OPERA THEATER REVIEWS

Houston Grand Opera is performing Gioachino Rossini's splendid, humorous, and simply delightful L'italiana in Algeri or THE ITALIAN GIRL IN ALGIERS for the first time. Even knowing that comedic operas exist, it is still seems somewhat like a contradiction to this opera novice. With that said, being ...

Houston Grand Opera is opening its 2012-2013 season with a lavish and fresh production of one of the world's favorite operas, LA BOHÈME by Giacomo Puccini. The familiar opera tells the story of four bohemian artists that live in the same garret (apartment) in 1830s Paris. The poet, Rodolfo, falls f...

Storytelling at its best, San Francisco Opera's co-production of new opera "Moby Dick" overwhelms upon sight and hearing. The magnificent production has some of the most exquisite music ever written for the stage. Jack Heggie's grand cinematic score moves faultlessly from solemn, contemplative momen...

Vincenzo Bellini's opera based on "Romeo and Juliet" does not follow the traditional Shakespeare plot, so it seems appropriate that the San Francisco Opera production, too, should veer away from traditional sets and costumes and create a world of its own....

Google the "Pearl Fishers Duet" and you'll find almost every famous opera singer has sung the exquisitely beautiful song. It's the type of song that makes it to Hollywood, but that you recognize when you hear it. But many don't recognize the story behind it, one that plays out in a three-act opera t...

I've seen the Union Avenue Opera's current production described as "Wagner-lite", and to a degree, that's true. But, any Wagner has the ability to be stirring and surprisingly cinematic in execution, and this presentation is no exception. Besides I prefer the description of DAS RHEINGOLD by Jonathon...

The opening of Leonard Bernstein's TROUBLE IN TAHITI in Cape Town this week was cause for great excitement and justifiably so. Bernstein's opera gets less of an airing both here and internationally than it should and the debut collaboration between Cape Town Opera and the Fugard Theatre is also a re...

In the best tradition of grand opera, Tosca has it all; love, lust, evil, betrayal, hate, suicide, even an execution. Add to all that, Giacomo Puccini's stirring music, highlighted by a couple of particularly memorable arias (famously performed by operatic legends Maria Callas and Luciano Pavarotti)...

During the month of June, Houston Grand Opera (HGO) in conjunction with Asia Society Texas produced and premiered a fantastic and newly commissioned opera New Arrivals, featuring a libretto by Catherine Filloux and music by John Glover. As a whole, New Arrivals is a sensational new opera that will h...

One of Giuseppe Verdi's lesser-performed operas, Attila lacks the hummable songs that have brought his better-known operas into popular culture. His complicated characters are ever-present, however, and his grand melodies support those characters with a commanding presence, especially when a large c...

Polka dots, neon and pastel colors, and innovative use of projector technology comprise a cheerful and vivid new production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, which premiered Wednesday night at the San Francisco Opera Memorial House. Although it sometimes lacks the dramatics needed to keep a strong moment...

A simple love story between a librarian and a young English teacher is the excuse for a twenty minute jukebox opera, inflicted on unsuspecting Edinburgh library goers all this week. The show will be performed in various Edinburgh City Libraries and the Scottish Poetry Library until Saturday the 16th...

DARK SISTERS, the new opera about a polygamist family with music by Nico Muhly, and libretto by Stephen Karam, takes a cue from the recent trial of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. Mainstream Mormonism and its polygamist roots have become popular topics of late, visible everywhere from the Republican prima...

Rife with corruption and intrigue, teeming with forbidden love and deception, Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto is among the most often performed operas in America - and Nashville Opera closes out its 2009-2010 season with a beautifully designed and sumptuously mounted production of the Italian masterpiece...