Minnesota Opera Don Pasquale “goes Hollywood”

By Phillip Nones, 15 October 2017

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Reviewed at Ordway Center for the Performing Arts: Music Theater, Saint Paul on 15 October 2017

Donizetti, Don Pasquale

Minnesota Opera

Jonathan Brandani, Conductor

Chuck Hudson, Director

Craig Colclough, Don Pasquale

Susannah Biller, Norina

Andrew Wilkowske, Dr Malatesta

David Walton, Ernesto

Minnesota Opera's Thaïs: a bright star in Massenet’s galaxy of women

Phillip Nones, 20th May

In a highly effective stage presentation, the Minnesota Opera tells Jules Massenet’s story of two personalities whose spiritual journeys are like two ships passing in the night.

****1

Arrestingly effective: Dead Man Walking at Minnesota Opera

Katherine Syer, 27th January

Dead Man Walking is currently the most frequently performed contemporary American opera. Joel Ivany's staging, first mounted in Vancouver, opened recently at Minnesota Opera just days after the opera's Spanish première in Madrid.

****1

A Rheingold that works on every level in Minnesota

Phillip Nones, 20th November

Highly idiomatic and effective singing by Greer Grimsley, Denyce Graves and other cast members, coupled with inventive stagecraft wizardry, make the Minnesota Opera's first-ever Rheingold a memorable production.

****1

Nabucco launches Opera Philadelphia's season with power

Gale Martin, 6th October

During Verdi’s bicentenary month and year, it’s fitting that Opera Philadelphia kicked off its 2013/14 season with the work that Verdi himself considers as having launched his own career – Nabucco. Written at a time when Italy longed to be free of foreign rule, Verdi’s name and the expression “Viva Verdi” became synonymous with Italian nationalism and unification.

****1

Frauenliebe und -sterben: Kratzer’s triple bill at Staatsoper Hamburg

Mengguang Huang, 15th April

Director Tobias Kratzer engineers a haunting pasticcio of Schumann, Bartók and Zemlinsky, tracing the domestic sphere’s shift from romantic surrender to the blood-soaked secrets of a century-spanning house.

****1

Diamonds and steel: Anna Pirozzi rules in La Scala’s Turandot revival

Laura Servidei, 12th April

Visually enchanting and meticulously staged, this centenary revival confirms Livermore's production as a modern classic.

****1

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Phillip Nones

Phillip Nones studied piano from age six, also playing percussion in educational and civic groups before moving to a rural area of the USA in 1990, where performance opportunities were few. Recently he has started performing again, participating in “side-by-side” orchestra performances and playing percussion in the World Doctors' Orchestra. His personal collection of music includes over 5,000 classical albums in all formats (CDs, LPs, 78s), plus downloads. In his professional life, he heads up a marketing communications firm in the state of Maryland. He blogs about the French composer Florent Schmitt here.