Don Giovanni was given its premiere in 1787 in the Estates Theatre in Prague, a jewel-like house that in its present post- fire-code configuration seats fewer than 660. Naturally, Mozart’s grandly scaled score and da
Arthur Kaptainis
Opera’s reputation for blood and thunder is not undeserved. Through much of the 20th century, only a handful of Italian comic works of the 19th century had a place in the repertoire. The Chautauqua Opera
By most reckonings the most lavishly scored purely instrumental work in the standard repertoire, Richard Strauss’ “An Alpine Symphony” — a recounting in music of a daylong Alpine expedition the composer undertook as a
No, not my first Mikado. But the Chautauqua Opera Company version that opened Friday night in Norton Hall was my first in 14 years. Quite a hiatus for a piece as formerly famous as