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
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