Ah, Kabale und Liebe, known in English as Intrigue and Love, by Friedrich von Schiller. When this piece of German theater is put into opera by one of Italy’s most influential composers of the mid-19th century, then high-caliber singing is to be expected to serve the drama well, especially when there is a solid cast consisting of Marina Rebeka, Ivan Magrì, George Petean, Marko Mimica, Ante Jerkunica, and Judit Kutasi. Enjoy the review and let me know your opinions as well.
Antoni Garcia
Let’s say farewell to 2017 and hello to 2018, with the pristine, classy, exceptional, and awesome Madame Joyce DiDonato, whose New Year’s concert all the way from Berlin was an absolute thrill. Enjoy the review and let me know your opinions as well.
Now, meine sehr verehrten Damen und Herren, to further celebrate the arrival of 2018, we have a very famous operetta starring two exciting couples played by Madame Susan Graham as Hanna Glawari, Herr Paul Groves as Danilo, Mademoiselle Andriana Chuchman as Valencienne, and Herr Taylor Stayton as Camille. Enjoy the review and let me know your opinions as well.
We’re ringing in the new year with two pairs of lovers, a musician, and a philosopher, who in turn are the main characters of this über-popular Puccini opera. Enjoy the review and let me know your opinions as well.
Hillary Wolf, who was very famous for her portrayal as one of Kevin MacAllister’s older sisters Megan from Home Alone 1 and 2, stars in this comedy about a smart and sarcastic thirteen-year-old girl and her massively dysfunctional family. Enjoy the review and let me know your opinions as well.
Ah, La Grande Madame Anna-Kristiina Kaappola. Once upon a time, she was one of the most famous Queens of the Night not only throughout Europe but the world. Nowadays that she bade farewell to the coloratura soprano repertoire, the question remains, how well does she fare in the lyric soprano role of the First Lady to the Queen of the Night? Enjoy, find out in this review, and let me know your opinions as well.
I’ve grown insurmountably fed up with people not being thankful for even the smallest of things, some of my “former high school batchmates” thinking I’m the bad guy just because I fought back through a rant and blocked a bully, more appropriately she-devil, who harassed me emotionally and was never sorry even though it was years ago, me being a pushover because I am not going to allow it that anyone walks over me, having shallow relationships with others when I should be having deep and meaningful ones, that bully’s older sister who is a complete and utter dumbass for calling me nothing more than some petty kid, as if she herself is a good role model, she is truly pathetic, anyone who is a spoiled and self-entitled brat, and of course, bigotry, homophobia, fearmongering, close-mindedness and hatemongering, which are taken up to obnoxious extremes. Oh, and to that bully’s older sister I have this to say. Yeah, I know your younger sister has an amazing job she’s doing well at but that does not excuse the fact that her attitude towards me was absolute crap. I should know because I was one of her former batchmates. If she were truly smart, she would apologize for all the mean things she said. But no, it’s an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I still cannot believe how utterly ignorant and rude you are. You live in your own little world where you two can be so rude to each other that it becomes your form of sisterly love and you think you could pass it on to others like that. I’m not mad at her because of it. I’m mad at her because, despite every kind deed I did as her former batchmate, she still treated me like crap. On top of that, I cannot believe you would let her get away with stuff like calling me a fail for the most arbitrary of reasons. And even if I screwed up, she showed no compassion. So, to my former bully and her older sister, put that in your pipes and smoke it, screw yourselves over to the moon, and don’t come back! I’m okay with you calling me a petty kid but you! You two are always gonna be a couple of jerks and douchenozzles! Oh yeah, and to the jerkwad back in high school who said I asked one of my former male high school batchmates to prom and spread it around and it convinced me and everyone else it was true, I have this to say. Go screw yourself to the moon and back. Yeah, I am gay. I love men. As an actor, voice actor, singer, and reviewer, there are so many people in the performing arts industry, who are LGBTQ. So, to anyone who found my sexuality gross whether back then and now, then you go to Hell! That’s where you belong. If you want me to be a bit nicer, then get your sorry ass re-educated! Even more, to this who called me SPED behind my back, I highly recommend you re-evaluate your choice of words and think before you act. At least through this, I can have the confidence to say that I have let go of people, who come off as obnoxious, ignorant, uncultured, disgusting, and vexatious! Thank the Lord they are gone from my life. If ever one person would have the gall to be straight up rude to me, I will say this, bugger off! I will wrap my little rant before New Year’s up with this. I am a classy, well-rounded, shabby chic gay man, with a rebellious punk-goth heart, a strangely surreal artistic mind that it’s into anime like Cowboy Bebop, Dragon Ball Z, and Yu Yu Hakusho, cartoons like Regular Show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast, video games like Soul Calibur, Tekken, Street Fighter, and Crash Bandicoot, operas from Bel Canto to Verismo to Modern, ballet, musicals, theater, and film, and with enough articulacy to stand on his own two feet, not take any crap from anyone, and just be myself.
This recorded version of Mozart’s Zauberflöte is one of Anna-Kristiina Kaappola’s final performances and hurrahs as one of her all-time signature roles, the fiery, fierce, awesome, and grand Queen of the Night, before transitioning to the more lyrical repertoire. Enjoy the review and let me know your opinions as well.
This was an evening of fabulous singing accomplished by a gorgeous lyric soprano, a fine young lyric tenor with a bright future ahead of him, and a veteran lyric-dramatic baritone whose tall and exciting presence left me with chills down my spine in the most positive way ever. Enjoy the review and let me know your opinions as well.
Ah, Boxing Day. I may be an American born from Filipino-Spanish parents but that does not stop me from celebrating the holiday, which has become a tradition to a lot of my English, Welsh, Irish, Canadian, Hong Kong, New Zealander, Nigerian, Trinidadian, and Australian friends, family members, and viewers. So, lads, lassies, and mates of all ages, I hope you enjoy these animated flick reviews hailing from merry, olde England. I still have enough holiday cheer to take a gander at this charming animated flick starring Dr. House as a rabbit, Arthur Weasley as a guinea pig, and a veteran stage and screen queen of the British media as a hamster. Then, we have this charming Raymond Briggs classic about a little girl and her big polar bear friend.