti, opera's biggest superstar of the late 20th century, died Thursday. He was 71. He was the son of a singing baker and became the king of the high C's. Pavarotti, who had been diagnosed last year with pancreatic cancer and underwent treatment last month, died at his home in his native Modena at 5 a.m., his manager told The Associated Press in an e-mailed statement. His wife, Nicoletta, four daughters and sister were among family and friends at his side, manager Terri Robson said. "The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer,"...

Opera great Pavarotti dead at 71 by Ljubomir Milasin Opera legend Luciano Pavarotti, whose glorious tenor voice, showmanship and crossover celebrity turned him into a global superstar, died Thursday at his home in Italy at the age of 71. Hailed by many as the greatest tenor of his generation, Pavarotti passed away during the night at his villa near the northern city of Modena after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. "His condition progressively worsened up to this morning," said Antonio Frassoldati, one of the star's team of doctors. "He was always totally conscious of the situation, he always sought...

Manager reports his death.

ROME (Reuters) - Luciano Pavarotti's health has deteriorated sharply and the 71-year-old tenor is at home, unconscious and suffering from kidney failure, a television station reported on Wednesday. Family and friends went to Pavarotti's home to be near the singer, considered one of the greatest tenors of his generation, E' TV Antenna Uno television station in Modena, the tenor's home town, reported. In July 2006 Pavarotti underwent surgery in New York for pancreatic cancer and retreated to his villa in Modena. He had to cancel his first planned public reappearance a few months later. Taken to hospital with a fever...

WAYNE, Pa. - Rose Bampton, a soprano who performed 18 seasons at the Metropolitan Opera and established herself as a premier voice in American opera, has died. She was 99. Bampton died Tuesday in the Philadelphia suburb of Bryn Mawr, said Mark Sullivan, parish administrator at St. David's Episcopal Church in nearby Wayne, where her family attended for years. Bampton, who made her professional debut in 1929, appeared several times with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra and sang with such opera immortals as Lauritz Melchior, Helen Traubel, Rosa Ponselle, Jan Peerce and Ezio Pinza. She recorded with Arturo Toscanini...

Luciano Pavarotti hospitalized in Italy AP Luciano Pavarotti has been hospitalized for tests in his hometown of Modena, in northern Italy, hospital officials and his manager said Thursday. Pavarotti, who underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer last year, was brought to Modena's Polyclinic two days ago, said manager Terri Robson. Earlier, a hospital spokesman had said Pavarotti was admitted Wednesday. Robson and officials at the hospital declined to give the reason the 71-year-old tenor was hospitalized, but local daily Il Resto del Carlino reported that it was pneumonia. Robson said she would issue a statement later. Il Resto del Carlino reported...

ROME — Opera star Luciano Pavarotti has been hospitalized for tests in his hometown of Modena, in northern Italy, hospital officials and his manager said today. Pavarotti, who underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer last year, was brought to Modena's Polyclinic two days ago, said manager Terri Robson. Earlier, a hospital spokesman had said Pavarotti was admitted Wednesday. Robson and officials at the hospital declined to give the reason the 71-year-old tenor was hospitalized, but local daily Il Resto del Carlino reported that it was pneumonia. Robson said she would issue a statement later. Il Resto del Carlino reported that Pavarotti...

Mozart’s lighthearted opera The Abduction from the Seraglio does not call for a prostitute’s nipples to be sliced off and presented to the lead soprano. Nor does it include masturbation, urination as foreplay, or forced oral sex. Europe’s new breed of opera directors, however, know better than Mozart what an opera should contain. So not only does the Abduction at Berlin’s Komische Oper feature the aforementioned activities; it also replaces Mozart’s graceful ending with a Quentin Tarantino–esque bloodbath and the promise of future perversion. Welcome to Regietheater (German for “director’s theater”), the style of opera direction now prevalent in Europe....

What else is there to do on Thursdays besides FReep and listen to TSN?!

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - Jerry Hadley, the world-class tenor known for his agile and lyric voice, died Wednesday, a week after he shot himself in an apparent suicide attempt. The 55-year-old singer died two days after doctors at St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie took him off life support, said family friend and spokeswoman Celia Novo. Hadley, who had been battling personal problems, shot himself with an air rifle July 10 at his home in Clinton Corners, 80 miles north of New York City. State police said he was found unconscious on his bedroom floor. The Illinois-born Hadley sang everything from Mozart...

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - Celebrated tenor Jerry Hadley was taken off life support Monday, nearly a week after an apparent suicide attempt left him with a severe brain injury. The 55-year-old singer shot himself with an air rifle last Tuesday at his Clinton Corners home, several miles outside Poughkeepsie, according to state police. State troopers found him unconscious on his bedroom floor and he was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie. Hadley had been on life support since his arrival at the hospital. Family friend and spokeswoman Celia Novo said he was taken off the systems Monday. "The hospital is...

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - A medical ethics panel was reviewing the case of noted tenor Jerry Hadley, who remained in "extremely grave" condition Friday with a gunshot wound, a family spokeswoman said. The 55-year-old central Illinois native shot himself in the head with an air rifle Tuesday at his home several miles outside Poughkeepsie, according to state police. Medical staff evaluated him Thursday to determine whether he should remain on life support. Family friend and spokeswoman Celia Novo said Friday that a medical ethics panel at the hospital was reviewing the case and would report to the family. She did not...

A medical ethics panel was reviewing the case of noted tenor Jerry Hadley, who remained in "extremely grave" condition Friday with a gunshot wound, a family spokeswoman said. The 55-year-old singer shot himself in the head with an air rifle Tuesday at his home several miles outside Poughkeepsie, according to state police. Medical staff evaluated him Thursday to determine whether he should remain on life support. Family friend and spokeswoman Celia Novo said Friday that a medical ethics panel at the hospital was reviewing the case and would report to the family. She did not know when that would happen....

A Dream Comes True for a humble and sweet man. He has the light of God in his eyes and voice.

Régine Crespin, who died on Thursday aged 80, was one of the great postwar opera divas and a famous seductress.Despite being French, she conquered both the city of New York and the Germanic repertoire, leading Time magazine to describe her as the “French Teuton”. And, perhaps because of being French, she conquered - and broke - the hearts of many admirers.Régine Crespin was never slow to point out that, while she had sung German operas at Vienna and Bayreuth and Italian operas at La Scala, neither Elisabeth Schwarzkopf nor Renata Tebaldi ever sang a French role in Paris.Indeed, wherever she...

Beverly Sills, the Brooklyn-born opera diva who was a global icon of can-do American culture with her dazzling voice, bubbly personality and management moxie in the arts world, died Monday of cancer, her manager said. She was 78. It had been revealed just last month that Sills was gravely ill with inoperable lung cancer. Beyond the music world, Sills gained fans worldwide with a style that matched her childhood nickname, Bubbles. The relaxed, red-haired diva appeared frequently on TV talk shows, on "The Tonight Show," "The Muppet Show" and in televised performances with her friend Carol Burnett. Together, they did...

Beverly Sills, the opera diva who won over fans worldwide with her sparkling voice and charming personality and became a powerhouse in the New York arts world, is gravely ill with cancer, The Associated Press has learned. Sills, 78, was chairwoman of the Metropolitan Opera until she resigned two years ago, citing health and family reasons. She remains the Met's chairwoman emerita. The Met would neither confirm nor deny news of her illness, but people close to her health situation said Sills was at a Manhattan hospital, with her daughter at her side. In an e-mail this week to members...

TRACK-POTT! EXCLUSIVE We're with Pavapotty in Cowell studio as he records the songs for first album By Sean Hamilton Showbiz Editor Sean.Hamilton@Sundaymirror.Co.Uk 24/06/2007 THE whirlwind rise to fame of Paul Potts continued yesterday as he started work on his album - and invited the Sunday Mirror to share the moment. The former mobile phone salesman, 36, had just jetted in from New York to record his debut release after signing a £1million global deal with Simon Cowell. It will be one of the quickest albums of all time - thanks to huge demand - going on sale on July 11....

A 36-YEAR-OLD dentally challenged cellphone salesman wins a nationally televised talent contest in Britain, and suddenly, all sorts of questions are raised about the role of classical music in our world. That is because the winner, Paul Potts, from Wales, triumphed with a rendition of “Nessun dorma,” the tenor aria from Puccini’s “Turandot,” at a contest with the trappings and audience — seemingly — of the mass entertainment world. By the standards of music critics who ply their trade in opera houses and concert halls, it wasn’t a particularly earth-shaking performance. “Mr. Potts is the sort of bog-standard tenor to...

It was as if the tension would never end - but finally, eventually, painfully... Dec announced Paul Potts as the Britain's Got Talent winner. It was a moment where futures were made and dreams were dashed. But even though every one of the performers here has an outstanding talent, only one could scoop the big prize tonight. Two million votes were cast by the British public. For the big winner, welshman Paul Potts, tonight starts a week of newspaper interviews, magazine features and TV appearances. Life won't be quite the same ever again. As Ant and Dec congratulated the singer...

PREVIOUS THREAD WINNING PERFORMANCE Britain's Got Talent: Paul Potts wins! Sunday 17th June Opera singer Paul Potts has won the final of Britain's Got Talent, after wowing the judges and public with his singing voice. The mobile phone salesman, from Port Talbot beat competition from five other acts to take the title at the end of the nine-day series. He wins £100,000 as well as the chance to sing for the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance on December 3. Potts sailed through the competition after singing Nessun Dorma, which he also sang in the final. Other acts who...

(No, he is not Pol Pot. It is Paul Potts. If you have not heard his name, you will indeed be hearing it.) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If you have not heard this, you need to hear it. Yeah, I know, opera sucks. Well, it doesn't suck, I guess. I just never had any interest in it. But this is going to amaze you. What a Cinderella story. You will be moved and cannot help but to root for this guy, a guy Simon Cowell probably looked at as a total loser. DO NOT MISS THIS PERFORMANCE ON YOUTUBE! At 36, Potts is...

An opera-singing mobile phone salesman has wowed judges on the UK version of hit talent show Australia's Got Talent. Britain's Got Talent judges, including American Idol judge Simon Cowell, were left dumbfounded as Paul Potts hit the stage to belt out one of the series' most memorable performances made famous by tenor Luciano Pavarotti. The 36-year-old sang Nessun Dorma and received a standing ovation from the 2,000-strong audience at Cardiff’s Millennium Centre in Wales. The winning act from the show will perform for the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance and win $A250,000. Mr Potts, who has battled a burst...

Britt Hume introduced this segment at the end ofFox News Special Report this evening.This guy is a cell phone salesman and appeared on the British version of "American Idol" - Britain's Got Talent. His name is Paul Potts, he sings the aria Nessun Dorma from Puccini's Turandot, and he is magnificent. Brought tears to my eyes. Pay attention to the judges' reaction: even Simon Cowell was blown away.

ehudgins@atlassociety.org  April 11, 2007 -- I love opera! Thus recently at the Kennedy Center I saw Die Walküre, the second installment of Richard Wagner's monumental four-part cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, about gods and goddesses, giants and dwarfs, and mortal human heroes. The music, singing and acting were superb. But the program notes seemed like Al Gore channeling Karl Marx. Consider "dramaturg" Cori Ellison's description (bold in the original) of the opera's themes. First, nature:  "The despoiling of nature through greed and ambition begins even before the stage action does, with Wotan sacrificing his own eye to drink from the Well...

ehudgins@atlassociety.org  April 11, 2007 -- I love opera! Thus recently at the Kennedy Center I saw Die Walküre, the second installment of Richard Wagner's monumental four-part cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, about gods and goddesses, giants and dwarfs, and mortal human heroes. The music, singing and acting were superb. But the program notes seemed like Al Gore channeling Karl Marx.  Consider "dramaturg" Cori Ellison's description (bold in the original) of the opera's themes. First, nature:  "The despoiling of nature through greed and ambition begins even before the stage action does, with Wotan sacrificing his own eye to drink from the...

Hello you opera buffs (and I don't mean the browser) -- I did a quick audio capture of a certain operatic song that I'm sure you'd have no problem identifying. I need to know: what opera the song is from (Madame Butterfly?); the opera's composer; and the name of this particular song. Please FReepmail me your e-mail address and I'll send you the .mp3 file of the song.

Composer Gian Carlo Menotti, the founder of the Festival of the Two Worlds in Spoleto, died Thursday at a hospital in Monaco, his son said. He was 95. "He died pretty peacefully and without any pain. He died in my arms," said Francis Menotti by telephone from Monte Carlo. The Italian opera composer founded the annual creative arts festival in the Umbrian hilltown of Spoleto in 1957 and 20 years later, a similar undertaking, Spoleto, U.S.A., for Charleston, S.C., followed by one for Melbourne, Australia, in 1986.