Table Of Contents: December 2011

DREAM GIRL: JOYCE DIDONATO, PRIMA DONNA OF THE ENCHANTED ISLAND

Vol. 76, No. 6

• David Daniels: Life in the Stratosphere
• The Met's World Premiere of The Enchanted Island
• Treasure Hunt: Creating a New Baroque Pasticcio
• Going for the Win: Choosing the Correct Competition Aria
• Sound Bites: Amber Wagner
• Reunion: Huguette Tourangeau
• Avoiding Musical Lexicon Pitfalls

Features

The Sweet Voice of Reason

Joyce DiDonato — probably the most in-demand lyric-coloratura mezzo in the world — has become a star by playing up, not down, to her audiences. She tells BRIAN KELLOW how proud she is of opera — and how proud she is to be an opera singer.

Word Imperfect

Today, people are speaking less strictly than ever before. JAMES M. KELLER looks at some commonly fouled-up musical terms.

You Came Here to Win, Didn't You?

WILLIAM R. BRAUN reveals some winning strategies for choosing a successful competition aria. Hint: go easy on the waltz songs, ladies.

Ad Libitum

Subscribers Only

What's it like to be opera's leading countertenor? ADAM WASSERMAN talks to David Daniels, who creates the role of Prospero this month in the Met's world premiere of The Enchanted Island.

Art to Enchant

Subscribers Only

At the instigation of general manager Peter Gelb, the Met has created a brand-new opera with a score that's hundreds of years old. ELLEN ROSAND lifts the curtain on The Enchanted Island, the company's twenty-first-century Baroque pasticcio, which will have its first performance on New Year's Eve.

Reunion: Huguette Tourangeau

Huguette Tourangeau's repertory ranged from Mozart and Handel to Rossini, Massenet and Offenbach. SYLVIA L’ÉCUYER visits with the French–Canadian mezzo-soprano, one of the busiest artists on the international scene in the 1970s.

Departments

Recordings

CRITIC'S CHOICE: A decade of Anna Netrebko performances at the Met. New recordings of Guillaume Tell, Linda di Chamounix and Mercadante's I Normanni a Parigi; recitals from Gheorghiu, Pape, Mattei, Phan and Etherea Vocal Ensemble; Schippers conducts The Saint of Bleecker Street; Corelli and Rysanek in Don Carlo; Ghostlight Records releases Knickerbocker Holiday. VIDEO: World-premiere production of Turnage's Anna Nicole; Nederlandse Opera's Der Fliegende Holländer; the Met's "Family Flute"; Jenůfa in Madrid; Rattle introduces Ravel to Gershwin; EMI releases a Callas documentary.

In Review

Books

A scholarly examination of obsessed opera fans; Prokofiev's Soviet years; writing about opera in the nineteenth-century novel.

OperaWatch

by OUSSAMA ZAHR

Sound Bites: Amber Wagner

Subscribers Only

by F. PAUL DRISCOLL

On the Beat

Subscribers Only

Follies works its magic much of the time, despite a director who's asleep at the switch.

Viewpoint: The Music Man

by F. PAUL DRISCOLL

The Metropolitan Opera Opening Night
The Metropolitan Opera's gala dinner following the season-opening production of Anna Bolena
© Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera 2011

Monday, September 26, 2011