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Artscope Magazine | November/December 2020

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opera

THE BOSTON LYRIC OPERA PRESENTS PAGLIACCI

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Music, Visual Arts

by James Foritano

Once again, the Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) has made a brilliant virtue of its present homeless state by choosing an unorthodox and roomy site in which they can design a stage that is more an invitation than the old-style elevated barrier. This stage was the DCR Memorial Steriti Skating Rink located on Commercial Street, just a short walk from North Station. We took advantage of the Green Line’s public transportation then climbed upstairs to enjoy an illuminated urban experience on Commercial Street as it circles a North End dotted with restaurants. Since we longed for the full immersive experience, we ignored the restaurants and headed for the advertised food trucks. I grabbed a heap of Indian food, then followed the signs to the back of the skating rink where we positioned ourselves on a picnic bench overlooking the Charles River as it flows towards the locks that lead into Boston … [Read more...] about THE BOSTON LYRIC OPERA PRESENTS PAGLIACCI

Nevet Yitzhak, WarCraft (detail), 2014. Photography by Thomas Seely. Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Common Threads: Contemporary Fiber Art at the Gardner

// Issue Articles, November/December 2018

by Bryanna F. Drew

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is known for many things: the beautiful Venetian palazzo-inspired architecture, the unconventional way it displays its pieces of art, the largest and still-unsolved art heist in history, and Isabella Stewart Gardner’s wide taste in art — from Italian renaissance and medieval European to Asian and Islamic art; from paintings and sculptures to rare books and textiles — to name a few. Keeping in tradition with her love of textiles, “Common Threads: Weaving Stories Across Time,” is on view through January 13. The exhibition features work from contemporary artists who are continuing the tradition of conveying stories and histories in their works while pushing the boundaries of textile art and distorting the line around what can be defined as a tapestry. Their works are housed in both the Hostetter Gallery as well as the Tapestry Room. Walking into the … [Read more...] about Common Threads: Contemporary Fiber Art at the Gardner

THEATER PREVIEW: BOSTON OPERA COLLABORATIVE PRESENTS “AS ONE” AT PICKMAN HALL

// Artscope Online, Featured, Music, Theatre

By James Foritano Cambridge, MA — I’m occupying the cat-bird seat in the intimate recital space of Cambridge’s Longy School of Music at Bard College at a pre-performance interview with cast members of a new operetta, “As One,” which will be presented January 25-28 by the Boston Opera Collaborative at Edward M. Pickman Concert Hall. The two male vocalists sitting at our conference table are young, intense, and talented. They are bursting with information about what it’s like to represent with their resonant baritones the existential struggles of a young man, a boy really, transitioning to a mature woman. I’m trying to focus as much as possible on the sense of what they’re saying, but the sensuousness of their trained voices short circuits, repeatedly, my hard- headed note taking. I’m rescued, anchored by an anecdote related to me by vocal coach Jean Anderson Collier, sitting to my … [Read more...] about THEATER PREVIEW: BOSTON OPERA COLLABORATIVE PRESENTS “AS ONE” AT PICKMAN HALL

Caroline Worra (l.) and Amanda Crider (r.) comprise a two-headed Sphinx that torments Eddy (Marcus Farnsworth) who has set out to defeat them and stop their plague on his city in the Boston Lyric Opera production of Mark Anthony Turnage’s Greek. (Photograph by Liza Voll.)

Boston Lyric Opera Annex presents Greek; Opera 101 at Boston Public Library Dec. 8

// Boston Lyric Opera, Theatre

Boston Lyric Opera Annex presents Greek; Opera 101 at Boston Public Library Dec. 8 By James Foritano Boston, MA - “Greek,” which was performed as part of the Boston Lyric Opera’s “Opera Annex” series from Nov. 16-20 at Washington Street’s Emerson Paramount Theater, while bold and daring, bit off more than it, and we, can chew. At least in this reviewer’s opinion. This is not to damn the production, since experimental theater/opera is supposed to take chances, and the Boston Lyric Opera’s “Opera Annex” series is purposed to “shake up the grand-opera model,” according to approving praise from the Wall Street Journal that was quoted in this opera’s program. Perhaps, though, some classics are better off left alone, or at least approached with more modesty — lest the approach itself be “shaken up.” To start at the very beginning would be to start around 2,500 years ago … [Read more...] about Boston Lyric Opera Annex presents Greek; Opera 101 at Boston Public Library Dec. 8

Werther at Boston Lyric Opera

// Theatre

By James Foritano I go to opera because I feel that watching and listening from my seat I experience emotions and insights of a strength allied to but unavailable to me in other forms of art. And this indeed was the case in attending the Boston Lyric Opera’s presentation of Jules Massenet’s “Werther.” It takes ‘two to tango,’ as they say, and the truth of that moment came to me as Werther’s hero and heroine, tenor Alex Richardson as Werther, and mezzo-soprano Sandra Piques Eddy, tangled in the final act, voices and bodies, to bellow out a melodiously irresistible duet. I remember the usually mopping, tearful Werther’s white shirt bursting into a blaze of spot-lit radiance. The usually inhibited Charlotte leaning into Werther like a full-back straining for the goal posts; and Werther, no longer moppy, leaning into her as if to say with bodily force: “You’ve arrived, lady, at … [Read more...] about Werther at Boston Lyric Opera