By: Betsy Schwarm In 1888, Pietro Mascagni (1863 – 1945) heard of a competition for one-act operas. With four complete operas to his name, the Italian composer was on the verge of submitting one excerpted act of his historical...
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By: Suzanne Whitney & Betsy Schwarm As the American composer Paul Moravec says, “opera is about three things: love, death, and power,” and that could not be more true for Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana. This one-act opera may only be seventy-five...
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By: Angelica DiIorio What do Doritos, The Muppets, and the Olympics all have in common? You would never guess it, but the answer is opera, specifically the “Habanera” from Bizet’s Carmen. You have probably heard the “Habanera” somewhere before,...
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By: Suzanne Whitney & Bethany Wood “Libre elle est née et libre elle mourra!” or “Free she was born and free she will die!” are Carmen’s famous words about herself. Both the character and the music of Bizet’s Carmen...
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By: Betsy Schwarm Put the iconic image of a leering, sneering Jack Nicholson out of your mind. Set aside those oft-quoted lines: “Here’s Johnny” and “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.” That’s the film by...
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By: Suzanne Whitney & Bethany Wood In February and March of 2022, Opera Colorado presents the regional premiere of Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell’s opera The Shining, based on the novel by Stephen King. It may seem unnecessary to...
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By: Betsy Schwarm Vibrant, compelling, and unforgettable: that’s Tosca (1900) by Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924). It’s also true of the play La Tosca (1887) by Victorien Sardou (1831–1908). Sardou wrote it especially for legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923), who brought...
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By: Angelica DiIorio and Bethany Wood Have you ever wanted to visit Italy? Maybe Rome in the summer. How about time travel? Rome in the 1800s sounds refreshing—just watch out for Napoleon and his invading soldiers! Visiting Italy may...
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By: Suzanne Whitney “I lived for art. I lived for love.” These famous words of Floria Tosca have endeared her to so many opera lovers over the years. And while Puccini’s Tosca holds many beautiful moments of tenderness, this...
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By Kelly Maxwell “Imagine those paired theater masks: one laughing and one weeping. It’s a familiar image, one in use since ancient Greece where the masks served to delineate characters in a stage production. In the world of opera,...
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