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Glimmerglass Opera

Transcendent

by B.A. Nilsson August 8, 2012

As the second act of Lost in the Stars gains momentum, Stephen Kumalo, an Anglican priest, faces a moral dilemma that threatens the foundation of his faith. “O Tixo, Tixo, Help Me!” he sings, and ...

Glimmerglass Festival

Baroque Style, Direct Emotions

by B.A. Nilsson August 1, 2012

When the first conflagration erupted, it was a charming kerfluffle of lighting and drums. The next one was more frightening, because by that time I’d settled into more of a 17th-century sensibility and thus was ...

Glimmerglass Festival

Americana Perfected

by B.A. Nilsson July 25, 2012

The two most famous examples of the stubborn face of Iowa are Grant Wood’s American Gothic and the song “Iowa Stubborn” from early in The Music Man. Appropriate, then, that they’re brought together—however anachronistically—in the ...

Glimmerglass Festival

A True Blockbuster

by B.A. Nilsson July 11, 2012

Your average (and I do mean average) summer blockbuster movie has nothing on an old-fashioned, big-assed production of Aida. No amount of CGI can match the spectacle of livestock lumbering across the stage as a ...

Glimmerglass Festival

Musical Change, Social Change

by B.A. Nilsson May 30, 2012

Francesca Zambello had what could be argued was the best possible Metropolitan Opera directorial debut: Her 1992 production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor was all but booed off the stage. (The audience reacted with “a ...