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Review: Netrebko and the Notorious RBG, Many Others, Make a Truly Gala Tucker Foundation Tribute to Winner Van Horn
Sometimes, it's nice to remember a time when opera was all about wonderful singing, singing and more singing. Sunday's annual concert of the Richard Tucker Foundation--celebrating the current winner of its top prize, bass-baritone Christian Van Horn--was a great salute to this artist in particular b...
BWW Review: Muhly's MARNIE, in Mayer's Cinematic Production, Is a 'Riddle, Wrapped in a Mystery, Inside an Enigma'
Nico Muhly's MARNIE, aided and abetted by Nicholas Wright's libretto, dramaturg Paul Cremo and the sweeping production of Michael Mayer--which had its US premiere Friday night at the Met--is that fabled “riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” Nothing is quite what it seems or results i...
BWW Review: Kaufmann Returns to the Met with a 'Heigh-ho Silver' in Puccini's FANCIULLA DEL WEST
Anyone who was expecting the equivalent of Bette Midler's arrival as Dolly in the Harmonia Gardens when Jonas Kaufmann finally returned to the Met, on October 17, after four years and some high-profile cancellations, must have been wildly disappointed. Oh sure, Kaufmann looked like a glamorous bucka...
BWW Review: Halloween Comes Early with Kallor's FRANKENSTEIN and Poe in Green-Wood Cemetery
I grew up with many versions of the Frankenstein story--some with greater nods to Mary Shelley's novel than others--spending Saturday afternoons being scared witless and loving every minute of it. But I was changed forever by Mel Brooks' YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, making it hard to come to the story of mon...
BWW Review: Lang's MILE-LONG OPERA is a Voyeur's Paradise on New York's High Line
THE MILE-LONG OPERA's composer David Lang says he is trying to expand the definition of what an opera is. Well, AIDA this ain't. If you live in New York, you might know the High Line, a modern elevated walkway built over abandoned railroad tracks that stretches from the West Village to the Westside ...
BWW Album Review: Renée Fleming Hits a High Note With New Album BROADWAY
Genre is not a word that seems to be in Renee Fleming's vocabulary, just as her vocal ability does not confine her to a certain arena. The four time Grammy award winner graced the Broadway stage last season as Nettie in Rodgers and Hammerstein's CAROUSEL, opposite Jessie Mueller and Josh Henry. N...
BWW Review: PROVING Mazzoli's Place in the New Opera Scene at the Miller in New York
Missy Mazzoli had me with BREAKING THE WAVES, her 2016 opera written with librettist Royce Vavrek at Opera Philadelphia and PROTOTYPE 2017. With PROVING UP--same librettist and with a production also conceived by James Darrah--which had its New York debut this week at Columbia University's Miller th...
BWW Review: 'Losing Your Mind' Three Ways in a Weekend at Opera Philadelphia's Festival O18
Whether from disease, 19th century #MeToo-style abuse, or unrequited love, Opera Philadelphia's (OP) Festival O18 opening weekend showed us three ways that central female characters lost their grip on reality. While I considered only one of them a total success, audience openness to sometimes-demand...
BWW Review: Met Opera Season Opens with New SAMSON ET DALILA, in Crazy, Rich Philistine Style
Well, no one could accuse the opening of the Met's new season, with Darko Trasnjak's production of Saint-Saens' SAMSON ET DALILA, to Ferdinand Lemaire's libretto, of being drab. Starry, certainly. Over the top, definitely. Filled with feathers, absolutely. Call it “Crazy, Rich Philistines.”...
BWW Review: In Any Language, the London-Thoron HATUEY Brings Fire to Kasser Theatre at Montclair State
'A Ukrainian Jew walked into a bar in Havana....' Wait, haven't I heard this one before? Not by a longshot. HATUEY: MEMORY OF FIRE, the opera by Frank London and Elise Thoron, performed in Yiddish, English and Spanish, is a unique work that ambitiously crosses many creative lines in a work inspired ...
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BWW Review: Bullock's Back and the [Other] Met's Got Her
Soprano Julia Bullock is at the Met in New York this year--but not necessarily the one that comes to mind when you're thinking about performances by an opera singer. It's the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she kicked off her year as Artist-in-Residence (2018-2019) on Saturday night with “Histor...
BWW Review: Dell'Arte Opera Unlocks the Cypher of LA CIFRA by Salieri
Before there was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, there was Antonio Salieri. Today, most people only know the latter as a character in the play AMADEUS and its Oscar-winning film version, and not as head of all things musical in Vienna for decades and a prolific composer. You've got to give points to the sp...
BWW Review: A Powerful Production of Weill's 'Lost in the Stars' Closes Union Avenue's Season
Kurt Weill's 'Lost in the Stars' brings a moving tale of South Africa to the Union Avenue Stage....
BWW Review: I Like MOZART. Does That Make Me a Bad Person?
Lincoln Center's MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL is over for the season and finished up with a program that was an oddity because it wasn't mostly Mozart (or no Mozart) but all Mozart. Well, hooray for the 18th century. I was happy to be back in the bosom of the festival's namesake. Does that make me a bad p...
BWW Review: Forget Mozart. It is THE FORCE OF THINGS that Begs Our Attention
Ashley Fure's and Adam Fure's THE FORCE OF THINGS: AN OPERA FOR OBJECTS--one of this week's unusual attractions at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival--took place at Brooklyn's Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet. As far as I could tell, that first sentence was filled with misnomers: no ...
BWW Review: Glimmerglass VIXEN is a Cunning Take on a Moral Tale
Anyone who loves Leos Janacek's gorgeous but grim operas--JENUFA, KATYA KABANOVA, MAKROPOLOUS--might be surprised by THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN. It's being presented, now through August, in a handsome production at the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, NY....
BWW Review: L'ITALIANA IN ALGERI at Santa Fe Opera
Daniela Mack is Isabella, an Italian pilot, who makes an emergency landing in Algiers and is captured by its ruler, the Bey. He wants an Italian girl for a wife but she loves Lindoro, the Bey's Italian slave. L'ITALIANA has lots of good bel canto singing and plenty of comedy to keep you smiling all...
BWW Review: The WEST SIDE of the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, NY
Yes, it's still the Leonard Bernstein centennial and what better way to celebrate than at the Glimmerglass Festival with WEST SIDE STORY. It remains a unique creation, the collaboration of four geniuses: Bernstein himself, of course, Jerome Robbins (choreographer-director), Arthur Laurents (book) an...
BWW Review: A Weekend in the Country at Glimmerglass Festival, Part One, SILENT NIGHT
None of the three pieces that I saw at the Glimmerglass Festival near Cooperstown, NY, last weekend was exactly what it seemed to be: Is CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN a fairy story or a cautionary tale? Is WEST SIDE STORY simply in a class of its own? Does SILENT NIGHT find that war is hell—or that hell is...
BWW Review: Call It Mishmash or MASS, Mostly Mozart Celebrates Bernstein Centennial
This week, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival added its two-cents to the Leonard Bernstein centennial festivities, with the first of two performances of Bernstein's MASS: A THEATRE PIECE FOR SINGERS, PLAYS AND DANCERS, in an environmental production by Elkhanah Pulitzer....
BWW Review: H.M.S. Pinafore is a Bright, Merry Musical Romp!
The Union Avenue Opera opens its 24th season with a splendid production of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, and it brims with glorious music, wonderful voices, and bright, delightful, timeless comedy....
BWW Review: St. Petersburg Opera Presents Meredith Willson's THE MUSIC MAN at the Palladium
Fantastic barbershop quartet as well as the dance ensemble stand out in this production of the iconic musical....
BWW Review: MACBETH at STAATSOPER UNTER DEN LINDEN - Superstars Netrebko and Domingo miscast in a glittering new production of Verdi's MACBETH
Currently, the world of opera is sorely lacking superstar talent. Last night, at the Staatsoper unter den Linden, three of the world's brightest classical-music talents came together in a very expensive, glittering new production of Verdi's MACBETH. Anna Netrebko, Placido Domingo and conductor Danie...
BWW Review: In Series Ends Season with THE EMPEROR OF ATLANTIS
'Holocaust Opera' is probably not the most inviting description for the season ending offering for the In Series....
BWW Review: ORFEO & EURIDICE at OTSL Dazzles
Orpheus could charm the very stones with his lyre and his singing. Just such magic can be seen on the stage of Opera Theatre St. Louis when Jennifer Johnson Cano portrays the mythical superstar in the company's current production. She gives an utterly stunning performance....
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