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Review: Madrid's Teatro Real Brings Out the Charms and Laughs of Rossini's TURCO IN ITALIA
As I sat down to write about the delightful recent performance I heard of Rossini’s IL TURCO IN ITALIA at Madrid’s Teatro Real, with soprano Lisette Ororpesa in a charming new production by Laurence Pelly, I went to Spotify to see what kind of recordings were around. I was surprised to find more...
Review: SUSANNAH at Opera Theatre Of Saint Louis
It is a brilliant production of the second-most produced American opera. (After 'Porgy and Bess')
Gorgeous scenic effects and world-class voices....
Review: HANSEL AND GRETEL, Opera Holland Park
As a first taster to opera, Opera Holland Park's Hansel and Gretel isn't a bad place to start....
Review: COSI FAN TUTTE at Opera Theatre Of Saint Louis
Sublime voices overcome a troubled concept....
Review: IL TROVATORE, Royal Opera House
Adele Thomas' new production is a rollicking clash of carnivalesque weirdness and heartfelt desire....
Review: THE FLYING DUTCHMAN at Metropolitan Opera
Thomas Guggeis, the young German conductor making his Met debut, is Kapellmeister at the Staatsoper Berlin and the designated Generalmusikdirektor of the Oper Frankfurt; pretty impressive for one who has yet to hit his 30th birthday! His Met debut was justly anticipated, as across Europe he is k...
Review: TOSCA at Opera Theatre Of Saint Louis
It’s a masterpiece! Tosca has opened at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the production emphatically reconfirms that group’s status as one of the world’s great opera companies. ...
Review: TREEMONISHA at Opera Theatre Of Saint Louis
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 Blak...
Review: Love It or Hate It, the Met's New MAGIC FLUTE Is a Creative Roller Coaster Ride
Of all the theatre directors that the Met has marshalled into its forces, Simon McBurney--who brought his version of Mozart’s DIE ZAUBERFLOTE (THE MAGIC FLUTE) to the Met on Friday in his house debut--may be the most successful in melding music and theatre, storytelling and visual elements....
Review: On Site Opera's TABARRO Brings Noir Puccini to New York's South Street Seaport
IL TABARRO has a special relationship to New York, since it’s the only Puccini to premiere here at the Metropolitan, in 1918. While it’s only the first third of the trio of short operas that go by the title IL TRITTICO, no one attending the other night’s performance by On Site Opera in partner...
Review: LA BOHÈME at Kennedy Center
The glorious music of Puccini remains the principal reason to see the Washington National Opera’s (WNO)current production of the beloved classic opera La bohème. This oft-referenced opera that has influenced everything from the famous film Moonstruck to the hit Broadway musical Rent, must be a fa...
Review: Splendid Singing, Erratic Direction Mark the Met's New DON GIOVANNI from Van Hove
While I’ve always been bothered by the cruelties and misogyny of the main character, Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI has (musically) been my favorite of the composer’s operas, though either casting or design has been a regular issue in bringing off the work at its best. Happily, the Met’s new producti...
Review: Opera Philadelphia's Mimi and Rodolfo Walk Off into the Sunset in Yuval Sharon's LA BOHEME
In an opera filled with gorgeous music, it’s hard to beat the end of LA BOHEME’s Act One, with the trifecta of arias about young love. If only tragedy and sadness weren’t going to catch up with the central pair, Mimi and Rodolfo, and their friends, in the succeeding three “tales from the Boh...
Review: MasterVoices Shows that There's Still Life in Gilbert & Sullivan's IOLANTHE in the 21st Century
Maybe the Met should stop thinking about THE MERRY WIDOW and DIE FLEDERMAUS when it takes a turn at operetta—let alone the bevy of comic operas by Rossini and Donizetti that are given more than their due on a regular basis—and let Gilbert & Sullivan (G&S) have a turn at bat....
Review: Thar's Gold – DAS RHEINGOLD – at Atlanta Opera in Tomer Zvulun's Entry into 'The Ring'
There are no supernatural women arriving on horseback to escort slain warriors to the afterlife--just a trio of mermaids, a couple of giants and a loveless dwarf, along with a bunch of gods, demi-gods and grotesque humans in Richard Wagner’s DAS RHEINGOLD, the first part of the composer’s Ring c...
Review: The Met Welcomes the Next Generation at Its Laffont Competition
While there’s always a great deal of talk about where the next generation of operagoers is coming from, there’s much less hand-wringing about the sources of the new generation of singers. After hearing the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition’s Grand Finals Concert at the Met on Sunday after...
Review: BLUE, London Coliseum
A confident production of a conceptually flawed opera....
Review: San Diego Opera's Production of GHOSTS at Balboa Theatre
Nicolas Reveles was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer shortly after completing Ghosts, and it is tragic that he died just weeks before its world premiere in a San Diego Opera production. A sincerely religious man, his spirit lives on in the minds of the many grieving friends and admirers ...
Review: ARMINIO, Royal Opera House
Emphasising monochromatic melancholy with singers who do their best despite swimming in an ocean of drab uniforms....
Review: INNOCENCE, Royal Opera House
Here it is, opera's answer to A Little Life: Kaija Saariaho's Innocence follows the aftermath of a school shooting and the emotional destruction felt by those connect to the event. An elegant but devastating meditation on the nature of violence and collective guilt....
Review: In This Corner – Terence Blanchard's CHAMPION Arrives at the Met with Ryan Speedo Green
In search of new audiences, the Met has followed Terence Blanchard’s FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES with the jazz musician/composer’s first opera, CHAMPION, the story of closeted boxer Emile Griffith’s rise and fall from grace. Honestly, never have I heard people whose usual venues are Madison Squar...
Review: Once More with Heart – A Celebration of Women CON ALMA
If we needed any further proof about how opera continues to evolve--as in “what’s an operatic experience?”--a concert at New York’s United Nations Headquarters featuring a live-and-in-person version of Paola Prestini‘s and Magos Herrera’s CON ALMA album celebrated International Women’s...
Review: Wonderful Music, Marvelous Performances in Met's Season Debut of ROSENKAVALIER
It took Richard Strauss only about 100 minutes apiece (with no breaks) to tell the lurid tale of SALOME and the tragedy of ELEKTRA. So why on earth did he and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal need almost five hours (including two intermissions) to tell the personal stories of an “aging” (she was...
Album Review: An Opera Star Gonna Star & Rene Fleming Is A Star On Her GREATEST MOMENTS AT THE MET
What did our critic think of RENE FLEMING GREATEST MOMENTS AT THE MET at A?...
Review: SAN DIEGO OPERA'S TOSCA at San Diego Civic Center Theatre
WhaThe San Diego Opera has outdone itself with its most recent production of Puccini’s Tosca. The three major roles are sung by appealing voices with exceptional power; the company’s chorus and the city’s children’s choir combined for thrilling moments, especially in the riveting Act I final...
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