A long time friend of my dad's e-mailed me this evening. His name is Bill Burnett and he has a new website, including opera blog here. The site is called "Opera War Horses" and it looks not only promising but also something quite different than other opera blogs I have read. Take a look--I like the attitude of it; it seems thoughtful/researched yet conversational and accessible. Here is the description/mission statement taken from the site:
"Welcome to Operawarhorses.com, a website that will be dedicated to an appreciation and analysis of what is often called the “Standard Repertory” of opera houses throughout the world. As this website defines it, it constitutes a body of operatic works, all of which were first produced in a 140-year period that begins with Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro in 1786 and ends with the posthumous production of Puccini’s Turandot in 1926."
Have a look--and best of luck to Bill with his new site!
3 comments:
I obviously need to take a look, especially since I'd start by arguing with his definiton of "standard repertory." Ending with Turandot omits at least a dozen or 20 operas I'd consider to be standard rep, starting with Nozze ignores the fact that, well, Handel is standard rep now. For that matter, so is Poppea.
Lisa Hirsch said:
"I obviously need to take a look, especially since I'd start by arguing with his definiton of "standard repertory."
AGREED.
"Ending with Turandot omits at least a dozen or 20 operas I'd consider to be standard rep"
AGREED.
"starting with Nozze ignores the fact that, well, Handel is standard rep now."
AGREED. (Has anyone else noticed the number of Rodelindas around U.S. houses this year...?)
"For that matter, so is Poppea."
OY. (Agreed, nonetheless)
OY, hah! But it IS a great opera. I saw it twice when SFO put it on in '98, and only partly because of LHL. I think Poppea covers as much emotional ground as any opera - it includes romantic love, lust, love of power, love of teachers and learning, love as sacrifice. I'd put it right up there with Nozze. Heresy, I know. :-)
War Horses has been down for a couple of days. Maybe I will blog about the standard repertory, because the question came up in my offline life a few months ago - friends were speculating about the most recent opera to enter the standard rep, and the latest they came up with was Wozzeck (1922). I don't think so!
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