We need to talk about projections
I’m currently at Santa Fe Opera for the first time. I love it: both the city and the festival are beautiful. I saw Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel (a rarity, at least in this part of the world) on Wednesday evening. It was colorful and entertaining and beautifully …
Brett Dean’s Hamlet (online opera review)
It’s summer festival season, that glorious time of year when Europe (and even parts of the US) are bursting with so much opera that it’s impossible to choose where to go. Fortunately for those of us who don’t have the time or money to fly …
How YouTube Helped Me Learn About Opera
I’ve loved opera since high school. It started with classical music in general when I first heard Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. Mrs. Rosenblum, our French teacher, made us listen to all five movements as a reflection assignment when we read André Gide’s La Symphonie Pastorale. That …
More strange uses of opera in commercials
In writing my last blog post, I asked around for examples of inappropriate uses of opera in film, TV, and commercial scores. So many people sent me cringe-worthy examples after I had already posted that I just had to do a follow-up. Commercials seem to be the most …
Strange uses of opera in movies and TV
You’re enjoying your favorite television show when a dreaded commercial break hits. The ad shows pasta twirling alluringly around a fork in an elegant, candle-lit Italian restaurant. There are roses on the table. It’s the height of romance. Opera is playing softly in the background… what is …
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