The audience in the Opera House at the Kennedy Center last night was buzzing for the North American Premiere of Juliet and Romeo by the choreographer Mats Ek, performed by the Swedish National Ballet. The large European ballet companies are better-funded and simply better than many U.S. companies and while Ek is lesser-known (even among […]
Archives for June 3, 2016
Spoleto’s Alyson Cambridge on playing Bess
Soprano Alyson Cambridge, who began her career here in Washington, DC and has gone on to perform on some of the major opera stages of the world including Washington National Opera. She is making her debut performance as Bess in Porgy and Bess at the Spoleto Festival USA and talks here about the role and the issues of […]
Ireland 100: Alarm Will Sound’s The Hunger (review)
Alarm Will Sound presented a concert version of the opera The Hunger by Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy at the Kennedy Center Wednesday night. It is a most curious mash of video interviews with esteemed contemporary economists and historians, biographical records from the mid-1800’s, singing in English and Gaelic, a 16-person orchestra on stage, and a pulsating […]