Opera Impressions

The Barber of Seville

I love this opera! It is really engaging, fun and has some great arias. I particularly like the arias for the bass roles of Dr. Bartolo and Don Basilio. The role of Dr. Bartolo was sung in this performance by Maurizio Muraro and the bass role of Don Basilio by the ever-dependable and enjoyable Samuel Ramey. Both singers did a fine job in my opinion. I was happy to see Diana Damrau perform as Rossina. She was out sick the week before for La Fille du Regiment and apparently still had a cold for this performance. I noticed no ill effects. Ms. Damrau rendered a shimmering performance of the arias in the role including Rosina's famous aira Una voce poco fa.

Here is Don Basilio's aria La calunnia e un venticello sung by Nicolai Ghiaurov and Dr. Bartolo's aria A un dottor della mia sorte sung by Claudio Desderi.

Les Contes d'Hoffman

I had really been looking forward to The Tales of Hoffman at the Met and was delighted with the entire performance. The performance of this opera at the Met had a wonderful blend of great singing, rousing music and interesting drama. The production by Bartlett Sher advanced the essence of the opera in so many ways. In describing the performance, I am sure that I will run out of superlatives.