Review: LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, Royal Opera House
Nadine Sierra’s enthralling central performance helms this nerve-jangling revival.
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Review: Separated at Birth? Boulanger's VILLE MORTE and Debussy's PELLEAS Fall Similarly on the Ear
It’s easy to understand why Neal Goren, founder and artistic director of Catapult Opera, was immediately taken with LA VILLE MORTE.
Review: Lighter Side of the Fall of the Weimar Republic, in Death of Classical's TIERGARTEN?
I wouldn’t say that Andrew Ousley’s TIERGARTEN cabaret draws parallels between Weimar Germany—from World War I, leading up to the Nazification of the country and finally World War II—and the current political climate in the US.
Review: SHORTS – A FESTIVAL OF POCKET OPERAS at Artscape Arena Offers Bite-Sized Operatic Treats
While there are three mini-operas within the SHORTS programme, this reviews centres around two of them: LA VOIX HUMANE and THE IMPRESARIO.
Review: Blanchard-Lemmons' FIRE SHUT UP Makes Another Splash at the Met
It was tough separating the opera from the event when FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES opened the first post-Covid pandemic season at the Met.
Review: Heartbeat's Bio-Version EUGENE ONEGIN Dazzles under Director/Designer Dustin Wills
If you cross the traditional EUGENE ONEGIN by Tchaikovsky (great even when overfilled with drama and, yes, music music music, with Konstantin Shilovsky’s co-libretto) with a touch of Ken Russell’s 1971 “The Music Lovers” (the overwrought bio-pic of Tchaikovsky with Richard Chamberlin and Gle
Review: CARMEN, Royal Opera House
An old favourite brings the passion and the pain with beautiful singing and convincing acting
Review: Fine Singing Makes RONDINE Easy to Swallow under Scappucci
The first night of the Met’s revival of Puccini’s LA RONDINE (THE SWALLOW) was filled with surprises of one sort or another, under the baton of that smart conductor, Speranza Scappucci.
Review: Met's Laffont Competition Unleashes New Artists on Grateful Audience
No matter how many “star” performances the Met manages to muster in the course of a season, there’s nothing quite as exciting as the Laffont Grand Finals Concert—formerly known as the Met’s National Auditions Finals—which took place this past Sunday afternoon for its 70th season, when we
Review: THE BARBER OF SEVILLE, Wilton's Music Hall
In the week when an Arts Council England report lambasted the current state of opera and questioned its relevance to wider society, Charles Court Opera’s The Barber Of Seville stands as a stern rebuff to those who consider this art form to be dated and irrelevant.
Review: JENŮFA, London Coliseum
Opera is not short of stories where women are violated and abandoned by the men in their lives but Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa is an especially cruel tale.
Review: Yahoo for Ermonela Jaho! at Palau de la Musica Tribute to Victoria de los Angeles
It’s hard to compete with a dazzling concert hall like Barcelona’s Palau de la Musica Catalana—designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, one of Antonio Gaudi’s contemporaries in the modernista style.
Review: SONGBIRD at Kennedy Center
There’s an awful lot of death in opera, Timothy O’Leary, the general director of Washington National Opera, lamented on a recent opening night.
Review: Sierra, Bernheim Soar in the Met's ROMEO ET JULIETTE
While I’ve admired soprano Nadine Sierra’s before, she seemed to reach a whole new level with her glorious turn as Juliette in the season’s first performance of Gounod’s ROMEO ET JULIETTE at the Met the other night.
Review: Lively ORFEO in Concert at Barcelona's Liceu Opera from Maestro Rene Jacobs
Composers can’t seem to keep away from the Orpheus story.
Review: ROMEO ET JULIETTE at Arizona Opera
Arizona Opera's revival of Charles Gounod’s ROMEO ET JULIETTE is, by all measures, a triumph of staging and performance.
Review: NAUGHTY MARIETTA at Kirkwood Performing Arts Center
Winter Opera continues it’s seventeenth season with another iconic operetta—Victor Herbert’s Naughty Marietta.
Review: Another BALLO, Another Peculiar Reinvention, at Barcelona's Liceu, under Riccardo Frizza
UN BALLO IN MASCHERA—A MASKED BALL—certainly makes for a juicy opera, on paper at least.
Review: THE NIGHTINGALE AND OTHER FABLES – ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 2024 at Adelaide Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
It is as visually rich as it is aurally.
Review: Juilliard's ERISMENA Goes for Truly Baroque with Game Cast under Heijboer Castanon
It’s always a joy to see the Juilliard Opera/Juilliard Historical Performance department perform in the intimate realm of the Rosemary and Meredith Willson Theatre, where the audience is up close and personal to the action on stage.
Review: THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, Royal Opera House
Albery’s revival of his Flying Dutchman simply works: with a great cast and a smooth atmosphere created by a dreamlike ship-inspired set, it all builds towards a Gesamtkunstwerk that Wagner might have enjoyed himself.
Review: THE MAGIC FLUTE, London Coliseum
It’s odd to watch an opera where the actual opera is an afterthought.
Review: What's the Destiny of the Met's New FORZA? Close Your Eyes and Listen to the Fine Cast
Much was made of the fact that it’s been almost 20 years since Verdi’s LA FORZA DEL DESTINO was last seen at the Met.
Review: X: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MALCOLM X at McCaw Hall
Without doubt a definitive event for Seattle Opera, and worth experiencing in all of its many extraordinary aspects.
Review: THE DUCHESS OF PADUA, The Space
Edward Lambert's Duchess of Padua is packed full with stunning music that brings Oscar Wilde's early melodramatic epic of love and revenge to life.