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After submitting its iPhone app to Apple for review, Norwegian software company Opera wasn't too hopeful it would be approved. After all, it is a browser, poised to compete directly with built-in Safari. Turns out, the Opera app was approved and is available for free download. After a slow start, Opera took off after a British ruling forced Microsoft to visibly give Internet Explorer customers a Read more
Big-name celebrities came out last night for the premiere of Armida at the Met in New York. If you've never seen an opera, Armida would be an excellent place to start; it's about a woman who chooses revenge over love. Can't go wrong with that! The New York Times interviewed the production's choreographer, Graciela Daniele, and asked what attracted her to it. "I like the power of the woman and Read more
According to Variety, composer Philip Glass is creating an opera about Walt Disney. The story "imagines the last months of Disney as seen through the eyes of a fictional Austrian cartoonist who worked for him." I seriously cannot wait to see what the heck this opera looks like. What do you think of the opera in general? Do you ever go? Or are you not an opera person? Source Do You Go Read more
For a publicity stunt at London's Royal Opera House, the controversy may not be over 'til that fat lady, you know whats. It's elite vs. lowbrow, and it's hard to see who's in the right. Here's the gimmick: the opera house limited tickets to a prestigious premiere to readers of The Sun, a tabloid newspaper, in a bid to attract a more diverse audience and upset the image that the opera is just for Read more
First there was the odd news that an Italian composer is turning the Al Gore power point presentation about global warming into an opera. Now there's news that Brokeback Mountain will get similar treatment. The New York City Opera has commissioned a composer to turn the short story that inspired the popular film into an opera. Of course, the documentary-turned-opera is more difficult to envision Read more
Nope, not a joke (at least, I don't think it is!): Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth will be made into an opera by Italian composer Giorgio Battistelli. The production will debut in Milan in 2011. As The Independent explains it, "It began life as a slide show before mutating into a prize-winning documentary and a book, but now An Inconvenient Truth, the work for which the former US vice-president Read more
Here's a story that involves Germany, Italian opera, September 11th, and Mickey Mouse masks . . . oh, and naked people. Mix it all together and what do you get? — a shocking new production of Giuseppe Verdi's un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball). The Austrian director Johann Kresnik, plans on staging a populist critique of modern American society, aimed at showing up the disparities between Read more
Either that or he's begging someone to turn the music off. Where's Cesar Millan of "The Dog Whisperer" when you need him for translation? Read more
We're all about exposing kids to fine arts, but is opera asking a bit too much? Not according to Growing Through Arts, a company founded by former pro dancer and Harvard grad Aleksandra Efimova, which creates educational children's books and toys. The company just launched its second series of books (the first focused on ballet), breaking down some seriously highbrow stuff for kids ages 2 to 6. Read more
Kristin Chenoweth attended the New York Opera Spring Gala in a long, understated, and very elegant black gown. She kept her hair simple and sleek in a low ponytail. And then she added this big choker around her neck. The choker itself is pretty interesting,with a knotted shape in front. We're just not sure about the combo. What do you think? Does her choker work or would you prefer to see Read more
