Table Of Contents: November 2009

2009 OPERA NEWS AWARDS

Vol. 74, No. 5

The Met Premiere of From the House of the Dead
Direct Line: Donizetti's Influence on Verdi
The Readiness is All: New York City Opera's George Steel
Argento's Casanova Comes Home to Minnesota
Bryan Hymel
Unclosed Captions: Designing Opera Titles
Remembering The Incomparable Hildegard Behrens

Features

On the Record: The 2009 OPERA NEWS Award Winners

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The editors of OPERA NEWS listen to the discographies of this year's Award winners and present audio surveys highlighting the choicest cuts.

The OPERA NEWS Awards

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OPERA NEWS salutes the distinguished achievements of five of opera's best. And the 2009 honorees are ...

  MARTINA ARROYO by BRIAN KELLOW
  JOYCE DiDONATO by OUSSAMA ZAHR
  GERALD FINLEY by LOUISE T. GUINTHER
  PHILIP GLASS by ADAM WASSERMAN
  SHIRLEY VERRETT by F. PAUL DRISCOLL

Chained

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GREG SANDOW explores the world of Janáček's From the House of the Dead, the composer's unrelenting portrayal of life in a prison camp, which this month has its Metropolitan Opera premiere.

The Lady Killer

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Dominick Argento's brilliant 1985 opera buffa about Casanova gets a major revival this month at Minnesota Opera. RUSSELL PLATT reports.

Reverberations

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When you listen to Verdi, do you hear Donizetti? WILLIAM R. BRAUN examines the influence of one master upon another.

Last Man Standing

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George Steel's mission as the newly appointed chief of the beleaguered New York City Opera amounts to nothing less than keeping the company alive. Do his plans for the future make sense in light of the pared-down realities the "People's Opera" now faces? ADAM WASSERMAN reports.

Entitlement Issues

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MATTHEW GUREWITSCH looks at the various ways in which opera titles have been integrated into production designs.

The Incomparable Hildegard

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BRIAN KELLOW pays tribute to soprano Hildegard Behrens, who died in August at the age of seventy-two.

Departments

Recordings

In Review

Viewpoint: A Time to Celebrate

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by F. PAUL DRISCOLL

OperaWatch

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by F. PAUL DRISCOLL

On the Beat

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Well be right back: remembering the vintage years of TV talk shows; Stephen Costello and the 2009 Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala.
by BRIAN KELLOW

Sound Bites: Bryan Hymel

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by BRIAN KELLOW

Books

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The political life of Leonard Bernstein; a novel about artistic obsession by George Rabasa.

Dateline

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by TRISTAN KRAFT

Coda: The Performance I Can't Forget

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by NAOMI FEIN