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BWW Review: OKLAHOMA!, West Horsley Place
Oh, what a beautiful evening in West Horsley! Grange Park Opera open their 2018 summer festival season with Rogers and Hammerstein's vintage musical (the first of its kind in 1943), set in the farming heartlands of America....
BWW Review: REGINA at Opera Theater Of St. Louis
For certain xenophobic East Coast opera lovers, the words 'St.Louis' and 'Opera' could seem like an oxymoron. However, this would be an invalid assumption....
BWW Review: DINNER Now Being Served at NYU's Opera Lab and American Opera Projects
What's left to say about Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party"--that milestone of 20th century feminist art now on permanent display at the Brooklyn Museum--that hasn't already been said? Actually, quite a bit, according to the students from the Opera Lab of NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Pr...
BWW Review: Same Time, Next BROKEBACK, Premiering at City Opera
At the opening of New York City Opera's US premiere production of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, with a libretto by Annie Proulx based on her short story, it was the score by Charles Wuorinen that knocked me out, with its intricacies, aural moodiness and exciting orchestration. Yet, there was hardly a moment t...
BWW Review: Opera Theatre St. Louis Gives Us An Utterly Flawless REGINA
Opera Theatre St. Louis has produced many wonderful productions, and a handful of simply perfect ones. Their production of 'Regina' is among the latter....
BWW Review: Works Old and New Show THEA MUSGRAVE Still the Life of the Party
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....
BWW Review: The Washington National Opera's WNO GALA Pays Tribute to Leonard Bernstein
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...
BWW Review: TRAVIATA Triumphs at Opera Theatre of St. Louis
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
BWW Review: THE PARK AVENUE CHAMBER SYMPHONY PERFORMS MAHLER'S 1ST SYMPHONY at The Church Of The Good Shepard...
BWW Review: SAN DIEGO OPERA'S ONE AMAZING NIGHT at The Balboa Theater
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...
BWW Review: It May Not Be Celestial but AIDA Reigns in Brooklyn at Feisty Regina Opera
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 ...
BWW Review: The Bantam of the Opera Strikes Again!
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...
BWW Review: THE PEARL FISHERS at Adelaide Festival Theatre
State Opera have a winning production in The Pearl Fishers....
BWW Review: Oratorio Society Gives SANCTUARY to the Underground Railroad at Carnegie Hall
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...
BWW Review: Sondra Radvanovsky Reigns Supreme in the COC's ANNA BOLENA
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....
BWW Review: No Babying the Audience at BAMBINO, the Opera for Toddlers, at the Met
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...
BWW Review: 'Orange' is the New FIDELIO from Heartbeat Opera at NY Opera Fest
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 ...
BWW Review: COC's THE NIGHTINGALE AND OTHER SHORT FABLES is a Magical Night at the Opera
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....
BWW Review: Walking the Tightrope at Met's National Council Auditions Finals Concert
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. ...
BWW Review: Going Down Under with JOHN HOLIDAY in the Crypt
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...
BWW Review: At the Met, LAMMERMOOR is Filled with Crazies--and Not Just LUCIA
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...
BWW Review: A Poet's Love and the CYCLES of Lawrence Brownlee at Carnegie's Zankel Hall
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...
BWW Review: Have You Met Ms. BULLOCK? JULIA, That Is, At Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall
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...
BWW Review: TURANDOT at Metropolitan Opera
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...
BWW Review: TROUBLE IN TAHITI AND GALLANTRY at Center Stage Theater
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'...
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