‘Twas a dark, claustrophobic, and creepy production of Lucia di Lammermoor. And a fine lyric soprano with a good coloratura technique rose to the challenge to take on such an iconic heroine, as she has also sung this in some opera houses. Enjoy the review and let me know your opinions as well.
Articles by Antoni Matteo Garcia
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Tonight’s premiere of Werther: A Wound in the Soul was quite a success. I would love to thank my director, Frank-Tilmann Otto, for his patience and my co-star, Jerome Winistädt, for his dedication. There are three more showings at Theater O-Ton Art next Wednesday, next Sunday, and November 2. So, I hope you all come and see you next time! El estreno de esta noche de Werther: Una Herida en el Alma era un exito. Quiero a agradecer mi director, Frank-Tillmann Otto, por su paciencia y mi coestrella, Jerome Winistädt, por su dedicación. Hay tres más acutaciones en el Theater O-Ton Art en el miercoles próximo, el domingo próximo, y el segundo de noviembre. Entonces, espero que veneis y hasta la próxima. Die Premiere von Werther: Ein Riss in der Seele war ein Erfolg. Ich würde gern mein Regisseur, Frank-Tillmann Otto, für seine Geduld und mein Co-Star, Jerome Winistädt, für seine Leidenschaftlichkeit bedanken. Es gibt noch drei Showings am nächsten Mittwoch, am nächsten Sonntag, und am 2. November an dem Theater O-Ton Art. Also, ich hoffe ihr alle kommt und bis zum nächsten Mal.
Julie Taymor’s aesthetically vivid production comes to life and one lovely lyric soprano in the form of Miss Golda Schultz rises up to the challenge to take on Pamina at the Met joined by a cavalcade of musical titans. Enjoy the review and let me know your opinions as well.
It’s Don Giovanni meets Steampunk and the Seven Deadly Sins in a small theater. Enjoy the review and let me know your opinions as well.
Top of the morning, everybody! I made a few edits to my Patreon account and I also added a couple of goals, which will help me flourish and get into high gear in my work, career, and passion as an online critic. I hope you can support me in this journey and until then, take care and have a lovely Sunday. https://www.patreon.com/antonireviewsoperaandmanyotherstuff
After seven years of refurbishing, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden is back in town to reopen her grand gates with this uplifting Beethoven symphony headed by Herr Daniel Barenboim and starring such invigorating soloists like Frau Diana Damrau, Frau Okka von der Damerau, Herr Burkhard Fritz, and Herr René Pape. Enjoy the review and let me know your opinions as well.
Here’s my rendition of Pedrillo’s serenade, Im Mohrenland gefangen war, from Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which was filmed two years ago. I hope you all enjoy it! 😀
Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, with another fan fiction recommendation. And this time, we’re taking a look at Encounter, a soul calibur fanfic written by vhorizon. It’s rated T. It’s in English and the main characters of this fanfic are Mitsurugi and Maxi. Now, if you know me, I love it when Mitsurugi and Maxi get paired up together either as friendly rivals, really good friends, or just a couple of guys willing to knock each other out, yet still have a good time. That’s mostly because their characters were famously voiced by veteran Seiyuu, Toshiyuki Morikawa and Nobutoshi Canna, whose collaborations in Bleach, Slam Dunk, Naruto, and Berserk are pure evidence that these two have amazing chemistry voicing friends, rivals, allies, and friendly rivals. Plus, these two seem to be pretty good friends in real life, if the list of collaborations weren’t evident enough. The basic plot revolves around Mitsurugi encountering an old enemy of his who has come back for vengeance after his arm was lost. Meanwhile, Maxi has gotten himself in a pickle with an assassin who seems to be Astaroth’s minion. After all that, the two then meet each other and it’s an all-out battle between Mitsurugi and Maxi against the police who are going to arrest them. This story is quite well-done in terms of establishing the epic feel of the Soul series. I like how the fight scenes are described being quite vivid without being too wordy. However, the biggest highlight has to be Mitsurugi and Maxi in this story. The way they formed an alliance with each other was really well-done and I wish there were more stories, which have them as best friends almost like brothers and just go around kicking butt. Their newfound friendship is established well and the fact that they are still in character, with Mitsurugi’s stoic, single-minded nature and Maxi’s cool sarcasm and laid-back attitude, is great as their personalities mesh well. The negatives mostly come from the wrong wording, i.e. “were” instead of “we’re”, missing apostrophes before the s, and even when it’s only one person the apostrophe ended up after the s when it should have been before it, and some of the paragraph spacing could’ve been improved. I’m sure that should vhorizon come back to this fanfic to polish it up, it would be great. On top of that, in terms of the title of the story, Soul Calibur should’ve been capitalized because that is the franchise the story is based on. There was also the issue of if the female assassin came on her own volition or as a command by Astaroth, but I digress. Overall, despite some technical issues, this is a fanfic I can safely recommend if you are a fan of Mitsurugi and Maxi from the Soul series and if you like video-game based fanfics altogether. With that said, I give this a grade of B+. Yes, some of the technical issues did bog this down, but the story was well-done, to say the least, and I would love to see more stories of Mitsurugi and Maxi being allies because these two are awesome when they work together. I know I’m going to hate sounding like a broken record, but the possibilities between these two are numberless. Whether they beat the crap out of their foes or each other, they have a sort of strong, masculine, and overall great presence, which makes them stand out among all the other Soul series characters, but that’s just me. Well, that’s all for now, I’m sorry if I haven’t been doing more video blog style opera reviews as I should, but you know how it is. Fulfilling academic expectations and the upcoming Werther play and many other things certainly make it rather impossible to find enough time. However, don’t despair. There are a lot of fanfics out there, that I would love to recommend, so stay tuned for those. Until then, have a great autumn season. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2689777/1/Encounter
Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, with another fan fiction recommendation. Yes, I know I was supposed to review Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte starring Tuuli Takala and Siobhan Stagg as the Queen of the Night and Pamina respectively, but I was busy with other things like school, I was quite knackered, and there was a bit of public transportation repair that had to be done, which was a bit of a detriment to my attempted journey to the Deutsche Oper Berlin. So, I decided to compensate for this loss with this interesting little fanfic based on one of my all-time favorite Nicktoons, Hey Arnold! The fanfic I’ll be taking a look at is, Arnold Betrays Iggy: Alternate Ending written by colossalblackening. It’s rated K. It’s in English and it was published to FanFiction.net on April 15 of this year. Have you ever watched an episode of your favorite TV show, whether it’s animated or live-action, and spotted an episode that makes you sick to your stomach because of its mean-spiritedness, out of character moments, and had many moments which make you say, “What the Hell happened?” Do you also feel that you could’ve bettered the overall story? Well, Arnold Betrays Iggy is one of those episodes and it was so bad that Craig Bartlett and his crew apologized for this episode’s existence. And of course, enter a bunch of fan fiction authors who do their best to write their interpretations of how they would rewrite certain episodes they don’t particularly like into something more optimistic and less mean-spirited. My personal experience with this episode was I hated it when I was a kid, felt disinterested with it as I grew up, and I still could not stand this particular episode, especially when Sid and Stinky were at fault for forcing the secret out of Arnold and they should’ve been the ones to pay the consequences. With that said, let’s get on to my thoughts on the fanfic. The fanfic starts off when Arnold finishes all of Iggy’s chores, yet the latter still has not forgiven the former. This is probably to establish that we as Hey Arnold fans or those who watched this episode already what happened prior, which is not a bad start, but I felt like the story could’ve started similarly to the original episode. I digress though, as after this the story then cuts to the chase of the familiar scene where Iggy forces Arnold to wear the bunny pajamas. For the record, it’s nice to read that Arnold’s grandpa is not being willing to take pictures of his humiliation and that Iggy confronted Stinky and Sid whilst the two of them were regretting that they were the ones actually at fault for what happened. I’m not going to spoil the ending to this fanfic, but let’s just say that it’s so satisfying with a few humorous moments coming from a few familiar characters, a touching moment with Gerald, Arnold’s best friend forever, plus with Iggy, yet an element that was a bit of headscratcher, but I digress, it’s still so satisfying and will leave anyone who reads this with a big smile and lots of pleasant thoughts. There is so much good in this fanfic. Everyone was in character, the humor from Hey Arnold! is still greatly intact, and more than anything the ending is super satisfying, especially if you cannot tolerate or even abhor Arnold Betrays Iggy. The layout is really good, though I am kind of not a fan of having the transitions marked on there as if it were a script. Even though the story was well-written, I did spot some grammar errors, in the form of missing words, and they were kind of jarring, but not enough to deter me. One noticeable one was, “how come you there with everyone else yesterday?” when it should have been, “how come you were not there with everyone else yesterday?”. Another issue was minor and once you read the ending to the fanfic, you will know what I mean. So, there you have it. You know what I’m going to give this fanfic and it’s an A-. It had a few grammatical errors and it had a bit of a plothole, but when all is said and done, the strengths more than outweigh the weaknesses and it is a fine retelling of how Arnold Betrays Iggy should’ve ended. Well, that’s all for now, and be sure to tune in for another fan fiction recommendation. Goodnight, everybody! https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12447777/Arnold-Betrays-Iggy-Alternate-Ending
I know this is a week late to say this considering all the stuff I had to do from reviews to acting to school, but I am very blessed to have once again received my next YouTube Partnership payment of 74 Euros. On top of that, I have also reached 457 subscribers, which is really exciting. I want to thank all of my subscribers, friends, family, co-reviewers, colleagues, fellow singers, fellow voice actors, fellow actors, fellow artists, fellow musicians, and role models for supporting me on my journey as a reviewer, actor, and singer on YouTube. I am very happy and grateful to have you all in my life and I, too, wish you all the best on all of your engagements. If you want to be a part of my journey as a reviewer of operas, concerts, albums, musicals, ballet, anime, cartoons, and movies, please do subscribe to my channel, as I will be very thankful. Until then, I hope you have a great day or evening, depending on where you live, stay awesome and grand, and see you all on the flipside. Take care! https://www.youtube.com/user/operaanimelover369