May Opera News Magazine - Summer Festivals
The May issue of Opera News has extensive information on the many Summer music festivals all over Europe, many of which feature performances of opera . These include such prestigious festivals as Salzburg, Austria, the annual Wagner festival in Bayreith , the Glyndebourne opera festival in England at a picturesque estate in the country , the Maggio Musicale in Florence, and others in such cities as Munich,Dresden, Prague, Vienna , Edinburgh and elsewhere .
Operas, familiar and infamiliar, will be presented ranging from the 17th century to the present day with many of the greatest singers ,conductors and directors of our time and the great orchestras of Berlin,Vienna,Munich, Amsterdam, Prague, Dresden etc .
American soprano Laura Aikin , who has achieved international renown for her compelling portrayals of a wide variety of roles including extremely demanding ones by such 20th century composers as Olivier Messiaen, Bernd Alois Zimmermann and others is on the cover and is interviewed by classical music critic and blogger Jessica Duchen . Frequent Opera News contributor Matthew Gurewitsch interviews arts administrator Alexander Perreira , artistic director of the world-famous Salzburg festival and discusses his plans for the future .
Contributor William R. Braun interviews the noted American conductor David Robertson, music director of the Saint Louis symphony and newly appointed music director of the Sydney symphony in Australia about his many activities in both symphonic music and opera , and Opera News Milan correspondant discusses the interestingly varied operatic repertoire of the Maggio Musicale festival in Florence as well as its plans for the future .
Various Opera News correspondants discuss the opera houses of Brussels, Bordeau , and Parma and their rich histories and traditions . Other correspondants review recent performances from the Met, New York City opera , Chicago , Denver, London , Paris ,Zurich and Munich .
CD reviews include a new recording of the legendary opera Treemonisha by Scott Joplin of Ragtime fame , Massenet's opera Don Quichotte from St.etersburg conducted by Valery Gergiev, Debussy's Pelleas &Melisande by the English national opera sung in English , Renee Fleming singing vocal works by Messiaen , Ravel and Henri Dutilleaux , and live recordings from the Met form the 1960s of operas by Donizetti and Verdi .
DVD reviews of live performances include Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress from the Glyndebourne festival , the rarely performed Richard Strauss opera Die Liebe der Danae(The love of Danae) from Berlin , Verdi's La Forza Del Destino from the Vienna State opera , and Salome by Richard Strauss, also from Berlin. As well as a DVD documentary about the late, great Luciano Pavarotti .
There are book reviews of a new biography of the late great conductor Carlos Kleiber (1930 - 2004 ) , and a new book which juxtaposes the lives,careers and influence of Verdi and Wagner by Peter Conrad . An uninteresting issue of Opera News would be unimaginable !