Review: SALOME, York Hall
Mark Ravenhill takes over a legendary boxing venue for a show that packs plenty of punch
Opera Theater Reviews
The latest reviews and critic recommendations from Opera.
Our Opera Critics
View All ›
Review: Kaija Saariaho’s INNOCENCE – An Opera About a Killing Spree – Doesn’t Let Up in Met Premiere
I noticed that the Simon Stone production of Kaija Saariaho’s INNOCENCE, which had its local premiere last night at the Met, was a co-commission and -production of five other opera companies.
Review: San Diego Opera Performs Bizet's CARMEN at San Diego Civic Center
Carmen is the world’s third most performed opera.
Review: The Turn of the Screw, Royal Ballet And Opera
A new production by Natalie Abrahami and Michael Levine, The Turn of the Screw at the Royal Opera House haunts with eerie staging, finely judged performances, and Benjamin Britten’s still-chilling score.
Review: RIGOLETTO, Royal Ballet And Opera
When this Rigoletto first opened the Royal Opera House’s first full season after the long pandemic silence, it felt less like a return to normality and more like a statement of intent.
Review: World Premiere of Lang’s NATIONS Brings Wealth of Music to NY Philharmonic under Dudamel
Composer David Lang’s THE WEALTH OF NATIONS had a splendid world premiere this week at the New York Philharmonic under Artistic Director Designate Gustavo Dudamel, with mezzo Fleur Barron, bass-baritone Davone Tines and the Philharmonic’s chorus (under Malcolm Merriweather).
Review: Handel’s Unfamiliar but Fine HERCULES with The English Concert and Bicket, at Carnegie Hall
If you’re thinking of the muscle-bound hero of action films—or even Disney animation—boy, have you got the wrong HERCULES.
Review: AKHNATEN at Los Angeles Opera
Glass feels to be in direct conversation with grand opera, layering incantations from the chorus over triangulations of notes played nearly ad nauseam on violas to evoke something of the mystery that shrouds ancient Egypt in western culture.
Review: Davidsen, an ISOLDE for the Ages, Alongside Spyres' Splendid TRISTAN in Wagner at the Met
Voice! Voice! And more voice! That’s what we got from the Met’s new production of Wagner’s TRISTAN UND ISOLDE last night, especially from the glorious soprano of Lise Davidsen as the Irish princess Isolde, with no small help from her Tristan, baritenor Michael Spyres.
Review: ROMÉO ET JULIETTE at Winter Opera
Opera is widely considered to be a seasonal flower.
Review: THE OPERA LOCOS, Sadler's Wells
If you have ever suspected that opera might benefit from fewer Valkyries and more vaudeville, Opera Locos is here to confirm your prejudice and then sing it at you in Italian.
Review: DiDonato Brings Dickinson Poems to Life through Brilliant Song Cycle by Puts at Carnegie
Though only a handful of Emily Dickinson’s hundreds of poems were published during her lifetime (more than 1700 others were found posthumously), she is best known as a risk-taking writer whose work straddled the line between the straightforward and the more abstract.
Review: LA BOHÈME, in Cinemas
What did our critic think of LA BOHEME IN CINEMAS at Cinemas Across The UK?
Review: THE BARBER OF SEVILLE BY ROSSINI at San Diego Civic Center Theater
Rossini’s Barber of Seville is a top ten opera in performances.
Review: COSÌ FAN TUTTE, London Coliseum
Phelim McDermott directing Così fan tutte is a bit like asking a Catholic priest to do Mass in full drag.
Review: BORIS GUDUNOV, Royal Ballet And Opera
If Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov were a dinner party, Richard Jones’s Russian-language revival at the Royal Opera House would be the dinner date where you arrive bright and curious and leave questioning your life choices, nursing a neat whisky in a corner.
Review: Bullock, Woods and Hanick Are Anything but ORDINARY THINGS at NY's 92nd Street Y
The audience at New York’s 92nd Street Y the other night was certainly happy to be at a recital, “From Ordinary Things,” by the trio of soprano Julia Bullock, with her colleagues Seth Parler Wood on cello and pianist Conor Hanick.
Review: HMS Pinafore, London Coliseum
A revival of Cal McCrystal’s 2021 production, HMS Pinafore at the London Coliseum charms with wit, a stunning cast, and gorgeous Victorian designs.
Review: Cleveland Orchestra’s Splendid VERDI REQUIEM at Carnegie Hall
The Verdi Messa da Requiem—better known to English speakers as the Verdi Requiem—featuring the Cleveland Orchestra and its Chorus, with a quartet of soloists, breezed into Carnegie Hall the other night and promptly knocked many concert-goers out of their seats.
Review: DAPHNE IN CONCERT at McCaw Hall
Daphne in Concert, Seattle Opera’s latest offering in their series of concert presentations initiated in 2023, proved that the series concept is a successful one.
Review: The Gordon-Foreman WHAT TO WEAR is Totally Wonderful at Prototype in BAM's Harvey
Yoo-hoo, Metropolitan Opera.
Review: CARMEN Sizzles with Akhmetshina Heading Stellar Cast at the Met
From her first appearance on stage, it was clear that mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina was no flash in the pan, giving us a scorching Carmen when this production was new just two years ago.
Review: Snider’s Brilliant Score Anchors HILDEGARD at Prototype under Pulitzer’s Caring Eye
This is Beth Morrison’s first year as sole curator, producer and presenter of New York’s PROTOTYPE Festival of indie opera/music theatre.
Review: LA TRAVIATA, Royal Ballet And Opera
Opera as a whole may be too reliant on museum pieces, on endless identikit revivals designed to secure bums on seats.
Review: PURITANI Is Bel Canto Bliss with Oropesa and Brownlee under Armiliato's Baton
The Met’s new production of Vincenzo Bellini’s I PURITANI made its debut on New Year’s Eve, but I caught up with it at its third performance on January 6.
