| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 31-May-2013 Grange Park Opera, Northington | Bel canto pleasures: I Puritani at Grange Park |
With programming in the major opera houses dominated by Verdi and Wagner, bel canto fans have had a slightly thin time of it this year (Covent Garden’s La donna del lago is an exception). But others are filling some of the gaps, with Rossini’s Maometto II coming up at Garsington and Stephen Langridge’s production of Bellini’s I Puritani, which opened at Grange Park last night. The opera is set during the English Civil War in Plymouth, Scotland (Bellini and his librettist Carlo Pepoli had a loose grasp on the geography of Britain).
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| 9-Mar-2013 Kennedy Center: Opera House | Unrealized potential: Angela Meade debuts in Norma at the Washington National Opera |
The title role of Bellini’s Norma is one of the most challenging roles in the female repertory. It has been called the most profound portrayal of womanhood in all of opera. It demands a dramatic coloratura soprano with immense vocal power, rare agility, a wide dynamic range, a broad palette of vocal coloration, and instinctive theatricality. Every vocal embellishment, every feat of vocal pyrotechnics must be made to convey dramatic meaning. Bel canto finesse must unite with romantic passion.
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| 5-Dec-2012 Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage | Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda never takes off at Carnegie Hall |
The prefab riffs of computer programs like GarageBand aren’t entirely new. As shown by the musicologist Robert Gjerdingen, many 18th- and early 19th-century composers used pedagogical materials as a basis for their compositions, “composing out” passages in creative ways. But this method is not something the ordinary listener is supposed to recognize.Read full review... | |
| 10-Nov-2012 Kennedy Center: Terrace Theater | Angela Meade and Bradley Moore perform at the Kennedy Center |
On Saturday night the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater was packed with opera fans who had come to enjoy a solo recital from aspiring American soprano Angela Meade. No wonder this one-time-only performance was a complete sell-out – there was no way that DC opera fans would pass up the opportunity to sneak-preview her performance, as she is up for the title role in Bellini’s Norma later this season.
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