OpeRADical

Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Most is making headlines in Europe two days ahead of schedule. Just as the group was preparing Friday for performances Sunday and Monday in London, the first stop on a two-week tour of Europe, the conductor announced his resignation from Austria's renowned Vienna State Opera, where he has served as general music director since 2010. The resignation, tendered via letter to Vienna State Opera artistic director Dominique Meyer, is effective immediately and leaves the company without a conductor for several new and revived productions in the 2014-15 season. Welser-Most was not available for comment Friday but explained his decision in greater detail in a follow-up statement to the announcement's broad citing of "irreconcilable differences of opinion" over artistic matters.

More than 1,500 singers participated in the auditions this year, held in 40 districts and 13 regions in the United States and Canada. It all came down to nine artists, ranging in age from 24 to 29, for the 2014 Grand Finals Concert on Sunday afternoon at the Met. Each one sang two arias with the Met Opera Orchestra, conducted by Marco Armiliato. The house, as usual, was packed with opera lovers hoping to hear the stars of tomorrow. And this prestigious competition has an excellent track record in this regard, with past finalists including Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Thomas Hampson, Stephanie Blythe, Ben Heppner and, more recently, Angela Meade and Jamie Barton.

Yet one opera company has vowed to do what it does best until it gets the money it needs. For more than 60 years, Texas-based Rio Grande Opera has attracted world-class singers, directors, conductors and composers to its lavish McDermott Opera House. But as the economy began its freefall, and with no new major donors forthcoming, they hit on a last-ditch strategy no one had ever tried before: a pledge drive marathon they're calling a Lone Star Wagnerrama.

"It's hard. It's going to be tough," she said in a phone interview. "I'm not going to say it's impossible." 

The showdown represented another indication, if one were needed, of opera’s precarious existence in the country of its birth.

"I look at the opera and I think, 'Gosh, you guys are operating on this antiquated business model that says opera has to be expensive,'" said Stanton, the CEO of Classical Music Indy. "It doesn't. There are companies nationwide that have figured out how to operate on a lean budget, but with high-quality productions."

They distributed cards and leaflets urging people to sign an onlinepetition asking the board to reconsider its 33-1 vote on March 19 to close the company after the final “Don Quixote” performance on April 13. The company is expected to immediately begin liquidating assets and it expects to be out of business by the end of its June 30, 2014 fiscal year.

Strauss credited the community for its generosity but said the times are changing: “Our audience has diminished greatly and our costs have gone up. And we will not compromise the quality.”

Opera Fairbanks did a heck of a job with the premiere of “The Color of Gold” this weekend. With music by Emerson Eads and libretto by Cassandra Tilly, both long-established Alaskans, the three-act work arguably the first opera to be entirely written by Alaskans that has actually been staged. Eads, who conducted the precise, well-rehearsed orchestra of local talent, has written a rich and sweeping score with several star-turn arias for soloists and some excellent choral writing. It’s an outstanding compositional effort that was matched by an exemplary performance from mostly local singers. Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2014/03/16/3378376/review-city-of-gold.html#storylink=cpy

"Turandot" is one of Utah Opera’s most highly anticipated productions in recent memory. The opening performance Saturday lived up to the show’s buzz — and then some. Possibly the only way to improve this production would be to shorten the intermissions, because after the thrilling conclusions of the first two acts, 20 minutes seems too long to wait to resume the action. The production, created by set-costume designer André Barbe and director-choreographer Renaud Doucet, is a known quantity. It has received highly favorable reviews in Pittsburgh, Seattle and Minneapolis, where Utah Opera’s co-commissioning companies have presented it over the past couple of years. But while the director and all the spectacular physical trappings of the production are a package deal, the performers, including the conductor and orchestra, are engaged separately by each opera company. Fortunately for Salt Lake City opera-goers, Christopher McBeth and crew have assembled a first-rate cast. All of the principals sing with impressive amplitude and act with compelling realism.

A terrific cast, a production that enhances or at least doesn't much get in the way, and superb conducting make Los Angeles Opera's new production of "Lucia di Lammermoor" a go-to event. Unveiled Saturday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Donizetti's hair-trigger emotional extravaganza swept away all resistance in its gorgeous bel canto flights of drama and lyricism. In the title role, Russian soprano Albina Shagimuratova was hardly a stereotypically frail dramatic pushover. She was a dominant force, first among a cast of equals, as she reined in her power to skillfully delineate Lucia's increasing isolation and mental decline, seeming as fresh vocally in her climactic 16-minute mad scene as she was at the beginning of the opera. Perhaps she could have gone on for another virtuosic quarter-hour. She earned the thunderous ovation she got at its end.

According to the union letter, the Met has said it will seek 10 percent or 15 percent reductions in compensation and other concessions.

Each arm of the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera organization published its upcoming programs through news releases, with a video accompanying the opera announcement. Intersections will occur between the two branches of the organization as Fischer joins the Utah Opera as conductor for the production of “The Rake’s Progress” in May 2015, and with the reintroduction of a Chamber Music Series in Park City that will correspond with operas opening at the Utah Opera.

"Cinderella" was a big hit at its Paris debut, one of a string of successful works -- "Thais," "Manon" and "Werther" -- by this master melodist. After his death, Massenet fell out of fashion, but in recent decades he has found plenty of advocates among singers.

Terrence McNally’s “Master Class,” at the Hylton Center through Sunday, is about that journey. It depicts a superstar diva navigating her uneasy exit as she coaches a new generation on how to make its entrance. Throughout it all, the lead actress — Broadway veteran Lisa Vroman in the role of legendary opera singer Maria Callas — never loses her command of center stage.

Created by Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi in 1841, the opera details how the Jews from 587 BC were assaulted, conquered and subsequently exiled by Nabucco (Italian for Nebuchadnezzar), king of Babylon.