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BWW Review: Eternal Love Story, LA BOHÈME Returns To Sydney Opera House
Director Gale Edwards' interpretation of Giacomo Puccini's LA BOHÈME returns for Opera Australia's 2016 Summer Season....
BWW Review: New York Opera in 2015 - Gifts that Keep on Giving
No more carping about out-of-tune singing (for the rest of 2015). No more bemoaning opera directors who don't seem to like the art of opera (for the next five minutes). No more worrying whether traditional opera will go the way of all flesh (for the next few days, at least). It's time to give up on ...
BWW Review: Baroque Opera Gets a Modern Makeover in YOU WE US ALL
As the title implies You We Us All explores that which binds humanity, from the seeming ubiquity of shallow, Western pop-culture to archetypal human values and experiences embodied literally on the stage as the characters Hope, Virtue, Time, Death and Love....
BWW Review: BARITONES UNBOUND Soars to Entertaining, Lyrical Heights at the Royal George Theatre
Equal parts self-congratulatory and self-deprecating--and wholly entertaining--the three-man show BARITONES UNBOUND pays homage to that elusive vocal part between the tenor and the bass: the titular baritone. Conceived by Marc Kudisch (who originated the role of Pastor Greg last spring in Broadway's...
BWW Review: Vivaldi's CATONE is a 'Hot Mess' - and a Great One from Opera Lafayette
On paper, Vivaldi's 1737 opera seria CATONE IN UTICA--involving a confrontation between Cato and Caesar--seems a big mess: The music from the first act is missing and musicologists can't agree what the third act should look and sound like, leaving Act II to make or break a performance of the opera. ...
BWW Review: THE MERRY WIDOW Comes Up Singing at Lyric Opera
With artful direction and choreography from Susan Stroman, Lyric Opera's mounting of Franz Lehar's well-known 1905 operetta THE MERRY WIDOW sweeps audiences into a joyful waltz, complete with exquisite talent and a production with opulence to spare. This production debuted at the Metropolitan Opera ...
BWW Review: The Met's 'Ratpack' RIGOLETTO and the Art of Making Opera
The Met's production of Verdi's great opera RIGOLETTO, is often referred to as the 'Ratpack' version--because it is set in the Las Vegas days of Frank Sinatra and his high-living cronies. From its debut, it was a huge success for the company and with good cause. It was brilliantly conceived and sung...
BWW Review: MARTIN HALPERN CHAMBER OPERAS Dream at Shetler Studios
The best part of living in New York is that some of our most radically creative artists are performing. Unadorned studio spaces such as Shetler Studios on West 54th Street in midtown Manhattan host exclusive gatherings, where all of the high pomp of the fine arts strips down in an air of charming mo...
BWW Review: Madison Opera's LA BOHEME Reminds Us To See the Beauty
“How do I live? I live!” Exclaimed Mackenzie Whitney as Rodolfo in Madison Opera's fifth incarnation of Giacomo Puccini's La Bohéme. Among the stunning lyrics speaking of love, poverty, and poetry, it was this simple exclamation that stood out on its own....
BWW Review: WNO's APPOMATTOX Struggles to Capture the Civil Rights Movement
Appomattox is being presented as a world premiere of a revised version. For those unaware, the opera started out as an opera in 2007, was transformed into a play and now is an opera again. After Saturday night's opening, it would appear that more rewrites are needed....
BWW Review: A LULU of an Evening at the Met with Soprano Petersen in the New Kentridge Production
Who or what is Lulu, the eponymous character in Alban Berg's landmark opera? Is she saint or sinner? Femme fatale or victim? Put-upon or mistress of her own fate? Whatever else she might be, she is fabulous in the hands of German soprano Marlis Petersen, as the center of William Kentridge's vibrant,...
BWW Review: Richard Tucker Gala Anoints Jamie Barton 2015 Prize Winner at Geffen Hall Concert
The Richard Tucker Music Foundation's annual galas--celebrating each year's winner of the Tucker Award to young American singers--are known for two things. First, they are notoriously fun evenings of opera warhorses and, second, they are guessing games: Which of the singers scheduled to perform won'...
BWW Review: Lyric's WOZZECK Stirs the Brain in Cracking Production
Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck is not the first to swirl with immortal themes like power play, lust, betrayal, and death (far, far from it), but thanks to the circumstances of its composition - further emphasized by Sir David McVicar's new production at the Lyric Opera - it is prominent in its search to...
BWW Review: The Diva Out-Divas the Diva in the Met's TOSCA
The title character in Puccini's TOSCA is the quintessential diva--a grand performer ('goddess' in Italian) who thinks the world revolves around her, particularly when it comers to her lover, painter Mario Cavaradossi. The same might be said for soprano Angela Gheorghiu, who used to be a top attract...
BWW Review: YEOMEN Shines at Winter Opera
St. Louis' Winter Opera gives a delightful 'Yeomen of the Guard.'...
BWW Review: Live from New York - It's the 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition Winners
The recital at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall on October 24 by the winners of the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition was like an “amuse bouche”--a gift from the chef at the start of a meal at a fine French restaurant to tickle your tongue. It was absolutely delicious, but left you hungering f...
BWW Review: Electrifying ELEKTRA from Goerke, Nelsons and the Boston Symphony at Carnegie Hall
One thing you should know about Richard Strauss's ELEKTRA: When it's done right, the audience works itself into a fever pitch and—after the orchestra has played the final notes—it stands and screams its head off. I've seen this before and it happened again the other night, with sopranos Christin...
BWW Review: Let's Hear It for the Boys, in TANNHAUSER at the Met
Almost 40 years ago, on short notice, the great tenor Jon Vickers (who died this summer at 90) caused a scandal when he pulled out of the premiere of the Met's still-current production of Wagner's 'Tannhauser' because he considered the opera anti-Christian. Well, nothing that exciting happened when...
BWW Review: Despite Game Cast, PIRATES with MasterVoices Abandons Ship at New York City Center
Bravo to the Collegiate Chorale for taking things up a notch--changing its name to MasterVoices and taking on an ambitious season that opened with a semi-staged production of Gilbert & Sullivan's THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE at New York City Center, with a game cast including some top Broadway performers...
BWW Review: MASTERVOICE'S PIRATES OF PENZANCE at City Center
Deftly sung by a chorus of 100+ Broadway and Opera Veterans...
BWW Review: H.M.S. PINAFORE at Hillcrest Theater For The Arts
Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operetta, 'H.M.S. Pinafore,' made its debut last weekend at the Hillcrest Center for the Arts, and for all intents and purposes, it was just another in a long line of highly entertaining shows staged by the venerable Ventura County Gilbert & Sullivan Repertoire Company. ...
BWW Review: Sondra Radvanovsky Thrills in Met ANNA BOLENA
The Met came late to the trio of Donizetti operas about British queens, when it finally mounted ANNA BOLENA mounted for Anna Netrebko in 2011. This was long after Beverly Sills made her deal with the devil, trading her voice for the cover of Time Magazine, by singing Anne Boleyn, Mary Queen of Scots...
BWW Review: DOUBLE BILL: BASTIEN UND BASTIENNE AND LA CHANSON DE FORTUNIO Brings Together Two Comic Operas About Love And Lust
The two hilarious comic opera 's presented were Mozart's Bastien und Bastienne and Offenbach's La Chanson de Fortunio....
BWW Review: Yoncheva as Desdemona Shines in New Verdi OTELLO at the Met
When Verdi and Boito were writing their operatic version of Shakespeare's OTHELLO, they were competing with the already-successful (though less faithful) version written by Rossini and thought about calling their opera IAGO. After seeing Bartlett Sher's new production of the Verdi OTELLO, I wondered...
BWW Review: Pacific Opera And Sydney Youth Orchestra Present THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN At Sydney Grammar School
Leoš Jana?ek's THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN is reinterpreted by Michael Campbell (Director) in this new collaboration between Pacific Opera, Sydney Youth Orchestra and Sydney Grammar School....
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