OPERA THEATER REVIEWS

Anna Netrebko performed to an adoring sold-out audience at Toronto's Four Seasons Centre on Tuesday evening. Netrebko was joined by husband and Azerbaijani tenor, Yusif Eyvazov and renowned Russian baritone, Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Led by Maestro Jader Bignamini, the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra br...

For a new production that was supposed to mark a farewell for soprano Renee Fleming to a role (the Marschallin) if not to staged opera performance in general, Robert Carsen's version of Richard Strauss's DER ROSENKAVALIER at the Met seemed more of a farce and less a tale of regret about passing time...

continues to work after 138 years...

Colonization is a controversial part of our heritage, and is central to the Canadian Opera Company's (COC) new production of Harry Somers' LOUIS RIEL. The production has sparked discourse on the use of Indigenous songs in opera, the portrayal of Indigenous men and women on stage and First Nations so...

These magnificent operas have a shorter than usual run, so hurry to buy your tickets....

It's getting near the end of the season at the Met in New York and it's nice to see that they're still bringing out their “A” game, with a splendidly cast run of Tchaikovsky's EUGENE ONEGIN, with the wonderful Met orchestra under the sensitive baton of Robin Ticciati, music director at the Glynd...

Ever since the New Israeli Opera was created in 1985 there's usually been one guest international production in each of its seasons. This year the Royal Opera of Wallonie from Liege, Belgium, brought its fun production to Tel Aviv, Gioacchino Rossini's opera buffa La Gazzetta (The Magazine) which is...

Sarasota Opera House Brings Humor to the stage in Italian Girl in Algiers...

Last Chance to see Dialogues des Carmelites at the Sarasota Opera House...

Beethoven's only opera, FIDELIO, was the last of three operas this season at the Met to take place in Seville, after CARMEN and BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA. Third time definitely wasn't the charm....

I must admit that I entered LoftOpera's performance of Rossini's take on OTELLO with some trepidation. Besides having a particular affection for the Verdi version, my experience with 'alternate universe' adaptations of famous operas has been iffy at best. But this OTELLO, predating Verdi by over 70 ...

Sarasota Opera The Love of Three Kings...

No one can accuse the Met of skimping when it put together its current revival of Mozart's opera seria IDOMENEO. Yes, the production's 35 years old, but with this cast, it hardly mattered: tenor Matthew Polenzani in the title role, elegant and Mozartian to the nth degree, the suave and poignant mezz...

Don't ever underestimate the importance of chemistry when it comes to pulling off an opera performance--and there was animal magnetism galore in the Met's revival of its Willy Decker production of Verdi's LA TRAVIATA. From the moment tenor Michael Fabiano came on stage, at Friday's performance of LA...

A sensational retelling of the story of Saul and David, the first two kings of the Israelites....

Opera Layfeyette presented LEONORE, OU L'AMOUR CONJUGAL in NYC at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater on February 23rd....

Rooted in the moral conflict between society's thirst for justice and Christianity's tenet of forgiveness, the modern American opera DEAD MAN WALKING is an apt selection for the Washington National Opera this season. With a moving score by Jake Heggie and an honest, straightforward libretto by Terre...

Monteverdi's L'INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA--THE CORONATION OF POPPEA--is considered the oldest opera in existence, but the version performed by Concerto Italiano at Carnegie Hall the other night, as part of the La Serenissima Festival (celebrating all things Venetian), showed it is also one of the fresh...

Tenor Vittorio Grigolo always seems most at home on stage when he's living close to the edge--portraying a character who's losing control (or about to) of his emotions. It was true earlier this season as Romeo, in Gounod's ROMEO ET JULIETTE at the Met opposite Diana Damrau and, in 2015, as Chevalier...

A funny thing happened on the way to Emperor Claudius' death scene: He didn't die. At least, that's what happens in Handel's opera AGRIPPINA, setting the convoluted plot in motion and giving the young singers of Juilliard Opera and its Juilliard415 period-instrument ensemble a heck of a ride, direct...

Audiences at the New York Philharmonic have been known to come for the soloists and then slip out for the symphony. There didn't seem to be a lot of that at last Thursday's performance led by maestro Manfred Honeck, which began with a wonderful Beethoven Piano Concerto #1 in C Major from Inon Barnat...

Anyone arriving at a performance of the Met's new RUSALKA, in Mary Zimmerman's production, thinking that there's going to be an evening of Disney-type fun from this distant cousin of THE LITTLE MERMAID, will be in for a big disappointment. But for those seeking beautiful music (including one of oper...

During the opening sequence of NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812--the extravagant, whirlwind of a show now playing at Broadway's Imperial (how fitting) Theatre--I couldn't help thinking how the Met could learn a thing or two from a show like this. No, I don't mean encouraging the audience ...

THE MAGIC MARKSMAN (DER FREISHÜTZ) at George Mason University and present by Virginia Opera certainly offered a spectacle. Directed by Stephen Lawless, the show's well-crafted sets, designed by Benoit Dugardyn, brought you into the small German-esque town. The lighting, designed by Patricia Collins...

Michael Mayer's revised production of Rigoletto in Las Vegas, complete with Vegas dancers, mobsters and a topless pole dancer is GREAT ENTERTAINMENT...