Latest
Classical Music
Dallas Opera Casts Paolo Gavanelli as Rigoletto
The Italian baritone Paolo Gavanelli has joined this spring’s Dallas Opera performance of Verdi’s Rigeletto. Having performed the role more than 200 times, the star doesn’t just have critical acclaim – these days, he owns the role.
As Dominic McHugh of MusicalCriticism.com wrote in 2007, “Probably the most tremendous performance of a Verdi opera I’ve ever heard was at the Royal Opera House on 10 June 2005 when Sir Edward Downes led a stellar cast including Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala in Rigoletto. But it was the singer in the central role that really made an impact: Italian baritone Paolo Gavanelli…frankly, I don’t imagine I’ll ever hear it performed more convincingly…he has made the part his own the world over.”Below, Gavanelli performing in the final scene of Rigeletto. A full release is after the jump.
Latest
A
How a Fort Worth Museum Pulls Maya Culture From its Watery Depths
I arrived at the preview of the Kimbell’s new exhibition, Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea, a few minutes early and wandered through the show’s four galleries without looking at the accompanying wall essays, cue cards, or catalogue scholarship. Moving through the neatly arranged collection of artifacts, I was struck by their strange incomprehensibility. I saw small animal figurines with human heads sticking out; exquisitely painted pottery with ornate scenes depicting moments in very unknown stories; plates decorated with royal scenes, dense with indecipherable symbols; stone reliefs covered in boxy hieroglyphics; tiny precious gems and jewelry; and what looked like trifling play things – tiny sculpted frogs, human figurines – that were executed with the utmost care and craftsmanship.
