For a song that was entitled “Let It Go”, kids just can’t let it go. Sorry if I have to bring this up here but chances are kids (and kids at heart) would still be Googling “Let It Go” for the sheer heck of it. Could it be the worst case of last song syndrome…
Would Emma Stone at least hold a candle to the kind of raw sensuality that Liza Minelli brought to the screen character of Sally Bowles? That kind of speculation regarding high-profile Broadway roles usually arises every time a popular Hollywood star takes on an iconic role. So let’s analyze the screen version of one of…
Could purist opera fans really be mean? Or they just don’t mind being direct and honest in providing feedback regarding productions that they see. The word “Eurotrash” still comes up occasionally despite the initial derogatory nature. You must have remembered the word Eurotrash when I wrote a review about stage director Willy Decker’s vision of Verdi’s…
Is the Dance of the Seven Veils performed nude in Richard Strauss’s Salome? Usually not, but in a few landmark productions it is, most famously in Peter Hall’s staging with Maria Ewing, filmed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1992, where Salome ends the dance completely unclothed. That choice made the production a…
Almost everyone blogs now whether to promote their products, services or recommendations. It has also come to light that while there is no one-size-fits all blogging format to follow, some formats available online can be used to plug niche-reliant products like your latest play or musical. Selling tickets for your initial production is a surmountable…
Some Christmas letters from your relatives just make you think twice if they really meant to send you a very Merry Christmas. Perhaps the festive season produced the kind of happiness for one person and annoyance/irritation for the rest of us. Even worse, it’s our own relatives that has this tendency to do this to…
You may have read about certain productions that apart from sharing a story, they also have an audience in mind as they write the story. But of course, the moment you have written, edited and finally submitted your proposed story, once pre-production has begun, the audience would be put into consideration too. Here’s the issue…
I have kept this link for quite some time now since some marquee names are not afraid to speak up whenever they see something wrong. In this commentary that we have at the moment, I would comment on some statements that retired soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa mentioned about Britain killing talent. Dame Kiri has…
It’s been more than a week since I last made an article for the column “Nuts and Bolts”. If you haven’t read that, you can check it out here. It’s basically the part here I made bite-sized comments on opera-related news items. This time around, I would be analyzing the trends that occurred courtesy of…
Fascinated with the popularity of Natalie Dessay, I then decided to check out if she has done the role of Violetta in La Traviata. And I eventually discovered that she did at the Metropolitan Opera. I mentioned that in a previous article. Then again, the challenge usually lay in making an interesting version of one…
