CLASSICAL MUSIC THEATER REVIEWS

It's not every day that Audra McDonald stands twenty feet in front of you and says, 'Tonight, we are all a part of history.' Then again, it's not every day that music history gets made in Orlando - real-deal, textbook-worthy history - so when it does happen, I reckon Audra McDonald is as eager to be...

I was fortunate enough to get to head down to DeVos Hall for the first live event I have been to there in over two years, the last being to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the week the tour was put on pause due to Covid.   I was very excited to come back for a very special event, to not onl...

With only 3 days of rehearsal, Ms. O'Hara doesn't disappoint...

A Candlelight Christmas is a warm and welcoming way to spend a holiday evening, with something for everyone to enjoy....

Under the direction of their superb artistic director and conductor, Tony Award winner Ted Sperling, MasterVoices’ 100+ members presented “A Joyful Noise” as their 80th Season opener. T...

Although they don’t fill stadiums violinist Leonidas Kavakos and pianist Yuja Wang are classical music’s equivalent of huge pop stars. Wang is the better-known of the two partly because of the attention she’s garnered by dressing like one, surely more conservatively than Lady Gaga and Cher, bu...

The famed Dessoff Choirs, conducted by Malcolm J. Merriweather, presented the first New York production of Craig Hella Johnson’s acclaimed choral work...

For the first time in almost seven years, the Metropolitan Opera has revived Wagner's DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NURNBERG.  Considered by many to be Wagner's masterpiece, today's matinee performance gave credence to that opinion.  The production is that of Otto Schenk with scenery by Gunther Schneider-...

The imposing mezzo soprano Stephanie Blythe is known for her roles in Wagner, Verdi and Stravinsky. Why would she begin a Balboa Theatre recital for the San Diego Opera with Johnny Mercer’s 'Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive?” Here’s what she said in a recent interview, “I’ve been a great fan ...

The Jacob's Masterworks Series has been the centerpiece of the San Diego Symphony's concert season for many years. But the pandemic put the series on hold and delayed the launch of Rafael Payare's first full season as music director and conductor. The opening of the outdoor Rady Shell has allowed th...

A wonderful way to start the season, 'Reunion' is a great name for this concert!...

Rigoletto delves deep into the human psyche to ask questions both through its subject matter and its melding of music and voices...

Classical music is supposed to be serious, difficult to understand, intimidating, right? Who are all these people laughing at what the conductor says, ordering bottles of wine, jumping up to applaud, even, gasp, clapping between movements. Was I amongst Philistines? Had I trustingly followed Waze to...

Lyric Opera of Chicago announced that registration is now open for audiences to secure a free link to screen its new, original film production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, made at the Lyric Opera House. Audiences can now secure a free, on-demand viewing of this verismo production. More information...

A musical tour of Paris in the Baroque period....

Tightly-buttoned Bach met a bombastic Shostakovich in this demonstration of four radically different works that came across as either under- or expressly overstated....

What was a makes-you-jump BOOM!! doing in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue? Had someone mistakenly lit an 1812 Overture cannon? Were we under attack?! Oh wait! It was just a bass drum resonating through the San Diego Symphony’s spectacular new state-of-the-art sound system at the Rady Shell. And so, ...

British stage director Netia Jones put her singular stamp on a production of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream seen at the Santa Fe Opera on August 4, 2021. Performed in the opera house, it was simulcast to the lower parking lot where hundreds of patrons watched from the safety of th...

Recently the Bolshoi Theatre presented Tchaikovsky's three acts opera 'Mazeppa', based on Pushkin's poem 'Poltava', part of cultural legacy of Mazeppa. Pushkin took some creative freedom in order to create powerful characters and grand passions. The opera was composed between June 1881 and April 188...

On June 22, I watched J’Nai Bridges’ online recital at Los Angeles Opera’s website. Bridges has been making highly acclaimed debuts at major opera houses. For her LA Opera recital, she chose major selections by Johannes Brahms and Charles Gounod as well as many lesser-known shorter pieces. She...

On April 28, 2021, Arizona Opera, in partnership with Tucson Desert Song Festival, presented an online recital by dramatic tenor Bryan Hymel and pianist Michael Borowitz. They opened their streamed recital with the lyrical aria, 'Ombra mai fu” from Handel’s opera Xerxes. Sung by Xerxes I of Pers...

The San Diego Opera continued its quixotic foray into parking-lot adventures with The Barber of Seville by Rossini, social distancing once again forcing substantial changes to a production's length and cast size. Revisions to libretto, costumes, set and lighting went all out for a zany farcical effe...

Commencing Friday, April 16 running through Sunday, April 18, Tippet Rise on Tour will premiere ten short films featuring eclectic musical performances, readings of poetry, and live discussions with some of the musicians....

There is a lot good about Enigma Chamber Opera’s new meta-comedy adaptation of Mozart’s The Impresario, but the highest praise must be reserved for its formatting as a highly scroll-able hour-long entertainment (mainly because it is actually at most a 20 minute performance trapped inside a redun...

On Sunday, March 21, 2021, tenor Issachah Savage and collaborative pianist Laurie Rogers gave a half-hour recital called Anything for Love and Honor for the Merola Opera Program. Savage, a former member of Merola, won three prizes at Seattle’s International Wagner Competition in 2014: First Prize...