© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc. This feed is subject to our terms of use: http://www.epinions.com/help/rss_terms http://www.epinions.com/user-metalluk Recent reviews written by member metalluk en-us 121 37 http://www.epinions.com/ http://img.epinions.com/images/epi_images/logos/epinions_121.gif http://www.epinions.com/content_478506356356?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Britten's penultimate opera, Owen Wingrave (1970), was commissioned by BBC television in 1966. It was the first and only opera written by Britten expressly for the then still youthful television medium. American television had gotten an earlier... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~478506356356 Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:35:29 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_478506356356?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_477545533060?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Gian-Carlo Menotti (1911-2007) was born in a small village in Italy on Lake Lugano, about an hour's drive from Milan. He was a musical prodigy, writing his first music when he was six years of age and his first opera when he was eleven. He studied at the... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~477545533060 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:14:10 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_477545533060?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_476895743620?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Tan Dun might be said to represent the inevitable trend towards globalization as it pertains to music. Nowhere is that more evident than in his first full-length opera, Marco Polo (1996). Dun was born in 1957 in the village of Simaonae, Changsha,... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~476895743620 Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:07:39 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_476895743620?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_476629077636?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Verdi was nearly 80 years old when Arigo Boïto sought to lure him out of retirement with a brilliant comic libretto based on two Shakespearean plays, The Merry Wives of Windsor and King Henry IV. Verdi was already wealthy enough... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~476629077636 Tue, 7 Jul 2009 19:34:54 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_476629077636?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_476598603396?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Place in the Repertoire: Die Fliegende Holländer ("The Flying Dutchman") was Wagner's fourth opera but the first from his mature period. It is the opera that made his reputation and ended his Paris doldrums. Wagner drew on some of his... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~476598603396 Tue, 7 Jul 2009 14:42:00 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_476598603396?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_476505280132?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Although Charles François Gounod wrote a dozen operas as well as a number of large sacred choral works, his name is remembered today only for his one best opera, Faust (1859). His choral works were once modestly popular in England, where... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~476505280132 Mon, 6 Jul 2009 20:31:48 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_476505280132?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_476247658116?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - The rap against this opera, from its inception, had to do with its length. It can extend up to four hours, if the ballet and all the cuts made even before its first performance are included. Verdi struggled over the course of twenty years to produce a... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~476247658116 Sat, 4 Jul 2009 16:08:03 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_476247658116?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_476246871684?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Singspiel was the name given to German comic opera of the 18th- and 19th- centuries, in which the dialog was spoken. Die Entführung aus dem Serail ("Abduction from the Seraglio") and The Magic Flute... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~476246871684 Sat, 4 Jul 2009 15:41:07 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_476246871684?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_476056620676?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Tamerlano, the 17th of Handel's 46 operas, dates from the same year, 1724, as Giulio Cesare. Both of these masterpieces came near the middle of Handel's decade of... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~476056620676 Thu, 2 Jul 2009 23:14:54 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_476056620676?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_475955170948?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Antonio Vivaldi (1675-1741), nicknamed "Il prete rosso" ("The red priest"), is known far less for his operas than for his violin concerti (including the ever popular "Four Seasons"), violin sonatas, and other chamber works for various combinations of... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~475955170948 Thu, 2 Jul 2009 04:09:06 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_475955170948?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_475912965764?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) was quite fortunate in attracting the attention and unwavering support of the powerful publisher, Giulio Riccordi, with his otherwise unremarkable first opera, Le Villi (1884). Riccordi went out of his way to attach the... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~475912965764 Wed, 1 Jul 2009 18:41:07 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_475912965764?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_475818921604?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was a strange man in several respects. One of the most bizarre episodes in his personal life was his ill-fated marriage on July 6th, 1877 to Antonina Ivanovna Milyukoff. That marriage was very much connected to... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~475818921604 Wed, 1 Jul 2009 00:26:32 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_475818921604?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_475189055108?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Simon Boccanegra (1857) was the second of the six late Verdi operas written between 1855 and 1871, after the middle-period operas and before the afterthought operas, Othello (1887) and Falstaff (1893). Verdi's rate of output... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~475189055108 Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:40:25 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_475189055108?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_475104448132?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) was educated at the Conservatory in Naples and managed to crank out eleven operas in his relatively short life. I've heard four of those operas. The eighth one, Norma, is by far his most famous,... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~475104448132 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:23:38 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_475104448132?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_475077643908?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Since there are far too few recordings available for Baroque operas, it is doubly unfortunate when an opportunity to produce a fine recording of a prime opera is dissipated by exceptionally poor taste and judgment in the staging decisions. That, sadly,... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~475077643908 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:40:09 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_475077643908?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_475018923652?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - The setting for this opera, Italy in the middle-ages, concerns a piece of history that few people outside of Italy and Austria would have much reason to know. In the early part of the 11th-century, bishops and abbeys of the Catholic Church, in countries... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~475018923652 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:58:13 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_475018923652?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_474791317124?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Saint François d'Assise, by Olivier Messiaen, is an opera in three acts (and eight scenes) depicting the legends surrounding Saint Francis of Assisi, from whom evolved the Franciscan Order of Monks. Messiaen, a devout Catholic, presents the... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~474791317124 Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:39:24 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_474791317124?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_474623086212?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - The 1988 Zeffirelli-led production of Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera ranks among the finest operatic productions in history. The sets, costumes, and staging were spectacular and the trio of lead vocalists all seemed to have been born for their... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~474623086212 Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:41:10 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_474623086212?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_474523733636?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Manon, an opéra comique in five acts, is the preeminent work of the French composer Jules Massenet. It's a justly popular opera, not only in France but throughout the Western world, thanks to some inspired music and a strong script with... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~474523733636 Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:20:23 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_474523733636?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_474445745796?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989) was one of the most famous and successful conductors of the 20th-century, though not without his critics as well. He was born into an upper-bourgeois family in Salzburg. His father's great-grandfather, Geòrgios... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~474445745796 Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:25:52 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_474445745796?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_474283150980?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - In 1737, Handel and the Covent Garden Theatre that he directed were locked in a great battle for survival with the other major London opera-house owned by Niccolò Porpora – a battle which both would ultimately lose. Porpora was featuring the... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~474283150980 Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:54:41 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_474283150980?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_474201296516?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki was once all the rage as a hot young avant-garde composer. Born in Debica in 1933, Penderecki studied music first at the Kraców High School for music, with Malawski and, later, Wiechowicz. He benefited... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~474201296516 Wed, 17 Jun 2009 01:41:06 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_474201296516?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_474155486852?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) was still George Frederick Händel when he spent his early twenties, from 1706-1710, in Italy, refining his craft and acquainting himself with the leading Italian composers of the day, including Corelli and the... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~474155486852 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:20:40 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_474155486852?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_474086870660?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - After watching this opera, you'll have a pretty good idea why Jean Baptiste Lully was one of King Louis XIV's favorites at the court at Versailles. Lully used his prodigious talent to scratch his way from a very humble beginning to the top of his... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~474086870660 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:39:22 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_474086870660?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_474054168196?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author metalluk - Love from afar. What a remarkable idea! Often times in modern life, ordinary people fall in love with an actor or actress, a sports hero, or a rock star. They may never have met the person in the flesh but feel that they know the person through... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~474054168196 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:43:30 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_474054168196?linkin_id=8003929