OPERA THEATER REVIEWS

Now into her 10th decade, the venerable composer Thea Musgrave is still full-steam ahead. The Scotch-born musician celebrated her 90th birthday last night (May 27) at a New York concert with world premieres, US premieres and NY premieres....

As both a celebration of the Washington National Opera and a culmination of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' Leonard Bernstein at 100 celebration, last weekend's Opera Gala definitely found success. While the evening had its share of disappointments (Titus Burgess of Unbreakable K...

Of all the composers in the world Giuseppe Verdi is by far the most popular. Of all the operas in the world his 'La traviata' is by far the most frequently performed. Have you missed out on this mega hit? You can fill in that cultural gap with the splendid production now offered by Opera Theatre of ...

BWW Review: THE PARK AVENUE CHAMBER SYMPHONY PERFORMS MAHLER'S 1ST SYMPHONY at The Church Of The Good Shepard...

The San Diego Opera's last concert this season was billed as 'One Amazing Night.' The program was originally scheduled to feature soprano Lise Lindstrom and tenor Rene Barbera, but Barbera was released from his commitment when he was offered a Teatro alla Scala debut as Ernesto in a new production o...

While New York waits for Netrebko's house debut as Aida to the Met next year, we always have…Brooklyn? If you hurry, you can catch next weekend's matinees--it's a local company that knows its audience and schedules accordingly--at the feisty Regina Opera Company, which is featuring a surprisingly ...

For several seasons I've searched for a term to describe Gateway Opera. In a city flush with larger companies-Opera Theater St. Louis, Union Avenue Opera, and Winter Opera-which offer truly 'grand opera', what can one call this little company which gives us such delicious bite-sized treats? They're...

State Opera have a winning production in The Pearl Fishers....

The world premiere performance of SANCTUARY ROAD (subtitled “An Oratorio Based on the Writings of William Still, a Conductor for the Underground Railroad”), by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, performed by the Oratorio Society of New York under Kent Tritle, burst forth from th...

The title role is one of the most challenging soprano roles in the repertoire. Lucky for the Canadian Opera Company, they have one of the world's greatest sopranos leading their cast - Ms. Sondra Radvanovsky....

No one in the audience was on Facebook or Twitter during Lliam Paterson's opera BAMBINO at the Met's List Hall--a rare occurrence for the company these days--on Friday May 4. In fact, no one looked at a cell phone at all during the performance. And nobody fell asleep--even though the opera was writt...

Despite some great music, nobody ever said that Beethoven's FIDELIO is an easy opera to love. Yet, the reduced, revised and reconfigured 90-minute version that Heartbeat Opera premiered the other night--as part of this year's NY Opera Fest from the New York Opera Alliance--showed some fearless work ...

The word most-associated with Robert Lepage's THE NIGHTINGALE AND OTHER SHORT FABLES is 'magic'. And like 'magic,' you need to see it to believe it. Words simply do not do it justice....

Can you imagine coming out on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera--facing an audience of about 4000 and be ready to sing without really much of a chance to warm up? That takes guts--and it's what the nine finalists in the Met's National Council Auditions Grand Final Concert did on Sunday, April 29. ...

John Holiday is a countertenor for people who don't usually appreciate countertenors--or think of them as “an acquired taste.” Holiday is definitely not that. He has a gorgeous, expressive voice, that somehow balances sweetness and power, whether he's singing Baroque, gospel, American songbook o...

Donizetti's LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR--the story of a fragile young woman, Lucia, who's caught in a feud involving her family, the Ashtons, and the Ravenswoods--is one of the mainstays of the repertoire at major opera houses around the world, famed particularly for its mad scene. It's long been a favorite...

On the surface, the two major works on Lawrence Brownlee's recital at Carnegie's Zankel Hall might seem not to have much in common. The first, Robert Schumann's “Dichterliebe (A Poet's Love),” was written around 1840; “CYCLES OF MY BEING,” by Tyshawn Sorey and Terrance Hayes, a couple of Mac...

When the radiant, intellectual soprano Julia Bullock stepped on stage Carnegie Hall's intimate venue, Weill Recital Hall (just 268 seats), to wild applause, I felt like I was the only one hearing her “live” for the first time. Everyone else there seemed to have a personal relationship with her a...

The Met's production of Turandot delivers a visual blast from the moment the curtain rises. The gilded set is probably one of the most brilliant, opulent, and dense sets of any opera. It really is gorgeous. Likewise, the chorus is strong and magnificent. The memorable combination takes this somewhat...

A rare treat this weekend only, Opera Santa Barbara presents an evening of one-act comic operas in the intimacy of Center Stage Theater. Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti will be performed along with Douglas Moore's broadly comic work, Gallantry. Both showcase the talents of Opera Santa Barbara'...

The Met's new CENDRILLON is a Cinderella of a production, finally allowing Massenet's take on the classic tale of the girl from the cinders who finds her Prince Charming to reach the Met's stage 119 years after its premiere at the Opera-Comique in Paris....

Italo Montemezzi's L'AMORE DEI TRE RE, which played four performances at City Opera's Rose Theate this weekend, was greeted as a masterpiece when it premiered at La Scala in 1913 proved popular for years at the Met. Today, I'm not sure that even Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann as the lovers could k...

Theater Erfurt's General Director, Guy Montavon was responsible for nearly turning THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, (Der fliegende Hollander) Richard Wagner's technicolor, romantic dream of an opera into a black, white and grey nightmare. The story of the Dutchman, Wagner's tragic 'pale Sailor' cursed by Satan...

It's hard for opera singers to keep off the radar when they're dipping their feet into a new role--particularly if the role is Tristan in Wagner's great opera, or if your name is Jonas Kaufmann. Yes, the first of the Boston Symphony's string of TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, Act II concerts was on their home t...

I must admit that Christ Church Cathedral Choir--performing at New York's St. Thomas Church 5th Avenue last week to kick off a final tour with retiring Music Director/conductor John Darlington--knocked my socks off with the first part of its program. The men and boys of the choir--a 500-year-old ins...