OPERA THEATER REVIEWS

I am taken back to the first Opera I saw as a kid and the pomp and circumstance with wearing a tux and walking to the lavish theatre; this was when I fell in love with classical music. Often times we hear opera and other classical art forms are inaccessible to the people, but Houston Grand Opera's E...

I consider Mozart's DON GIOVANNI at the top of my list of favorite operas--the music starts to go through my head without much encouragement and gets stuck there. Yet, it's also one of the most problematic in performance, calling for a large group of A-list singers to do justice to the ripe and some...

Mozart's infrequently performed LA CLEMENZA DI TITO is well-done by Opera in the Heights. From start to finish, their LA CLEMENZA DI TITO is a marvelous work, filled with beautiful, emotive singing, accompanied by an orchestral performance that is sumptuous and dynamic, all working together to bring...

Emerging from the dark prisons of Fidelio comes a show with darker themes, a more sinister villain, and higher stakes. Madison Opera premiered their Sweeney Todd in Capitol Theatre last night to a crowd eager to see what they could do. Fans of the Stephen Sondheim musical in its original capacity, t...

Westmont's one-act operas are an example of student theatre that takes risks and introduces conversations about the diverse range of possibilities within the sphere of the theatrical arts....

I don't know when the next time the Met is planning to bring back Tchaikovsky's final opera, IOLANTA (libretto by his brother Modest) into its repertory, but they should, and quickly. And if you have the opportunity, run to see it as fast as you can. It's not often that the Met puts on a opera and p...

Without a doubt, Gounod's ROMEO & JULIET is one of Austin Opera's finest productions, and they have assembled a cast of the highest caliber. Paired with a gorgeous set, costumes and staging, this is not a production that one would want to miss. 'If music be the food of love, play on.'...

Winter Opera St. Louis, after a brilliant production of 'Le Nozze di Figaro', continues its eighth season with a venture into less familiar fare - Pietro Mascagni's 'L'amico Fritz'....

With all its money problems, why hasn't the Met thought about doing some lesser known works in concert? Or, for that matter, marshalled some of its glamorous resources to put on the Verdi REQUIEM? For the time being, we have to be grateful for the New York Philharmonic and its Music Director Alan Gi...

Moffatt Oxenbould's (Director) staging of MADAMA BUTTERFLY is revived by Matthew Barclay (Revival Director) to share this doomed love story with new audiences. Whilst other operas presented by Opera Australia in their 2015 season have been re-imaginings, changing locations and eras, MADAMA BUTTERFL...

Once upon a time, the Met used to be able to pull off an operetta, like the Rudolf Bing-era FLEDERMAUS, with its Garson Kanin libretto and lyrics by Broadway's Howard Dietz. But for the second year in a row--after last season's dire FLEDERMAUS from writer Douglas Carter Beane and director Jeremy Sam...

The idea of finding your voice is a two way street in the world premiere one-hour opera PENNY. Composer Douglas Pew and librettist Dara Weinberg have created a succinct, lyrical piece in which their title character discovers her talent for music and is able to communicate and take charge of her life...

Is there another staple of major opera houses that's as big a mess as LES CONTES D'HOFFMAN by Jacques Offenbach? If there is, I can't think of it--but it doesn't keep it from being wildly enjoyable in the right hands. The Met's current production is entertaining, in spite of itself....

For the second time in two seasons, casting has made me reconsider a Met production that I'd written off as past its expiration date. The first was Diana Damrau and Javier Camarena in Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA. This time around it's the wonderful Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva, who breathed new lif...

Thirteen years after its concert premiere with the New York Philharmonic, New Yorkers finally saw a fully staged production of Rodion Shchedrin's opera THE ENCHANTED WANDERER. The Mariisnky Theatre began its two-week residency at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with a one-night only performance of thi...

Donizetti's MARIA STUARDA is a chamber piece blown up to grand opera proportions. That was the takeaway from the new production--that centers on a fictional battle royal between Elizabeth I (Elisabetta) and her cousin Mary (Maria) Stuart, better known as Mary, Queen of Scots--at Barcelona's historic...

Opera Australia brings Puccini's classic TOSCA to life with John Bell's (Director) resetting which takes the story from the Neapolitan occupied Rome of 1800 during the French Revolutionary wars to Nazi occupied Rome 1943 during World War II....

One moment, the performers march militantly across the stage and screech like sirens, the next, they sing Pergolesi's galant Stabat Mater like sweet seraphim. The thirty-one performers of TOXIC PSALMS, the latest production created by conductor Karmina Šilec and her ensemble CARMINA SLOVENICA, have...

THE SCARLET IBIS is one of three new operas to have its world premiere as a part of this year's PROTOTYPE FESTIVAL, New York's incubator for cutting edge, interdisciplinary performance. With any new work, I never fail to ask myself: Did it have an emotional impact? Was it good enough that I would se...

Opera Australia presents a powerful, emotion charged re-imagining of Puccini's LA BOHÈME which proves once again that this love story remains relevant, regardless of which century it is set....

Opera Australia brings back Julie Taymor's modern interpretation of THE MAGIC FLUTE, for the 2015 Summer Season. Translated to English by J D McClatchy, this version, originally created for the Metropolitan Opera of New York in 2005 gives the 18th Century story of the education of mankind a modern ...

For New York opera-goers, what was the event of the year? Undoubtedly, John Adams's THE DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER, not only for the kerfuffle caused by the [unfounded] claims of anti-Semitism but for the opera's exciting debut at the Met. (The Met's contentious labor negotiations nearly edged it out, tho...

It seems only fitting that in its efforts to introduce a musical form as grown-up as the opera to younger audiences, that the Kennedy Center has picked for this holiday season the children's classic THE LITTLE PRINCE, a story all about grown-ups trying to understand children trying to understand gro...

A funny thing happened on the way to Handel's MESSIAH: That would be Monty Python's LIFE OF BRIAN, transformed from the film by Eric Idle (the jokes) and John Du Prez (the music) into NOT THE MESSIAH (HE'S A VERY NAUGHTY BOY). This comic oratorio resulted in a very jolly evening, which The Collegiat...

I never ran a marathon, but I sure sat through one the other night at the Met. Richard Wagner's DIE MEISTERSINGER clocked in at six hours--a quarter of a day--without a god or flying horse in sight. And while the composer referred to this as a comedy, it's not exactly “I Love Lucy” (nor, for tha...