Behind the scenes of Cincinnati Opera’s GALILEO GALILEI – YouTube

Fascinating character from history and an undervalued art form. Sounds like the making of a good night out. I’m talking about Cincinnati Opera’s new production of Galileo Galilei, which I hope to go see in the upcoming weeks.

Now, opera means a lot of things to a lot of different people, and for a lot of people that meaning involves buxom women with big mouths and wild hats. That’s a teeny tiny piece of the opera world. Judging all opera based on Wagner would be like judging all science fiction based on Santa Clause Conquers the Martians. It has some merit, I suppose, and someone out there must really like it. A lot of people don’t.

Opera has been around for hundreds of years. Don’t judge it based on the work of ONE composer.

I’m excited for this production because it is small, intimate, and not well known. I don’t say that because I’m a hipster, I say that because in the opera world there’s a set of, like, ten operas your local opera company will stage year after year after year. They perform them so many times because they’re great stories with fantastic music, but like I said, opera’s been around for a long time, and new operas come out all the time, so I’m always eager to try the treats I haven’t sampled before.

Here’s an interesting glance behind the scenes of the new production:

Behind the scenes of Cincinnati Opera’s GALILEO GALILEI – YouTube.

Piedmont Opera executive loses bet, puts on a tutu – Winston-Salem Journal: Local News

It’s a good day for a laugh. And a dash of culture. But mostly a laugh.

This, children, is why you don’t make bets at board meetings, you just might lose:

The charming ballerina pictured here is actually Frank Dickerson, executive director of Piedmont Opera. He bet that they couldn’t beat their record sales mark with their new production. He was wrong.

For the full story, follow this link! – Piedmont Opera executive loses bet, puts on a tutu – Winston-Salem Journal: Local News.

Tales of Hoffmann – the Legend of Kleinzach – YouTube

This is an example of good staging. The song is the Kleinzach aria from Tales of Hoffmann, on opera by Offenbach. The only drawback with the video is that there are no subtitles. So, here’s your homework for today: go look up the lyrics. The story Hoffmann is telling the audience is about a creepy little dwarf… then he gets distracted singing about his sweetheart… and then he gets back on topic. More or less. Enjoy!

Tales of Hoffmann – the Legend of Kleinzach – YouTube.