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Review: THIS HOUSE at Opera Theatre Of St. Louis
'This House', a world premiere opera at Opera Theatre of St. Louis is the saga of a Harlem family that is both blest and cursed....
Review: QUEEN OF SPADES at Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera's revival of Tchaikovsky’s *The Queen of Spades*, which opened on Friday, May 23, 2025, offered a visually opulent and musically ambitious evening, though not without its challenges. Elijah Moshinsky’s elegant 1995 production, with its sumptuous sets and period costumes, p...
Review: THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, Opera Holland Park
Stormy weather and an enthusiastic audience mark Julia Burbach’s The Flying Dutchman as it proves a smashing success to open the 2025 season of Opera Holland Park....
Review: DIE FLEDERMAUS at Opera Theatre Of St. Louis
For nearly half a century the Opera Theatre of St. Louis has been bringing quite glorious opera to our fair city. It just opened its semicentennial season with a brilliant and lively production of Die Fledermaus, by Johann Strauss II. ...
Review: PORGY AND BESS at Kennedy Center
The pivotal and star-crossed main characters and the Catfish Row community come alive in the highly influential, thought-provoking, and engrossing opera Porgy and Bess. This much discussed opera has its partisans and detractors but there is a distinct need to ponder and consider a work of this quali...
Review: FAUST, Royal Ballet And Opera
Celebrating its sixth revival, David McVicar’s critically acclaimed production of Faust is a spectacular success with stunning sets and costumes, a magnificent cast, and some of Gounod’s greatest music....
Review: Kevin Puts Has Georgia (and Alfred) on His Mind in BRIGHTNESS at NY Philharmonic
This past weekend, composer Kevin Puts’s BRIGHTNESS OF LIGHT, based on the long, abundant correspondence of artist Georgia O’Keeffe and photographer/gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, had its long overdue New York premiere, with the New York Philharmonic under debuting conductor Brett Mitchell, and sop...
Review: New Cast, Great Fun at Met’s BARBIERE
When mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina stepped on stage in the Met’s new production of CARMEN, back on New Year’s Eve of 2023, it was hard to imagine her in any other role because of the way she completely inhabited it. Would we ever be able to watch her in anything else, despite credits from other...
Review: IL BARBIÈRE DI SIVIGLIA, Glyndebourne Festival
Opera buffa is an ever-popular genre of the art, and more than two centuries after its composition, Rossini's Il barbière di Siviglia remains one this genre's most often staged operas. The music and lyrics are pure genius, but the success of this particular opera comes from an inherent understand...
Review: Exciting Bullock and Finley Take on Met Debut of Adams’s ANTONY & CLEOPATRA
There’s an old expression, “A lawyer who defends himself has a fool for a client.” While John Adams didn’t decide to take on the libretto for his latest opera, Monday night’s Met premiere, ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, all on his own, I wonder whether he might have bypassed the one resource that m...
Review: TOSCA at McCaw Hall
Ending the season with a memorable production of one of opera’s most tour de force masterpieces is sure to motivate audiences to return for Seattle Opera’s next season...
Review: World Premiere of Moravec-Campbell ALL SHALL RISE At OSNY under Tritle at Carnegie Hall
By definition, the historical view of the oratorio is that it’s typically religious in nature, performed unstaged and without costumes or scenery. Going by that description, The Oratorio Society of New York’s (OSNY) program at Carnegie Hall this week—a combination of contemporary and cl...
Review: AMERICAN RHAPSODY at Kennedy Center
An evening of the myriad modes of music that constitute the American Experience was celebrated at the Kennedy Center’s production of American Rhapsody. The evening was a rich treasure trove of the glory that is American music from opera, spirituals, modern composers, classic songwriters, and Broad...
Review: PEER GYNT at St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
A rich and lively production of an Ibsen classic--with Grieg's full instrumental music. The St. Louis Symphony, with director Stéphane Denève, interpret Grieg’s music with their usual perfection. All in all it’s a memorable presentation of a very great work of music and theater....
Review: THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS at Kennedy Center
It’s not so strange, really, that there’s a serious opera about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. His life’s work is usually invoked before every production of the last decade or more, when audiences are asked to silence their smartphones....
Review: PIMPINONE, Royal Ballet and Opera
Super show that lightens a very dark subject (corecive control), but does not diminish it...
Review: SALOME Times Seven Doesn’t Add Up to Extra Enjoyment in New Met Production
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....
Review: Atlanta’s SIEGFRIED Showcases Spectacular Cast in Zvulun Production
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...
Review: Edmonton Opera Presents AQUARIUS: SONGS OF THE STARS
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 ...
Review: Berliner Ensemble's Gone-in-a-Flash THREEPENNY OPERA Spends Long Weekend at BAM
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....
Review: I Want a Divorce from the Met’s NOZZE DI FIGARO!
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...
Review: San Diego Opera Presents Strauss's SALOME at the San Diego Civic Theater
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...
Review: TURANDOT, Royal Ballet And Opera
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....
Let's Hear It for the Five Winners of the Met's 2025 Laffont Competition!
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...
Review: LA BOHEME at Lyric Opera Of Chicago
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...
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