OPERA THEATER REVIEWS

Even without an over-the-top production—and the Met has had a couple of those—Richard Strauss’s SALOME has been outraging audiences for more than 120 years. This week’s new take by director Claus Guth in his Met debut was no exception....

When we last saw Brunnhilde in Atlanta, in the second segment of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle, DIE WALKURE, she’d been punished by the gods for saving Sieglinde, but rescued by her father, Wotan. She was forced into sleep on a rock surrounded by a ring of fire, until wakened some day by a hero. T...

For many Edmontonians, the Telus World of Science evokes fond childhood memories. Until April 15, one of the museum’s most beloved features- the Zeidler Dome- lights up with Edmonton Opera’s dazzling sold-out production, Aquarius: Songs of the Stars. The Zeidler Dome- a digital theatre famous ...

Macheath’s back in town! Or at least he was for a few short days, when the Berliner Ensemble brought its now-famous Barrie Kosky production of THREEPENNY OPERA to BAM, in association with St. Ann’s Warehouse....

What’s a Mozart lover to do? Great music and a more-than-decent cast don’t necessarily add up to an enchanting night at the opera. Yes, it’s true that LE NOZZE DI FIGARO ('The Marriage of Figaro') has some of Mozart’s most delicious music; there’s no denying that. Where do I start? “Dove...

What did our critic think of SAN DIEGO OPERA PRESENTS STRAUSS'S SALOME at San Diego Civic Theater? Richard Strauss’s eerie and perverse Salome is based on Oscar Wilde’s play of the same name, as adapted by librettist Hedwig Lachmann. Wilde was inspired by the Biblical tale of Princess Salome an...

With plenty of colour, masks, and a mystical ambience, Andrei Șerban’s 1984 production of Turandot feels just as fresh as ever. Paired with a stellar cast on top form, it represents a great success, all around....

Imagine being a rising young opera singer and getting to sing two solos from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. And picture receiving $20,000 and the prestige, exposure and networking opportunities that come with it. That's what came to Sopranos Alissa Goretsky and Emma Marhefka, Mezzos Sadie Ches...

What did our critic think of LA BOHEME at Lyric Opera Of Chicago? Giacomo Puccini’s heartbreaking La Boheme is playing for 10 performances at the Lyric. Bring a handkerchief. Director Melanie Bacaling, in her Lyric directorial debut, has given this production an emotional feel which is the heart o...

Political prisoner is rescued from dungeon by his faithful wife, only to find that she’s pregnant! Shocking! Not really: Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen, who’s shown herself indispensable in roles from Tchaikovsky’s QUEEN OF SPADES to Strauss’s ARIADNE AUF NAXOS starts her maternity leave a...

This will be talked about for a long time to come....

MOBY-DICK--Herman Melville’s epic tale of obsession and man-versus-nature, succinctly adapted by composer Jake Heggie with Gene Scheer’s taut libretto--roared into the Met Monday night and begged only one question: What took so long for it to get here?...

An animated revival of Adele Thomas’s 2023 production, Il Trovatore strays from realism and instead focuses on a symbolic reading of this dark and gritty opera. With macabre medieval costumes, eery effects and a brilliant cast, it’s an unnerving experience....

And so to the final new production of English National Opera’s season; Mary, Queen of Scots, directed by Stewart Laing and conducted by Joana Carneiro. Scottish composer Thea Musgrave’s opera was last heard in London at Sadler’s Wells back in 1980, after premiering in Edinburgh in 1977, with ...

While opera-lovers wait eagerly for soprano Julia Bullock’s appearance in the latest John Adams lyric drama, ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA at the Met in May, Bullock continues to tantalize us with some other parts of her repertoire, from the Baroque (her recent program with the Orchestra of the Age of Enli...

What did our critic think of THE SNOWY DAY at MN Opera?...

The people at Heartbeat Opera--that dazzling reinvention-machine for taking works that you think you might have heard one time too often and making them compelling--must have had a crystal ball when they programmed Strauss’s SALOME long before the current, decadent regime took control in US politi...

In an unprecedented collaboration, the Columbus Symphony, BalletMet, Opera Columbus, and the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA) have all joined forces to present West Side Story, the classic forbidden love story and rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks in a mesmerizing fusion of ...

Mark-Anthony Turnage has a provocative habit of turning unconventional narratives into opera...

Michael Hersch took no prisoners with his new opera, AND WE, EACH, a production of the Baltimore musical organization, Mind on Fire, which had its New York premiere on February 6 at National Sawdust in Williamsburg, Brooklyn....

Joe Hill-Gibbins’s new production of The Marriage of Figaro for English National Opera opened back in March 2020 for a single performance before Covid struck. Thankfully, nearly five years on it has been given a second life at the London Coliseum and it is a riotous delight from start to finish....

Anyone who’s spent enough time watching network TV knows an American criminal justice system that is built around simplistic stories of the good guys (hard-working prosecutors and police detectives) putting away the bad guys (“perps” of all stripes) with the help of brilliant DNA evidence that...

The COC’s 2025 production of this masterpiece seamlessly blends performance practice tradition with a contemporary perspective on the story’s timeless themes....

Even though there’s no shortage of contemporary opera around, we all still long for the rediscovery of a delightful operatic work from the archives, particularly a comedy, of which there is a short supply. Would Opera Philadelphia’s THE ANONYMOUS LOVER (L’AMANT ANONYME)--by Joseph Bologne, Che...

Robert Carsen's vision is as uncompromising as ever, but the world has changed in three short years...