Phil's Opera World

Opera in one act. Running Time: 48 minutes (plus 20 minute appendix) This is a brief review I worked on back in January 2021. I was not sure when to release it so I decided to set it out now. Opera Rara has recently released a recording of the original version of the first Puccini…

Opera in three acts. Running Time: 2 hours 16 minutes. I probably should have completed this review years ago, as I actually started it back in 2019 but never got around to finishing it. Some of the material is from four years ago, but I obviously just got around to finishing it recently.  This opera…

Opera in three acts. Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Treemonisha is a unique work. Although written in 1911 and set in 1884, it received its first performance only in 1972, and in 1976 it won a Pulitzer Prize. Sometimes called the “ragtime opera”, it is actually incorporates a variety of musical styles, many of…

Opera in quattro atti. Running Time: 1 hour 28 minutes (selections only) Like my Das Opfer review, this one is one I have wanted to do for a long time, but I held back on it because there is no complete recording of a performance (even cut) of this opera. OperaRara released 77-minutes of highlights…

Grosse-Zauber-Oper im drei akhten (nine tableaux, five in the first act). Running Time: 2 hours 8 minutes. Schwanda the Bagpiper was Jaromir Weinberger’s first opera. The 31 year old Bohemian Jew achieved immediate and unqualified success with the two-act comedy. Franz Schreker, on the other hand, had had a rough decade following his last success,…