Steve Callahan - Page 6

Last Saturday Opera Theatre of St. Louis premiered a new adaptation of Scott Joplin’s legendary opera Treemonisha.  It is a bright and worthy addition to our recent flurry of adoration of some of America’s major black composers;  the Black Rep closed their stunningly fine evening of Eubie Blake’s music three days earlier.

A stellar cast brightens a Romberg favorite. Operetta, as a genre, arose in the 1850's and swelled into a widely beloved form of entertainment. In America its chief luminaries were Sigmund Romberg, Victor Herbert, and Rudolf Friml. From the 1920's to the '40's the modern musical gradually drove operettas from the stage (except for the happily undying works of Gilbert & Sullivan). And I miss them! So I greatly approve of Winter Opera's offering us this old piece.

'Spells of the Sea' shows polished professionalism. The marvelous Metro Theater Company has launched it's 50th season of fine theater for children. They open with a world premiere of a musical play, Spells of the Sea, by Guinevere Govea (with contributions by Anna Pickett). It's playing at the Grandel Theater.

St. Louis’ Winter Opera opened its sixteenth season with a vocally brilliant production of Verdi’s Macbeth.

Winter Opera has presented a truly gorgeous production of Puccini's La Rondine (The Swallow). Puccini is the supreme master of romantic melody, and in Rondine he outdoes himself. I love this opera, my heart having been beguiled early by one lilting, gently syncopated romantic waltz refrain that recurs again and again like the memory of a distant sweet infatuation.

The world premiere of 'The Good Ship St. Louis' is beautiful, theatrical, stylish, poetic, rich. It's a gracefully told tale of doomed refugees.

This, Sondheim's most charming work, receives a splendid production at Union Avenue Opera. Yesterday I mentioned to two of my kids that we'd just seen A Little Night Music. Now they had both memorized most of Sweeney Todd some forty years ago while in grade school or junior high, so I was appalled to find that neither of them was familiar with this earlier Sondheim masterpiece. What sort of wretchedly deprived childhood had we given them?!

Verdi's Falstaff is another glittering gem in the train of Union Avenue Opera. I'm not a big fan of 're-purposing' classic plays. Poor Shakespeare! He's been subjected to such vandalism over the years with modern 'concept' versions of his works. No, I do not want to go to see a trendy lesbian-Hamlet-on-Mars!

Glorious voices fill Tchaikovsky's masterpiece with beauty. After the tribulations of the pandemic the Union Avenue Opera returns to its lovely home. Here, in the nave of the Union Avenue Christian Church, the company presents first-class opera up-close and intimate. They open their 28th season with a superb production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

What did our critic think? Center Stage is a great smörgåsbord of opera- No, no, that's far too Swedish and Lutheran and heavy. If the whole OTSL festival is a great feast, then Center Stage is the delicious icing on the top of that final cake. It's all dessert and no vegetables.

A marvelously theatrical, dream-haunted evening tells of gay-rights activist Harvey Milk’s life and death.

Dr. Oliver Sacks' best seller becomes a fascinating opera with its world premiere at Opera Theatre Saint Louis. Read the review!

The marvelous Opera Theatre of Saint Louis continues its festival season with perhaps the most popular opera in the world—Mozart’s glorious The Magic Flute! Read our BWW critic's review.

Opera Theatre Saint Louis opens its 47th season with a splendid 'Carmen'. Read our BWW critic's review.

Such astonishing voices! Winter Opera, in St. Louis, has been offering splendid singers for 15 seasons now. But I've never heard more brilliant voices than those flourished by the cast in Winter Opera's latest production, Giacomo Puccini's MADAMA BUTTERFLY. These are of truly Olympian quality.

'A perfect storm of anguish in the Jim Crow South' 'Fireflies' opens at St. Louis Black Rep

A deeply perceptive look at a political campaign (and a political marriage) in crisis. 'Hillary and Clinton' opens at the West End Players Guild.

An astonishingly fierce tour de force blazes at Upstream Theater

Gina Galati's marvelous Winter Opera company has mounted a delightful production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers. It opened last night at the new Kirkwood Performing Arts Center to a full and warmly responsive audience.

Nottage's Pulitzer Prize winning script, 'Sweat', is searing in its portrayal of the human tragedy arising from capitalism unleashed.