Word: operas
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...have changed under globalization in order to keep us competitive, but teaching people English here has remained old-fashioned and inefficient," says Julien Petitpas, one of the 10 young adults who gather for 12 hours a week to improve their English at the Berlitz language school near the Paris Opera. "In school it's all structure, grammar and getting it right on paper and in your head before you ever speak - and even then, you don't do much of that. It just doesn't work." (See pictures of Paris expanding...
...Tiger Bay. Local attractions have changed in the past 30 years. Prostitutes looking for sailors on shore leave once rubbed shoulders with the myriad nationalities who made up one of Britain's oldest multicultural communities. Regeneration means the Welsh parliament, the Millennium Centre (home of the Welsh National Opera), smart shops and restaurants now draw local professional couples and business visitors who would once have steered clear of the area and its nefarious reputation. (See pictures of London...
Written by John Eccles, the piece itself is an archetypal example of Baroque opera. Each character sings recitatives (narratives that serve the purpose of advancing the story) and arias (songs that do not move the plot forward). Characters are accompanied by a small pit orchestra of strings and a harpsichord. Eccles’ “Semele” is a more sexually graphic version than the better-known Handel opera of the same name. Because the Early Music Society shifts the setting of the story, however, the raunchy nature of the opera does not seem as out-of-place...
...role of the unappreciated lover with darling and panache. During Athamas’ aria about Semele’s insensitivity, for instance, Kass checks her makeup and bats her eyes lovingly. Her attempts are not for naught, as she and Athamas become engaged by the end of the opera...
Without a boring moment, “Semele” takes the audience on an exciting journey through this mythological tale, masterfully incorporating the dated material into a more functional setting. And though Eccles’ Baroque opera is ‘broke,’ in this production, the Harvard Early Music Society fixes...