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BWW Review: Fireworks from Met's New ADRIANA LECOUVREUR with Netrebko for New Year's Eve
On New Year's Eve, the Metropolitan Opera unveiled a new production of Cilea's ADRIANA LECOUVREUR, with a high-powered, audience-pleasing cast--headed by Anna Netrebko--in a production by Met favorite David McVicar, appealingly designed and costumed, and played elegantly by the Met orchestra under G...
BWW Overview: A Look-Back at Opera's Many-Colored Dream Coat of Performance Highs in 2018
Well, it's that time of the year again--time for a look-back on what was worth making note of during the calendar year that's about to come to an end. It's from a totally personal, subjective point of view, of course, but frankly that's the way opera-lovers always seem to like it, n'est-ce pas? The ...
BWW Review: Dudamel's Baptism by Fire Turns in a Solid, Throbbing OTELLO at the Met
Talk about baptism by fire! That's what Gustavo Dudamel--that wunderkind of the classical conducting world--faced as he reached the podium of the Met for the first time Friday night. Not only was he conducting Verdi's great opera, OTELLO, but he was doing so with a last-minute substitute in the titl...
BWW Review: HANSEL AND GRETEL, Royal Opera House
The spectacle is a hunger-inducing delight for the eyes....
BWW Review: It's All GREEK for Me, from Scottish Opera at BAM's Next Wave Festival
I hope somebody from New York City Opera was at BAM last weekend, because Mark-Anthony Turnage's GREEK--a modern retelling of the Oedipus myth from Scottish Opera/Opera Ventures, presented by BAM's Next Wave Festival--is just what the doctor ordered for that company. A great story, a small cast, a s...
BWW Review: Live from New York, It's On Site Opera's AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS
The touching, moving, brilliantly site-specific version of Gian Carlo Menotti's AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS, performed this week by New York's vibrant On Site Opera (OSO), had the audience at the Church of the Holy Apostles Church alternately in tears and cheering....
BWW Review: Damrau's a Top Violetta with the Met's New Maestro Nezet-Seguin in LA TRAVIATA from Mayer
I interviewed Diana Damrau when she had just done her first Violetta, her role debut in the Met's old Willy Decker production. It was a part she lusted over from the time she saw the 1982 Zeffirelli film, but was careful about taking on--waiting for the right time in her vocal development. That was ...
BWW Review: THE MERRY WIDOW at Adelaide Festival Theatre
Antoinette Halloran and Alexander Lewis captivate the audience....
BWW Review: CARMEN, Royal Opera House
Barrie Kosky's unmusical revival loses more steam on its second outing....
BWW Review: GLASS or HANDEL, Costanzo Can Handle Whatever's Thrown at Him
No one can accuse countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo of sitting around and waiting for projects to fall into his lap. GLASS HANDEL was first produced by the singer with Visionaire and Cath Brittan at Opera Philadelphia's (OP) O18 Operafest in September and presented in NY by OP and National Sawdust ...
BWW Review: Juilliard Makes Handel's AMINTA E FILLIDE the Opera of the Year
Handel's AMINTA E FILLIDE doesn't have much of a libretto--'nymph meets swain and complications arise,' says the program, and that's about it--and there were just a handful of musicians from Juilliard's early music program on stage at the Morgan Library's tiny Gilder Lehrman Hall. for a work that la...
BWW Review: Saariaho's SOUND, Directed by Sellars, Says Yes to Noh at White Light Festival
With a formidable cast of three, and a brilliant ensemble of voices and instrumental musicians, Kaija Saariaho's ONLY THE SOUND REMAINS swept through town last weekend, created with director Peter Sellars. Once again, she left us in awe of how she can fill an impossibly large theatre with what seems...
BWW Review: Washington Concert Opera Serves Up a Seductive SAPHO
If you have ever attended an opera and thought 'all of these sets and costumes are so incredibly distracting' then Washington Concert Opera would be right up your alley. Stripping away the grandiose of an opera production, WCO presents their works in their most raw form: with just an orchestra, a ch...
BWW Review: Nothing Fishy about Replacement Baritone Elliott in PECHEURS at the Met
We thought things were exciting last week, when Christian Van Horn brought his Mefistofele to the Met last week, getting all his exercise for the month in the athletic staging and nailing his first big role in the house. However, that was “business as usual” compared to the mid-performance debut...
BWW Review: A Devilishly Good Van Horn Steals MEFISTOFELE at the Met
The Met is offering Robert Carsen's 1999 production of Arrigo Boito's MEFISTOFELE to show us what bass-baritone Christian Van Horn--winner of this year's Richard Tucker Award--could do in his first starring role at the house and the answer was: plenty....
BWW Review: A Diverse Week at BAM's Next Wave Fest, Balancing Glass's SATYAGRAHA and a SAVAGE WINTER (REISE) without the Schubert
To say that this was an unusual week for opera-goers venturing into BAM's Next Wave Festival would be an understatement—but then the unexpected is what makes it is an indispensable component of the New York arts scene, with Philip Glass's SATYAGRAHA and Douglas J. Cuomo's SAVAGE WINTER....
BWW Review: THE MAGIC FLUTE at Opera Grand Rapids, Makes For a Magical Journey!
A little over a week ago I attended my first opera, Opera Grand Rapids' production of The Magic Flute, a fairy tale with the traditional fairytale themes of love and of good versus evil. The show starts with Prince Tamino, played by Dennis Shuman, alone in the woods fleeing a deadly serpent. He fa...
BWW Review: LA TRAVIATA at Thorne Hall Occidental College
On Sunday October 28, 2018, Pacific Opera Project (POP) presented Giuseppe Verdi's well-loved opera, LA TRAVIATA to a full house at Occidental College's Thorne Hall in Pasadena. Director and Designer Josh Shaw presented a traditional production with a unit set that spoke of flowers and the beauty of...
BWW Review: TOSCA at The Metropolitan Opera
BWW Review: TOSCA at Metropolitan Opera...
BWW Review: SAN DIEGO OPERA: THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO at the Civic Center Theater
The San Diego Opera's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro featured expressive singing, clever attractive sets, beautiful costumes, and strong comedic and dramatic acting. The work is generally called a comic opera, but as director Stephen Lawless pointed out during my interview with him, '...
BWW Review: LA CENERENTOLA, Bristol Hippodrome
The music is magical, with all its coloratura, patter, and character from the principals, male chorus, and orchestra magnificently managed by Tomaš Hanus, but there's still some magic amiss in this staging from Welsh National Opera....
BWW Review: LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, London Coliseum
Tragedy raw in tooth and claw in this revival of the ENO's 2008 production of Lucia di Lammermoor....
BWW Review: OPERA GRAND AVIGNON Presents LE NOZZE DI FIGARO
Avignon's Opéra Confluence is a challenging space, located some kilometers outside the town center near the TGV train station. It was recently constructed as a temporary theatre space while the city 19th century opera house undergoes significant restoration. The interior of the space resembles an e...
BWW Review: Don't Cry for MARIA, Argentina... She's Here in the Big Apple Now!
Site-specific performances are the latest thing for opera companies wanting to venture into works that wouldn't comfortably fit in a 500-, 1000- (or more) seat theatre. New York City Opera has tried this in the past, but never in a venue quite as intimate or louche as Le Poisson Rouge on Bleecker St...
BWW Review: VERDI'S REQUIEM, Royal Opera House
Antonio Pappano's conducting of the work evoked gloom but didn't approach closely enough the more sinister subject of death....
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