Hints and tips:
...Francesco Meli’s blazing tenor, while relentlessly full-throttle, made for a passionate Carlo....
...Both of them make much more of their words than did Elena Stikhina and Francesco Meli in September, with acting more physically vivid. Blue’s voice has bloom and sailing power throughout its range....
...Among grand operas, there is none grander than Verdi’s Aida, first performed in Cairo in 1871....
...reimagining of Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera (1994), Carlos Simon’s Between Worlds, based on the story of the African American outsider artist Bill Traylor, and a continent-spanning “early music” concert curated by Francesco...
...The season opens with Verdi’s Macbeth, conducted by Francesco Cilluffo, followed by a strongly cast production of Handel’s Tamerlano, directed by Daniel Slater, and a dash of Gilbert and Sullivan in The...
...As with the last opening night opera (Tosca in 2019), it features singers Anna Netrebko, Francesco Meli and Luca Salsi....
...Inside the entrance sits the bust of Francesco Foscari, doge for 34 years until his death in 1457. He inspired Lord Byron’s tragedy The Two Foscari and, in turn, Verdi’s opera I due Foscari....
...Verdi has been under the spotlight in Milan of late, but how long will this continue?...
...Conducted by the exceptional Francesco Cilluffo, Christopher Luscombe’s production for The Grange Festival succeeds beyond any possible expectations....
...By contrast, Francesco Meli is at his high-octane best as her suitor Gabriele Adorno....
...Fabio Luisi makes sure that Verdi’s seascapes are audible throughout, conducting with understated lyrical clarity....
...the beginning of the 17th century — Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo is frequently cited as the first, although in fact Peri’s Dafne predates it by some years — it has gone through many incarnations, from Lully to Verdi...
...Tenor Francesco Demuro is a seductive Fenton, who wins the hand of Nanetta, performed with youthful, sweet timbre by the bikini-clad Nadine Sierra....
...I last saw him conducting Verdi’s Un Ballo in maschera at Grange Park Opera in the UK in June....
...Verdi wrote Falstaff for La Scala in 1893....
...But, barring an occasional wobble, soprano Erika Grimaldi, mezzo soprano Daniela Barcellona and tenor Francesco Meli made worthy stage-fellows, generating a sense of easy give and take in their ensemble...
...There is not much sense of romance going on between Lianna Haroutounian’s not quite beautiful-sounding Leonora and Francesco Meli’s bright-voiced, intense Manrico....
...Verdi’s I due Foscari is characteristically shadowy — an adaptation of Byron’s 1821 play in which Doge Francesco Foscari convicts his son Jacopo of treason — and its persistent mood of gloom and doom makes...
...This approach produces visual overload, though Francesco Meli’s clarion King Charles, a golden figment of Giovanna’s imagination, is not easily eclipsed....
...Ernani, completed when Verdi was 31, is a formula opus abounding in glorious melody, ornate set-pieces and creaky drama....
...One wonders what he will add or subtract for Verdi’s Otello on opening night next season. One also worries . . . metopera.org...
...I due Foscari, October 14-November 2, Royal Opera House, London Plácido Domingo – once a tenor, now a baritone – returns to Covent Garden to sing one of his new Verdi roles....
...It was considerate of Verdi to leave his opera I due Foscari to posterity....
...The scholar Francesco Izzo, in Sarasota for a Verdi panel, recently hypothesised that governmental pressure, possibly related to French colonial ambitions, worked against a relationship between a French...
...In the title role, Francesco Meli confirms his reputation as one of the most promising younger-generation Italian tenors – secure at the top, stylishly phrased, albeit with a timbre more metallic than melting...
International Edition