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David Bonetti

Bio:

David covers fine arts and opera. He was a staff writer for the Saint Louis Post Dispatch and before that the San Francisco Examiner and Boston Phoenix. Now retired he has returned to Boston

Recent Articles:

  • BLO Presents Massenet's Werther Front Page

    Love-sick Poet Who Took His Life Quintessential Romanticism

    By: David Bonetti - Mar 28th, 2016

    Based on the Goethe novel, which set off a plague of copy-cat suicides in 18th century Europe, the late Romantic opera is arguably Massenet's masterpiece - at least it still speaks to us today. Lyrical throughout, it becomes intensely dramatic in Act III and IV. The BLO cast was not ideal, but they did the best they could and had many affecting moments.

  • BSO Goes to Spain with Ravel and deFalla Front Page

    Charles Dutoit Conducts Sunny Music on a Cold Night

    By: David Bonetti - Mar 06th, 2016

    The concert opened with charming tone-poems by Ravel and de Falla, but after intermission, with Ravel's one-act "musical comedy," "L'Heure espagnole," a Feydeau-like farce, the charm quotient went up the scale. A charming cast contributed to a charming evening.

  • Boston Symphony Shakespeare Festival Front Page

    Three Concert Program Features Vocal Music, New Works

    By: David Bonetti - Feb 17th, 2016

    Acknowledging the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, the BSO programmed music by some of the greats based on his works. Music director Andris Nelsons brought his lively intelligence to the enterprise, in which a new work based on Ophelia's words by the Dane Hans Abrahamsen was the stand-out hit.

  • Boston Goes Gaga for Handel Front Page

    The BEMF Reprises Acis and Galatea

    By: David Bonetti - Dec 09th, 2015

    Handel lovers were in heaven this Thanksgiving. Local reigning early music superstar, soprano Amanda Forsythe set the First Church in Cambridge on fire with her vocal pyrotechnics, while across the river, the BEMF assembled a number of her colleagues to repeat its delightul "Acis and Galatea." What more could you want?

  • Philip Glass's In the Penal Colony Front Page

    Dystopian Production at Boston Lyric Opera

    By: David Bonetti - Nov 19th, 2015

    Glass's opera is based on the Franz Kafka story of a prison colony where prisoners discover their crimes only as they are slowly killed. A true believer is the Executioner, and the failed execution is witnessed by the Visitor, a representative of liberal society. With only two singing actors, the work is dependent on the performances, which in this case were excellent.

  • Christine Goerke as Elektra at the BSO Front Page

    Boston Audience Bonkers Over Performance

    By: David Bonetti - Oct 20th, 2015

    Strauss's early operatic masterpiece follows its Greek model closely to reveal the neurosis at the heart of modern life. Andris Nelsons led a white-hot BSO performance of a lurid, fin-de-siecle masterpiece. The cast, led by Christine Goerke, Jane Henschel and Gun-Brit Barkmin, was stellar.

  • BLO's "La Boheme" Reset in '68 Paris Front Page

    Period Change Does Not Diminish an Iconic Opera

    By: David Bonetti - Oct 09th, 2015

    We always love bohemians - or at least we used to - but most of us wouldn't want to live the lives of poverty and disease they endured for our entire lives. The classic story of the poet Rodolfo and the doomed seamstress Mimi has jerked tears from audiences since its premiere in 1896. The BLO's production hit all the necessary points without reaching the highest peaks.

  • Paul Cadmus Comes Out on Top Front Page

    Paul Cadmus's works in Whitney Museum's Inaugural Show

    By: David Bonetti - Sep 29th, 2015

    For years midcentury magic realist Paul Cadmus and other artists of his generation were neglected by the Whitney Museum. Now, in the inaugural exhibition of its new meatpacking facility, titled "America Is Hard to See," Cadmus and his peers return in force.

  • Boston Midsummer Opera Does "Martha" Front Page

    Once Popular Opera by Friedrich von Flotow

    By: David Bonetti - Aug 06th, 2015

    "Martha" is famous for two numbers, one of which, "The Last Rose of Summer," is actually an Irish folk song. But most contemporary opera lovers have not heard the entire work. Midsummer Opera's production suggests although the work has its pleasures, it is not soon to become an opera house staple.

  • Monteverdi Trilogy Heads to the Berkshires Front Page

    Early Music Festival Travels to Great Barrington

    By: David Bonetti - Jun 18th, 2015

    Every two years the Boston Early Music Festival schedules a week of concerts and operas that make Boston the world capital of early music. This year's focus was on Claudio Monteverdi, the first great opera composer. All three of his surviving operas were given stylish productions and featured some of the best singers of early music in the world. Taken from Greek myth and ancient Roman history, the stories resonate with the lives we live today.

  • The Monteverdi Trilogy at Boston Early Music Festival Music

    Biennial festival puts on more concerts than you could possibly attend.

    By: David Bonetti - Jun 02nd, 2015

    Since its founding in 1981, the Boston Early Music Festival has become one of the leading cultural organizations in Boston, a city not lacking in them. Its biennial festival draws performing groups and audiences from all over the globe. Its focus is on a historically informed Baroque opera - this year it is doing three! All three of Monteverdi's surviving operas in one week. What bliss.

  • Duncan Rock Rocks BLO's Music

    Libertine Gets his Come-upance in Mozart Classic

    By: David Bonetti - May 04th, 2015

    The Boston Lyric Opera's production was stylish and emphasized the opera's comedy over its more serious elements. It featured young singers, the hunky Duncan Rock as the Don and a fiery Jennifer Johnson Cano as Donna Elvira.

  • Susanna Phillips Shines as Agrippina Music

    Boston Baroque Does Popular Handel Opera

    By: David Bonetti - May 01st, 2015

    Based on the most dysfunctional family in ancient Rome, "Agrippina" shows title character's drive to crown her son Nero, Emperor. This witty production features brilliant singing by an excellent cast.

  • Tenor Joseph Calleja Wows Crowd at Jordan Hall Music

    Maltese Tenor Heralds Return of Romantic Singing

    By: David Bonetti - Apr 23rd, 2015

    Although he stuck primarily to Italian and French arias and songs, Calleja showed his range, singing in Russian, Spanish and English. A true entertainer, he cracked jokes while delivering heart-stirring vocal thrills, despite suffering from a cold.

  • Boston Lyric Opera's Katya Kabanova Music

    Leon Janacek Music Not Heard Often Enough

    By: David Bonetti - Mar 18th, 2015

    Janacek’s work has been slow to come to Boston, so one can only praise Boston Lyric Opera for bringing, arguably, his masterpiece to town. (In my view, its rival for that honor is “Jenufa.”) In “Katya” Janacek tells a rather simple tale of a young woman (Katya) in the Russian provinces married to a wimp (Tichon) dominated by his sadistic mother (Kabanicha), who treats her as little more than chattel. She longs to escape and falls in love with another man (Boris) with whom she has exchanged glances only once, who remarkably returns her infatuation.

  • King Roger by Karol Szymanowski Music

    Conductor Charles Dutoit Leads the BSO in Neglected Masterpiece

    By: David Bonetti - Mar 10th, 2015

    Karol Szymanowski's "King Roger" is the classic hot-house flower of an opera, featuring a huge orchestra and chorus, dominated by shimmering strings. The BSO assembled a dream cast of Eastern European singers, headed by Mariusz Kwiecien, one of the hottest baritones on the world's stages today. You could feel the heat and humidity of a Sicilian evening.

  • Renée Fleming Love-Fest at Symphony Hall Music

    Braving Boston Blizzards to Hear People's Diva

    By: David Bonetti - Feb 12th, 2015

    The love for Renée Fleming seemed to pour in both directions. On one of the many miserable days in recent weeks, the audience went to considerable trouble to get there - “ I witnessed an elderly woman using a cane stopped by a snow bank at the corner of Mass Ave and Saint Stephen’s Street lifted by two strangers to the other side. And Symphony Hall was close to full. Before she began to sing,

  • Boston Baroque's Effervescent New Year's Concert Music

    Arias by Mozart and a Monodrama by his Contemporary Cimarosa

    By: David Bonetti - Jan 08th, 2015

    One of the best traditions of the holiday season is Boston Baroque's New Year's Concert. This year a highlight was a rare performance of Cimarosa's monodrama of a pompous conductor, but young singers Sara Heaton and Andrew Garland also sang Mozart with style and tonal beauty.

  • Die Walküre (The Valkyries), Act III Music

    New England Conservatory Benefit an Evening in Valhalla

    By: David Bonetti - Dec 15th, 2014

    Jane Eaglen and Greer Grimsley with a student orchestra led by Robert Spano put on an incendiary performance of Act III of Wagner's "Die Walkure." The big question remains: when will Boston get a proper opera house?

  • Two Pergolesi Comedies at BEMF Music

    Sparkling Cast and Expert Instrumentalists Ensure a Fun Time.

    By: David Bonetti - Dec 05th, 2014

    For seven years, the Boston Early Music Festival has put on short, semi-staged operas at the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall. For this critic, they are a season highlight. Tragic operas by Italian, French and English composers have been featured. This year two Pergolesi comic intermezzi were a delight.

  • Frank Martin's Love Potion at Boston Lyric Opera Music

    Rarity Was Intended

    By: David Bonetti - Nov 22nd, 2014

    The BLO's off-site Annex series has proven over the past six years to be its most successful effort. Martin's work tackles a big subject - the fatal love of Tristan and Isolde - but with small forces. The BLO demonstrated that it can be a compelling evening in the theater.

  • Revisiting San Francisco Opera Music

    Tosca and Partenope Evoke Vivid Memories

    By: David Bonetti - Nov 01st, 2014

    The two operas I saw on consecutive nights at the San Francisco Opera, Puccini's "Tosca" - one of the genre's true hits - and Handel's "Partenope," a rarity - show that the company has the ambition to represent the full range of the operatic repertory, often featuring major vocal and directorial stars.

  • Monteverdi Madrigals Examine Pains and Joys of Love Music

    Boston Early Music Festival Gets in Gear for Monteverdi Festval

    By: David Bonetti - Oct 15th, 2014

    Young Chamber Vocal Ensemble finds the contrasts in madrigals written 350 years ago that are still relevant today in a thrilling concert at Jordan Hall

  • La Traviatia at Boston Lyric Opera Music

    Effective but Uaffecting Production

    By: David Bonetti - Oct 13th, 2014

    Both Anya Matanovic and Michael Wade Lee, who make their debuts as Violetta and Alfredo, keep it cool, unable to express the passion in their roles. Boston Lyric Opera presents La Traviata

  • Andris Nelsons at the Boston Symphony Orchestra Music

    Inaugural Concert as Music Director

    By: David Bonetti - Sep 30th, 2014

    What made the inaugural concert f Andris Nelson's as the BSO's music director especially celebratory for some – that would include me – were the vocal soloists. The German Jonas Kaufmann, young and handsome in a dark, slightly exotic manner, is the hottest tenor in the world at the moment, and he was making his Boston premiere in this concert. (For those who care about such matters, he has cut off his tousled, romantic locks.)

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