Biographies
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Benvenuto Franci
Benvenuto Franci born on July 1st 1891 in Pienza (Siena), was another pupil of the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome (Antonio Cotogni and Enrico Rosati were his teachers). In 1918 his debut in opera took place at Rome`s Teatro Costanzi in the role of Gianetto in …
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Else Gentner-Fischer
Else Gentner-Fischer was born on September 5th 1883 in Frankfurt am Main where she also began and finished her vocal studies. At the local Opera House she made her operatic debut in 1905 and in the same year married the tenor, Karl Gentner (1876-1922) who, like …
Articles, Interviews & Memories
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Sitting down with San Diego Opera’s David Bennett
In early 2014, San Diego Opera surprised everyone with an announcement that the company was closing at the end of that season. In the past, the opera had featured stars like Joan Sutherland
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Reflections on the greatness of Enrico Caruso
Enrico Caruso was a unique great tenor, without any doubt. I included him in my personal choice of the XX century “avant guard” group of great tenors. The group comprises the Italians Caruso,
Focus Feature
Five Operas Worth Re-Discovering
Quality certainly isn’t the only criterion that decides whether a work of art survives or not: luck and a few other rather aleatory factors seem to play a major role. In today’s standard repertoires we can find works that should not have survived the decade …
Blog
The mysterious magic of operatic disguises
I recently brought a group of friends to a production of Pietro-Andrea Ziani’s La Circe. (Side note: in the vanishingly unlikely event that this opera is performed …
Book review: The Opera Fanatic
It’s always strange to find yourself described in a book you’re reading. For me (and, I suspect, many devoted opera fans), Claudio E. Benzecry’s The Opera …
Selected Content
Manrico: heroic or lyric?
Without doubt one of the great moments in any good opera performance is when a singer unleashes a thrilling, full-blooded high note that rips across …
Victor Hugo’s Plays & Opera
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) is most famous as the author of novels like Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Both of which led to popular pieces …
Tenor of the century – almost
In his memoirs, 5000 Nights at the Opera, Rudolph Bing wrote that the most beautiful sound he heard during his observation season at the Metropolitan …
