Recollections of Hipólito Lázaro
Lázaro looked somewhat like the stereotypical Latin leading man, as popularized in the twenties and thirties. My father says that he befriended Lázaro from the thirties to around 1950, in which year he retired.
Cavalleria Rusticana: an alternative analysis
Whether you see it for the first time or the twenty first time, my warped account may make it … well … different for you.
Jonas Kaufmann’s First Andrea Chénier in London
On January 20 The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden mounted its first new production in 30 years of Giordano’s opera Andrea Chénier. The reason for the opera’s reappearance was…
Anything but Wagner
No great composer induces passion the way Richard Wagner does. Knowledgeable opera goers seem to be divided into warring camps, vigorously campaigning for and against the art of the egomaniac of Bayreuth. In 50 years of opera going I have endured harangues beyond number intended to convince reluctant audiences that Wagner’s music is great and that they should surrender to its greatness.
Doing Nothing
The music in Grollman’s life was music. He came to it gradually towards the end of high school via the one dollar recordings of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky issued under orchestral aliases; a final effort to milk a last profit from out of date pressings. The sound was ghastly, the performances problematical, but the music was there nonetheless. He didn’t listen to opera, more by accident than design.
