October 2009

New York Arts in Boston

Rossini’s Tancredi at Opera Boston

Among the many things I admire about Opera Boston is the consistency of their priorities. A great deal of care and expense goes into casting vocally and dramatically excellent singers appropriate for their roles. Music Director Gil Rose maintains a strong orchestra, and he is an impressive musician and conductor in his own right. Budgetary restrictions are more apparent in sets and costumes—this in turn touches the stage direction as a whole. In last year's season, for example, the first act of Der Freischütz was perfectly viable, while the Wolf's Glen scene was pretty much a shambles, a seemingly a desperate attempt to make the most of inadequate resources with precious gimmicks. Opera Boston's production last spring of Shostakovich's The Nose was more successful: brilliant stage and costume design and brilliant direction were noticeably, but acceptably compromised by budget limitations. As impressive as the intelligent programming and musical results are, a hint of well-intentioned "making do" remains in the physical production, and that was painfully apparent in Opera Boston's recent production of Rossini's youthful opera seria, Tancredi.
New York Arts in Italy

Tarquinia’s Medieval and Renaissance Ceramics Museum (Museo della Ceramica D’Uso a Corneto)

Tarquinia's situation, on a high hill back from the Tyrrhenian sea, is splendid. It is a luminous place, the stone walls and buildings are limestone, locally called "macco," a creamy colored stone. Light bounces off the sea and the surrounding grain fields make it all the more light. If you walk to the top of the town, away from the water sea, looking over those walls, you are struck by the immense sea of grain.
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