A graceful piece of writing. Remember, Alenier is commenting on a fellow stepping into her terrain, and I believe she does so with generosity, saying "there is enough of everything to go around".
Grace Cavalieri
read Karren Alenier's article
I enjoyed reading about this new approach to creating a musical production based on the life of Gertrude Stein. Obviously, she is still inspiring artists! I look forward to cornering Ms. Alenier about her impressions of the new production.
Susan Absher
read Karren Alenier's article
The article was helpful. I read it because I was trying to find out how long the opera lasted. "3 hours of dread" was the best I could come up with after 1/2 hour of googling.
John Phillips
read Karren Alenier's article
Thank you for this clean and compact capsule of the life of Beverly Sills. She brought love and humanity to a sometimes stilted art form. All you have to do is add her music to this article and you have an important profile of this champion and giant in American opera.
Alvin Roettner
read Karren Alenier's article
As usual, Renate Stendhal's review is articulate and engaging. However, I have to disgree with her. I found this performance flat and slow. And I didn't see the all the cross-gender innuendoes that Miss Stendhal so artfully unveiled.
T.S.
read Renate Stendhal's article
Renate Stendhal's article on "Der Rosenkavalier" was intensely interesting as to the opera's emotional and sexual nuances. Her suggestion of casting a physically attractive singer as Ochs, as a way of shaking up the opera's dynamics, was particularly intriguing, and caused me to think the following: has any opera company ever cast a male countertenor, instead of a female mezzo, in the role of Octavian? I don't even know if this is possible musically (being ignorant of how, or even if, the vocal ranges of mezzos and countertenors overlap), but it's an intriguing concept.
Miles Moore
read Renate Stendhal's article
I think that it is generous to give the examples of the writing in progress rather than an abstract set of illusions. This is very satisfying it its detail.
Grace Cavalieri
read Karren Alenier's article
Intelligent article. I gather that the reviewer preferred Sellars' opera to Woolcock's version although points were made in favor of each.
Grace
Encompass Opera Company is a pioneer discovering new lands and so is Karren Alenier.
Grace Cavalieri
Theater people of all genres, and for that matter all artists including endeavors involving poetry and the other written arts, must not be defeated by a government organization saying we cannot give you any money. Artists need to think outside of that sow's purse and actively seek money else where. If necessary, take off your hat (mine says "Poet" in big bold letters) and pass it around to those listening. If you cannot get past the embarrassment of begging, you are not a true artist. While we are on the subject, come see Four Saints in Three Acts Feb 20 at CUNY Graduate Center on 5th Avenue. It's free to the public. Look it up at EncompassOpera.org. Encompass doesn't yet have all the money needed for the 16 piece orchestra but if you come and toss something in the hat after you hear this wonderful performance of the most innovative American opera ever created, maybe Nancy Rhodes won't have to go to the Poor House.
Karren Alenier
Thank you for your insightful article. Mary Zimmerman is a genius plain and simple.
Tadya Korin
How Marvelous! Had no knowledge of this work, and it is an enthralling discovery.
Grace Cavalieri
I too fell in love with Peter Grimes a long time basically because I've always worshipped Britten's music and this opera is so incandescent. Thanks for a beautiful look at a beautiful production.
Amy Sachs
Yesterday I saw a performance of "Carmina Burana" and this morning I read your article. All wonderful fodder for my tiny brain that is trying to add a little more culture to its life (my next amble being an attendance this week at an outdoor opera simulcast). Brilliant article.
Irene Hendrick
I'm frankly not a Wagner fan except for Tristan, which an early beau played and played for me when I was 15. However, because I have a Polish-Canadian friend in Toronto who is a Wagner nut and edits a Wagner mag, I stolidly began to read-- liked what Karren said very much and read the whole thing! I will also forward him the site.
Elisavietta Ritchie
I appreciate Ms. Stendhal's keen powers of observation in this well-written article. I have seen the performance of Lucia and am amazed at how well Ms. Stendhal describes the beauty of this production. I have not see the Rene Fleming performance, but I am sure now that I do not ever need to!
Larissa Chernin
Thank you for your personal and informative portrait of the magnificent Beijing Opera. I have been there and seen it (and experienced it) a few times. It is grand opera at its grandest and great theatrical art and great entertainment. Your sense and perception added to my memories and enjoyment.
Anee S. Waterson
This is a magnifcent overview. I cannot imagine anyone attending this opera without such an understanding as Karren gives us here.
Grace Cavalieri
Michael, I suggest you look at other dying forms for guidance on how to make a living as a playwright. Opera has been dead for over 50 years, so creaters of "new music theater" have been experimenting with new business models - one's that have nothing to do with the traditional roles of composer/librettist submitting work to artistic director/opera company in the hopes of workshop/production. Granted, theater has a longer tradition of devotion to contemporary work, but so many works are, like new music theater, being developed in collectives, now, and I am amazed that you, this late in the game, would still seek that brass ring of "legitimate theater" validation. So, the point is not so much to self-produce, as to collaborate with others, to form a company in which the hat of "playwright" is not so explicitly defined. If you give up that dream and that ego, you may get more chances to play in the theatre, and see your plays become reality.
Barry Drogin
Thank you so much for this look at new opera. Isn't wonderful how far-ranging opera is going. The Steiny Road to Operadom is now a super-highway. Thanks Karren Alenier for taking us with you on the journey.
Nuntaporn Amadsri
From a comment posted to Karren Alenier's blog at Scene4...
I've been rereading a number of The Dresser's postings and I'm ashamed I haven't written before not only to thank you but to say how marvelous it is what you've been doing over this time. I have no reason to flatter -- you've brought such a fine critical intelligence and in a writing style that keeps one (me) moving from one sentence to another. Ann and I haven't gone to all that much in D.C. this year, so The Dressing has been a vicarious way of doing that. A bit of hyperbole maybe but not all that much. We did get to the Joe Louis opera -- I've seen numbers of Leon Major's productions, all of which have been strikingly distinctive. The voicies espeically of Carmon Balthrop and Adrienne Webster, as you say, were compelling -- Webster had terrific dramatic presence. I loved the staging -- the modern Greek chorus, the movement with chairs, the masks, the lighting, Kirby Malone and his partner's projections. The structure of the storytelling might have been more adventurous -- I felt my attention flag at times, which could easily have been me and not the libretto. I only read the Washington Post review later on, not wanting to be prejudiced, and the criticism had some validity, though in truth I was caught up in the production. I'm not a great fan of so-called biopics and so when I say it might have been more adventurous, something different than the linear storytelling. Then your observations about the Terra Cotta warriors, the differences between seeing them in Xian and at the National Geographic -- first rate. When I first read your post on Split This Rock, your comment about Holly Bass didn't register with me -- I didn't know her work and so it passed over. But on Friday night, a bunch of us were at the Enoch Pratt for a reading for Kim's Full Moon -- Holly read and did her "In This District," which I loved.
Merrill Leffler
Thanks for the very interesting interpretation of Hoffman's tales and the review of an Opera house which has productions that one wants to visit.
Michel Ginster
I am very grateful for Renate Stendhal's review of those operas I did not see this summer at the Santa Fe Opera. I heard about them, especially the unusual production of Madame Butterfly but what I had not gotten much insight about was The Tales of Hoffmann. Thanks, Renate, for such a thorough review!
Karren Alenier
Well, It sounds as if this deserves a Pulitzer...I didn't know there was a Pulitzer category for opera. Apparently the dissonance was not too off-putting for this is a rave review.
Grace Cavalieri
Lovely, lovely, lovely. I am sorry I missed the theater broadcast. But it's almost like being there, reading your review. I wonder if the opening night audience left their politics home. And your comment- "a fishing trip, an opportunity to see what will be pulled out of the water or thin air?" They sure pulled a big and important one out of thin air,didn't they.
Melanie Mansmin
Three cheers for the math-music connection.
I look forward to more news of HOW MANY MIDNIGHTS!
JoAnne Growney
Renate Stendal , your review is extraordinary What a piece, so many complexities, one is left wondering... I love your style and exuberance even when I am left behind Bravo!
Jeanne Stark
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