The original libretto of L’Incoronazione di Poppea, by Francesco Busenello (1642) Next month. Eastman Opera Theatre presents a true masterpiece of baroque opera: Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea). The production features stage direction by Stephen Carr and musical direction of Paul O’Dette. This is the first blog post by Master’s student…
Soprano Laura Sanders won the Friends of Eastman Opera’s annual competition for Eastman School of Music voice and opera students, held February 10 in the School’s Kilbourn Hall. She received the Lynne Clarke Vocal Prize in the amount of $1,500, donated by John Clarke in honor of his late wife, a founding member of the…
By Kameron Ghanavati On Thursday, January 19, students from the Eastman Voice Department were selected to perform songs composed by Jake Heggie for an unforgettable Masterclass. Gene Scheer, an Eastman alumnus and current lyricist, was also present to offer insight for the performers. Many of the performers were asked how the text resonates with them…
By Erik Elmgren This week, the Eastman Opera Theatre will present Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (performance dates and times are listed at the end of this post). The performances will feature two rotating casts of Eastman School of Music undergraduate and graduate students. Benton Hess, Distinguished Professor of Voice, serves as music…
An Interview with Stephen Carr, stage director of Eastman Opera Theatre’s Turn of the Screw By Erik Elmgren Starting next week, The Eastman Opera Theatre will present Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw in Kilbourn Hall. The production will be sung in English with projected English supertitles and a small chamber orchestra. The performances…
A young woman is charged with caring for two children in an isolated, enormous manor house. Is she being challenged by two malevolent spirits for control of her wards? Or is she descending into paranoia? The questions are left unanswered in The Turn of the Screw, Benjamin Britten’s dark opera that will be presented by…
By John Fatuzzo The Eastman Opera Theatre will present Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro next week at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. The production will be sung in Italian with projected English supertitles and a full orchestra. The performances will feature two rotating casts of Eastman School of Music undergraduate and graduate students. Performance dates…
By Andrew Psarris This year the Eastman Opera Theatre will present Mozart’s perennial favorite Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro). (Performance dates and times are listed at the end of this post.) It will be performed by two student casts in alternating performances, with musical direction by Benton Hess and stage direction by…
By John Fatuzzo This weekend, Thursday, January 28 to Sunday, January 31, the Eastman Opera Theater will present a double-bill of Giacomo Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Umberto Giordano’s Mese Mariano. While the Puccini is a well-known work and the Giordano is rarely performed, both of the one-act operas present stories of maternal love and loss;…
Mary Griswold’s set model for Hydrogen Jukebox By John Fatuzzo As Eastman students, when we attend opera performances we are attracted to the characters singing on stage and the accompanying music from the pit. Overlooked sometimes are the aesthetic aspects of the performance, including the set design. The upcoming Eastman Opera Theatre production, Hydrogen Jukebox…