A Memorable prelude to things to come
By Dra Lourdes Quijada
A highlight of the German weeks’ celebrations in Panama, was a gala concert, at the Teatro National with pianist Cosima Osthoff accompanying talented singers from Opera Panama.
In front of a near packed theater on Wednesday, August 17 Irena Sylya, Director General of the Opera Panama Foundation, and one who spent much of her career performing in Germany and Austria led off a selection of German favorites composed by Richard Strauss,, Richard Wagner, Johann Strauss and Franz Lehar.
Her opening number was followed sung by celebrated performer of Opera Panama, Alfonso Baysa, Elisa Troestch, Edrich Echever, Diana Duran, Juan Pomares, and Ricardo Velasquez.
The scenic director was Andreas Baeslar whose talent have been employed in over 120 Opera and Theater productions.
Among his many awards was a 2006 Theatre Oscar for the best staging of an operas. After the interval, the performers returned with a timely reminder of further operatic delights to come with extracts from Puccini’s La Boheme.
The full opera will be performed in the same Theater October 11, 12, 13,14 with the National Symphony Orchestra, the singers we heard last week and scenic direction by Andreas Baeslar.vTickets are on sale through Tuboleto.com and Blockbuster. CanadaPLUS members are entitled to discount tickets.
For those who have never attended an operatic performance La Boheme is a perfect introduction. is one of the most frequently performed operas internationally and is a cameo of Bohemian life in Paris in the 1840’s and the love affair between a young poet Rodolfo and Mimi a seamstress who dies in the final memorable act.
An Aturo Toscannini recording in 1946, (still available is the only recording of a Puccini opera by its original conductor. The youngTocannini conducted the the world premiere performance of La bohème in Turin on February 1 1896. In 1946,
Fifty years after the opera's premiere, Toscanini conducted a performance on radio with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. This performance was eventually released on records and on compact disc.
