OPERA NEWS - OUTUBRO 2008

vol 73, no. 4
American Master

The music of John Adams has come to represent the sound of American opera in the twenty-first century. WILLIAM R. BRAUN talks to the composer, whose Doctor Atomic has its Met premiere on October 13.
Dreamcatcher

AUGUST VENTURA examines the high-flying imagination of Robert Lepage, whose production of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust opens next month at the Met.
Opéra Fantastique

Are Berlioz's orchestral works and oratorios more operatic than his operas? As the Met readies a new staging of La Damnation de Faust for a November 7 opening, GREG SANDOW examines the question.
Grove’s Dictionary

Is she a mezzo or a contralto? ELIZABETH CONNELL-NIELSEN discovers that Jill Grove doesn’t much care about definitions.
Perles before Swine

Critics in Bizet's day didn’t appreciate The Pearl Fishers, but American audiences have learned to love the opera. JAMES C. WHITSON investigates the unexpected U.S. popularity of Bizet's exercise in exotica.
The Surprising Career of Penny Woolcock

KATRINE AMES interviews the director of the Met's new Doctor Atomic.
Fine Blend DAVID J. BAKER listens to Donald Palumbo's revitalized Met chorus.
Prize Song The NEA will honor four American opera luminaries. MARCIA YOUNG reports.
Recordings
In Review
Viewpoint: The Doctor Is In by F. PAUL DRISCOLL
OperaWatch by F. PAUL DRISCOLL
On the Beat

Makarina featured in Opera Orchestra of New York's Tsar's Bride; companies by numbers at Opera America; big sales for Ross's The Rest Is Noise.by BRIAN KELLOW
Sound Bites: Meredith Arwady by MARK THOMAS KETTERSON
Letter from Hamburg by JANET A. CHOI
Books Leonard Bernstein’s legacy; a biography of Debussy; Prokofiev’s diaries, volume II
Obituaries Conductor Nicola Rescigno dies at ninety-two; singers Eula Beal and John van Kesteren; composer Norman Dello Joio; impresario Alan Stone
Dateline: United States by TRISTAN KRAFT
Dateline: Canada & International by TRISTAN KRAFT
Coda: The Performance I Can’t Forget by STEPHANIE