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Review: Bavarians under Jansons with Damrau as Soloist Turn Back the Clock at Carnegie Hall
According to the Carnegie Hall program, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra was founded just a year after the most modern pieces on last Friday's program were written. Those were Richard Strauss's “Four Last Songs,” composed in 1948, some of the most gorgeous music he wrote. Though I came for ...
BWW Review: Calgary Opera Opens Their Season on a High Night with LA BOHÈME
From the moment the lights go down in the Southern Jubilee Auditorium, you as an audience are transported into 19th century Paris. A small apartment filled with destitute artists with dreams bigger than their bank accounts. Five acts, three fifteen-minute intermissions, and an aria or two later, the...
BWW Review: THE MAGIC FLUTE at Washington National Opera
The magic of the WNO's THE MAGIC FLUTE is that it is captivating for all ages and a tempting proposition for first-timers and opera-buffs alike....
BWW Review: THE MAGIC FLUTE, Royal Opera House
A big Harry Potterish serpent, a Salad Daysy enchanted glockenspiel, a Scooby-Dooish birdman, a pre-Ford Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and enough underground conspiracies to keep the most fervent follower of QAnon frothing at the mouth - what's not to like?...
BWW Review: All-Star RICHARD TUCKER GALA is a One-of-a-Kind Treat at Carnegie Hall with Winner Oropesa
It's hard to imagine the logistics in putting together a complex program like the one that the audience at Carnegie Hall was treated to on Sunday evening for the 2019 RICHARD TUCKER GALA. But New York-born conductor James Gaffigan pulled it off wonderfully with the help of members of the Met Orchest...
BWW Review: Jamie Barton Shines in All-Singing, All-Dancing Gluck ORFEO from Mark Morris at the Met
With apologies to Gluck, “Che faremmo senza Jamie Barton?”—'Where would we be without mezzo Jamie Barton?”--in the revival of Mark Morris's production of ORFEO ED EURIDICE at the Met, under Mark Wigglesworth's firmly rhythmic baton. ORFEO, written in the mid-18th century, was an opera of a d...
BWW Review: MACBETH at WA Opera
a?oeDouble, double, toil and troublea?? has made its way to His Majesty's Theatre, but instead of this famous line being spoken by the usual three witches, it (or an approximation of it) is sung in Italian by eighteen classically trained witches. WA Opera's production of Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth ope...
BWW Review: The San Diego Opera Brings a Thrilling AIDA
The San Diego Opera's AIDA served Verdi's marvelous score without the usual extravagant sets and throngs of spear-carrying tunic led Egyptian soldiers. Although that conceded a bit of excitement, especially during the triumphal march scene, exceptional singers and musicians held the audience's atten...
BWW Review: JAVIER CAMARENA RECITAL at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
On the evening of October 20, 2019, Los Angeles Opera presented a recital by Javier Camarena and pianist Ángel Rodríguez at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Camarena is the Mexican tenor who made news at the Metropolitan Opera when he and the orchestra under Fabio Luisi repeated their rendition of D...
BWW Review: Giving in to Hannah Lash's DESIRE at Columbia's Miller Theatre
It's easy to give yourself over to the music--and the musicians--that Lash has created (both music and libretto) from the very first notes of the devastatingly beautiful score. It is performed by three bold singers--the commanding mezzo Kirsten Sollek, the determined baritone Christopher Dylan Herbe...
BWW Review: ARIZONA OPERA STUDIO CONCERT at Mon Orchid Gallery
On Monday October 14, 2019, Arizona Opera and its Valley Friends presented a concert of arias by the Marion Roose Pullin Studio Artists at the Mon Orchid Gallery, a small hall with excellent, if somewhat live, acoustics. As a rule, AZ Opera chooses six singers and one pianist to be their studio arti...
BWW Review: Against the Grain Theatre Champions Accessibility in Their Cozy, Emotional LA BOHÈME
One of the most unique opera experiences in Toronto this year is that of a classic story brought to life in a dive bar. The Tranzac Club's unassuming entry makes it easy to miss if you aren't looking for it, but upon entering the building there's an unshakeable feeling that something special is happ...
BWW Review: Elizabeth Caballero's Captivating Performance Highlights Nashville Opera's MADAME BUTTERFLY
Elizabeth Caballero's captivating performance as the tragic romantic heroine Cio Cio San, the titular lead of Puccini's classic opera Madame Butterfly, is so breathtakingly, so exquisitely heartbreaking that she alone is enough to make the 2019-20 season opening production from Nashville Opera a tri...
BWW Review: Double, Double, Netrebko's Got No Trouble with MACBETH's Lady, in a Take-Charge Performance
Five years ago, Anna Netrebko unveiled her take on Verdi's Lady Macbeth at the Met and wowed audiences from here to eternity. But since the first week of the Met season, she's brought her
sexy, ebullient and take-no-prisoners Lady Macbeth back and showed that she's even better than ever--singing ...
BWW Review: TURANDOT At The Metropolitan Opera
Birgit Nilsson, one of the greatest Turandots of our time, was fond of saying that Wagner made her famous but TURANDOT made her rich. Why was this so? Simply because very few sopranos can toss out the high notes, cut through the thick orchestration and sing over the huge chorus, which are the minimu...
BWW: Apples, ORANGES--Opera Philadelphia's O19 Shows Us What the Difference is
If you can imagine Rossini's IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA with all its comedy but without any of its great arias, you can begin to imagine why Sergei Prokofiev's LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES isn't only anyone's top-ten list of favorite operas. Yet Alessandro Talevi's wild-eyed production at Opera Philadelphia'...
BWW Review: The Met's MANON a Showcase for the Charms of Tucker Award-Winner Lisette Oropesa
Lisette Oropesa, where have you been all my life? Of course, I've heard her before--she's appeared 100 times or so at the Met so one could hardly miss her--but never in a showpiece like the title role of Jules Massenet's MANON, opposite tenor Michael Fabiano's Chevalier des Grieux on the second nigh...
BWW Review: PORGY AND BESS at The Metropolitan Opera
Opening Night at the Metropolitan Opera! The very words tingle with palpable electricity and anticipation. Whether you attend in person, or go to the Times Square simulcast, or whether you listen on the radio or on the Met website, you are participating in one of the most thrilling events of the Ne...
BWW Review: Forget Brooklyn. Opera Philadelphia World Premieres Show Only the Dead Know Philadelphia
Thomas Wolfe--famed for his novels including “Look Homeward, Angel”--is also remembered for the quotable title of one of his short stories: “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn.” Judging my weekend at Opera Philadelphia's O19 opera festival, and its two world premieres, DENIS & KATYA and LET ME DIE,...
BWW Review: AGRIPPINA, Royal Opera House
Despite a distracting set, the music and singing triumph on an evening that reminds us that you can be too clever by half when you seek to be kingmaker....
BWW Review: THE ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO at KC Lyric Opera
KC Lyric's 'Seraglio' delivers a fun production, despite the subject matter....
BWW Review: The World Premiere of DENIS AND KATYA at Opera Philadelphia
Two teens. One livestream that resulted in their untimely deaths. Opera Philadelphia's Denis and Katya, a world premiere part of their annual opera festival, uses this true story to ask questions about life, death, voyeurism and entertainment in an innovative 70 minute opera....
BWW Review: I CAPULETI E I MONTECCHI, Grimeborn, Arcola Theatre
Gary Naylor sees his last show at this season's Grimeborn, an Italian opera based on the original sources of Romeo and Juliet sung with tremendous panache....
BWW Review: HOTSPUR/PIERROT LUNAIRE, Grimeborn, Arcola Theatre
FormidAbility's unique approach to integrating those with disabilities on either side of the fourth wall enhances two pieces that prove tricky for the uninitiated to appreciate fully....
BWW Review: TREEMONISHA, Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre
You know Scott Joplin is a genius, but having that conformed by this wonderful, uplifting, yet shocking opera, is a delight and a privilege. Beautifully performed too....
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