In Review: Katonah, NY

Opera News, October, 2003 by Rosenberg, M Lignana

IN REVIEW: KATONAH, NY For decades, the "Rossini renaissance" has hogged the headlines, the result of a high-profile critical edition, a charismatic crop of Rossini singers and the unassailable staying power of his comic operas, seemingly tailor-made for present-day sensibilities. Donizetti, in contrast, has gotten short shrift, despite his own renaissance and ongoing critical edition. Donizetti's high-romantic muse and untidy work habits (complicated by mental illness) also have worked against him, as has the recent dearth of Donizetti specialists of the caliber of Callas, Sutherland, Gavazzeni and Sills.

Thanks in part to Will Crutchfield, though, the tide has begun to turn. Crutchfield, who has written eloquently of Donizetti's underappreciated genius in OPERA NEWS ("Dark...

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