| El Paso Opera | | Posted Wednesday, October 25, 2006 11:13:00 AM by Blog57 Team | | The El Paso Opera opened its 13th season with Guissepe Verdi's "La Traviata" Oct. 12 and 14th at the Plaza Theatre. While the opera did not sell out, both performances had strong ticket sales, officials said. This was the first performance for El Paso Opera in the newly renovated Plaza Theatre. Lead performers for "La Traviata" included Tokyo-born soprano Asako Tamura in the role of Violetta. Her parents flew from Tokyo to El Paso for her performance. The love interest, Alfredo, was played by Uruguayan tenor Gaston Rivero, who recently performed the same role with the San Antonio Opera. Rounding out the lead performers was baritone and El Paso native Levi Hernandez, who played Alfredo's father, Germont. Hernandez now lives in Chicago and performs nationwide. The opera's next production will be "Die Fledermaus" on March 15 and 17.... | |
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| | | Business news briefly | | Posted Saturday, September 16, 2006 1:26:56 PM by Blog57 Team | | CHICAGO - Boeing Co. expects international sales to grow to more than double last year's percentage of overall defense revenues over the next five years as the pace of U.S. military spending slows, the head of its defense business said Friday. Jim Albaugh cited numerous defense opportunities for the company in India - including fighter jets, airborne early warning and control and anti-submarine warfare airplanes - along with strong prospects in Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia and various Mediterranean countries. The president of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems told analysts he sees "a lot of focus on international for us" as the growth of Pentagon programs flattens. International revenues accounted for 7 percent of Boeing's $32 billion in defense sales last year, and Albaugh said they are on target to rise to 10 percent this year.... | |
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| | | Review: 'La Traviata' is a mixed bag | | Posted Friday, September 15, 2006 7:11:04 AM by Blog57 Team | | True to its form of the past several years, San Antonio Opera assembled quite a good cast of principal singers for Verdi's "La Traviata" and then set them adrift Friday night on shapeless conducting and negligible stage direction. With this production the company, formerly known as Lyric Opera of San Antonio, tried the Lila Cockrell Theatre for the first time, and the leading voices projected nicely in the 2,521-seat space. Mexican soprano Olivia Gorra made a generally strong impression in the title role of Violetta Valéry, the tubercular lover-for-hire who falls in love for real. Though Gorra was unpersuasive theatrically and a trifle erratic vocally in Act I, she brought great dramatic intensity and an astonishing, well controlled and intelligently applied color range to the rest of the evening.... | |
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| | | La Traviata retold | | Posted Wednesday, August 02, 2006 1:15:20 PM by Blog57 Team | | The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, in cooperation with the Shanghai Opera House Chorus, will again wind up its music season with an opera-in-concert and this year it will be "La Traviata." Last year the orchestra experimented performing the opera "Carmen" in concert version at the end of the 2004-05 music season and it won thunderous applause. Without any complicated scenery or lighting, the "Carmen" concert seized the audience with its attractive music and high drama last July at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center. "It takes a lot of time and a big budget to make an opera, and it is very difficult to break even in China," says conductor Chen Xieyang, musical director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. "Compared with symphony, it's more difficult for Chinese audiences to understand and appreciate an opera.... | |
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| | | LSCC to bring swing, opera, play in series | | Posted Friday, July 28, 2006 3:03:21 PM by Blog57 Team | | Lake-Sumter Community College Foundation's annual Performing Arts Series will showcase a variety of events from an opera to dancing to a classic holiday play. The Lake County Swing Band will kick off the season with a performance at 6 p.m. Oct. 14. The 20-piece band, composed of local musicians, plays a variety of jazz and swing music from the 1940s and 1950s. .... | |
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