Powerful ‘Defiant Requiem’ Revisits Verdi in Terezin
Cover image: Soloists Arianna Zukerman and Ann McMahon Quintero perform the Agnus Dei from Verdi’s Requiem as footage from the
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Seattle Opera’s Full-Throated ‘Nabucco’ Powers Past its Awkward Staging
Verdi’s Nabucco opened last Saturday night at McCaw Hall, with the run continuing through August 22; it will be broadcast live next
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What We’re Hearing This Month: Classical Music Picks For November
After the many musical treats (no tricks!) of October, the classical music season is in full swing here in Seattle. November’s calendar abounds with visits from touring ensembles and soloists, as well as exciting performances by local groups. Head to a concert hall and take advantage of this month’s diverse musical offerings, especially before the holiday music deluge blankets the concert calendar for December.
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Seattle Youth Symphony Musicians Try Their Little Hands at Verdi’s Requim
Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, music director of the Seattle Youth Symphony, has an
educator’s vision as well as a musician’s one for his young instrumentalists. It’s to give them the experience of working musically in other ways than only as a symphony. To that end, he has pursued partnerships with other organizations, so that his kids can work in a pit with dancers or for a musical and, on Sunday afternoon, with a big chorus.
Unjustly Neglected, Attila Gets Big, Bold-Voiced Hearing at Seattle Opera
This relatively early work of Verdi’s, from between Nabucco and Macbeth, has been unjustly neglected. Its rich, colorful music is tautly composed for four solo voices which must be both big and agile, plus two others in smaller roles. Seattle Opera found well-matched singers who easily filled the requirements, and a talented conductor in Carlo Montanaro, who paced and balanced the orchestra with the singers to create a satisfying whole.
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Verdi and Venezuela Meet in the Voice of Ana Lucrecia García
When the opera opened at La Scala last summer, she was strolling the streets of Milan with her fiancé in the afternoon, not being on for that night’s performance, when she was called at 4 p.m. to tell her that the first cast Odabella could not sing and she was needed immediately. The Italian press said after: “She staked everything on ‘Santo di patria’ the role’s intimidting calling card, and emerged with all honors.”
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