Review: 10th Anniversary PROTOTYPE Festival in NY Blasts Off with Du Yun's IN OUR DAUGHTER'S EYES
There’s more contemporary opera in New York these days than there used to be and I’ll drink to that.
Opera Theater Reviews
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Review: Met Audience Tips Its Hat to FEDORA on New Year's Eve
Musicologist Joseph Kerman is probably most widely remembered for calling Puccini’s TOSCA “a shabby little shocker.
Review: Spectacular Soloists at Chamber Music Society--Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, Oboist James Austin Smith and Harpist Bridget Kibbey
This week’s concert of Vivaldi and Handel at the Chamber Music Society (CMS)--with countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, oboist James Austin Smith and harpist Bridget Kibbey--whipped the audience into a frenzy of delight with a combination of arias, sonatas and concertos at Lincoln Center’s Alice
Review: ISABEL LEONARD and PABLO SÁINZ-VILLEGAS Together at The Conrad in La Jolla
Mezzo Isabel Leonard and classical-guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas are stars in their fields.
Review: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, London Coliseum
Opera based on much loved 1946 film offers a vision of a town without music, without joy, without love and, in doing so, compels us to value what we have - a moral shared by everyone in the house, but not outside it.
Review: THE HOURS Goes by in Minutes as Met Gives Birth to Fascinating Opera by Puts and Pierce
The Met gave birth to a fascinating new opera on Tuesday and it wasn’t a moment too soon to unleash composer Kevin Puts’s THE HOURS on an audience that sometimes seems doomed to die inundated by too many AIDAs, BOHEMEs and CARMENs.
Review: LA RONDINE at Winter Opera
Winter Opera has presented a truly gorgeous production of Puccini's La Rondine (The Swallow).
Review: Oratorio Society Debuts Stunning NATION OF OTHERS by Moravec and Campbell at Carnegie Hall
The Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY), under Kent Tritle, gave its second stirring world premiere by Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell with Tuesday’s outstanding performance of A NATION OF OTHERS.
Review: An Old-Fashioned Sing-Off Celebrates ANGEL BLUE at Geffen Hall's 2022 Richard Tucker Gala
Award-winner Angel Blue started off the proceedings at the Richard Tucker Gala (after Barry Tucker’s usual introduction/ode to his father, the great tenor) with a bang: Puccini’s justly famous aria “Vissi d’arte” from TOSCA.
Review: DON CARLO Returns to the Met, This Time in Italian
Last season, the company gave its first presentation of the French version (that’s the one called DON CARLOS, with a final S to his first name), in the five-act version that lasted almost 5 hours.
Review: ALCINA at Artscape is a Sumptuous, Atmospheric Spectacle of an Opera
It is imperative that I begin this review by admitting that before viewing ALCINA, I was an opera-virgin.
Review: New York Becomes HOMETOWN to Kaminsky-Reed Opera About ICE Raid on Slaughterhouse in Iowa
HOMETOWN TO THE WORLD--the 70-minute contemporary chamber opera by Laura Kaminsky and Kimberly Reed about the aftermath of a 2008 raid by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa--is about as far from the Midwest of Meredith Willson’s THE MUSIC MAN im
Review: Crutchfield's Teatro Nuovo Breathes Life into Rossini's MAOMETTO SECONDO at Rose Theatre
Will Crutchfield’s gutsy Teatro Nuovo brought New Yorkers a chance to evaluate Rossini's MAOMETTO SECONDO the other day at Jazz from Lincoln Center’s Rose Theatre.
Review: CARMEN (in English Translation) Rose Hall, Jazz At Lincoln Center
If you were under the impression that the term 'Opéra Comique' meant a 'comic opera', you might be literally correct, but truthfully the joke would be on you.
Review: SAN DIEGO OPERA'S WORLD PREMIERE OF THE LAST DREAM OF FRIDA AND DIEGO at the San Diego Civic Theater
What did our critic think of SAN DIEGO OPERA'S WORLD PREMIERE OF THE LAST DREAM OF FRIDA AND DIEGO at San Diego Civic Theater? The San Diego Opera, reveling in modern phantasies, has followed its successful production of Aging Magician with El último sueño de Frida y Diego (The Last Dream
Review: CARMEN at Wroclaw Opera
What did our critic think of CARMEN at Wroclaw Opera? For some people synonym of the opera, after 15 years the great Carmensita is back in Wroclaw, still bringing a huge dose of emotions and a great time in the theater.
Review: CARMEN Burns Bright in Canadian Opera Company's Latest Production
Quite possibly one of the best known opera comiques, CARMEN has returned to the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts’ stage in a bright blaze.
Review: TOSCA Thrills Edmonton
One of the world’s most beloved operas takes centre stage in Edmonton.
Review: How the Wisdom of Elders Influenced Musicians Davone Tines and Jennifer Koh in EVERYTHING RISES at BAM
In EVERYTHING RISES--a one-hour performance piece from African American bass-baritone Davone Tines and Korean American violinist Jennifer Koh that had its East Coast premiere last week as part of BAM’s Next Wave series--we see these two virtuoso musicians take control of their careers, with the he
Review: That Was No LADY, in Mtsensk or Anywhere Else, But Boy Was She Spectacular!
Afraid of Shostakovich? Don’t be.
Review: GODS OF THE GAME, Grange Park Opera
Football opera land perfectly between the Women's Euros and the Men's World Cup finding plenty of common ground to delight fans of both art forms
Review: A Singular Sensation Returns to Philadelphia Opera with the O22 Festival
O22, as Opera Philadelphia's festival was called this year, wasn’t exactly “something old, something new” but more like big fat sandwich cookie.
Review: AIDA, Royal Opera House
A provocative and ultimately successful reimagining of opera's most operatic of works
Review: IDOMENEO Returns to Met with Splendid Spyres, Glistening Fang, under Honeck's Fluid Conducting in House Debut
On the second night of the new season, the Met went for Mozart, with his early success, IDOMENEO, in a fluid and elegant performance, but it was hardly 'business as usual.
Review: Cherubini's MEDEA with a Shattering Radvanovsky Opens Met Season, Proving 'Hell Hath No Fury like a Woman Scorned'
Written over 400 years ago, Cherubini’s MEDEA finally made it to the Met on the season’s opening night, in a new production by David McVicar.