Tag: Opera

  • Nation & World

    Civil War opera starring Walt Whitman? Really?

    In excerpt from his new book, Matthew Aucoin details why he chose Whitman as main character in his debut opera “Crossing” at American Repertory Theater.

    13 minutes
    Matthew Aucoin.
  • Nation & World

    A musical duo of mythic power

    Eight years in the making, the opera “Iphigenia” makes its worldwide debut in Boston.

    7 minutes
    Esperanza Spalding and Wayne Shorter.
  • Nation & World

    A whirlwind of opera

    Two Harvard grads brought to campus the opera company they helped to found for a residency that included more than a dozen events.

    5 minutes
    American Modern Opera Company performs.
  • Nation & World

    In 1932, this opera was a hit. Why has no one seen it since?

    A workshop at Radcliffe showcased “Tom-Tom,” an opera by African-American composer Shirley Graham that hasn’t been performed since its 1932 premiere.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Behind the art

    Organized by an all-volunteer group of students, community members, and trained artists, the opera offers undergrads the opportunity to learn on the job while rubbing shoulders with seasoned professionals.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Unveiling Lowell House renewal

    Central to Lowell House renewal is Otto Hall, named in recognition of a gift from Alexander Otto ’90, M.B.A. ’94.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Singer sensation

    Legendary tenor and opera director Plácido Domingo was masterful in a charming conversation called “Giving Voice” at Sanders Theatre.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Plácido Domingo shares his secrets

    Legendary tenor and opera director Plácido Domingo will be celebrated in a conversation called “Giving Voice” on April 14 at Sanders Theatre.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Abbate named University Professor

    Carolyn Abbate, one of the world’s most accomplished and admired music historians, has been named a University Professor. Her appointment as the Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor will take effect on Jan. 1, 2014.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Strong showing for musicals with A.R.T. ties

    “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” and “Once” — two shows with pre-Broadway origins at the American Repertory Theater — had a boffo night at Sunday’s Tony Awards, taking home the prizes for best musical revival and best musical, respectively.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Making ‘Nixon in China’

    Three major players in contemporary music reconvened at Harvard, their alma mater, to discuss their groundbreaking opera “Nixon in China,” based on Nixon’s seminal visit in 1972.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Of the bean I sing

    A Radcliffe Fellow is working on an opera about the world’s love affair with coffee and how it grew from the bean that made goats jittery to the potion we all get jittery for.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard awards 9 honorary degrees

    Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was selected to speak during the Afternoon Exercises, is among the nine to receive honorary degrees, which includes Ruth Bader Ginsburg (pictured), during Harvard’s 360th Commencement on May 26.

    15 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Hot, hot, hot

    The American Repertory Theater presents a rollicking fall lineup, with surprises at every turn.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard Theatre Collection Curator Fredric Woodbridge Wilson dies at 62

    Harvard Theatre Collection Curator Fredric Woodbridge Wilson died May 15 of pancreatic cancer.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    E-mail collaboration yields chamber opera

    Critics say that composer Elena Ruehr – a Radcliffe Fellow this year – makes music that is challenging, natural, intelligent, and socially aware. She brought all of these qualities to a Feb. 13 presentation on the creative process. “From Novel to Opera,” spliced with musical samples and punctuated by laughter, was a low-key discourse on…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A new kind of aria from Dershowitz

    “Yo-Yo Ma was over the house yesterday … he was begging me to go to the piano and play a few notes and I said I wasn’t ready yet.” While the renowned composer John Williams could have uttered those words, last week they belonged to Harvard’s Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz, who…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Bright, imaginative season in offing

    Here’s a party for you. Julius Caesar is sipping wine with Don Juan, Figaro, Mozart, and an art teacher from the Bronx. Two atomic bomb theorists are in deep conversation, while a troubled teenager talks with his 6-foot rabbit. A South African satirist is there in drag. A Jewish trick-rope artist brings a circus tent…

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Eggleston’s formula: Hard science and the joy of art

    As a toddler, Sarah Skye Eggleston ’07 of Quincy House wore a Harvard jumpsuit — the stuff of parental dreams. It worked.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘Accidental opera composer’ speaks

    As a young man, John Adams didn’t like opera. “I never listened to opera as a kid. I didn’t like the operatic voice or the stiff posturing of opera performances.”

    5 minutes