Review: Jonas Kaufmann Returns to New York in 'Anxious and Heavy' DOPPELGANGER
by Richard Sasanow - September 25, 2023
Another year, another Met season without Jonas Kaufmann. Sigh. What’s a music lover to do? His current set of performances is at the Park Avenue Armory’s Drill Hall--in a staged production by Claud Guth, commissioned by the Armory, of Schubert lieder, under the title DOPPELGANGER, an evening of autu...
Review: LA FORZA DEL DESTINO, Royal Opera House
by Gary Naylor - September 20, 2023
Sondra Radvanovsky, Brian Jagde and Etienne Dupuis lead a wonderful cast and orchestra in a near-overwhelming production that fully justifies its four hours running time...
Review: THE MIKADO, Grimeborn, Arcola Theatre
by Michael Higgs - September 20, 2023
It maintains the opera’s timeless charm, strong wit, and with a cast that never takes itself seriously, leads to an evening that has the audience roaring with laughter....
Review: Lise Davidsen's Recital at the Met will be a Hard Act for a DEAD MAN to Follow
by Richard Sasanow - September 17, 2023
The Metropolitan Opera somehow managed to upstage itself on Thursday, when it offered audiences a spectacular recital by Norwegian soprano Lisa Davidsen, with her excellent musical partner James Baillieu, on piano, 12 days before the company’s official opening night (the Jake Heggie-Terrence McNally...
Review: DAS RHEINGOLD, Royal Opera House
by Alexander Cohen - September 12, 2023
Given his political radicalism and fervent romanticism, it is more than fair to wonder if Richard Wagner would be partial to Just Stop Oil. Sporting his iconic beret, would he, if he were around today, brandish banners and block cars on the M1? Barrie Kosky may think so. He thrusts Wagner’s ecologic...
Review: RAGTIME at Union Avenue Opera
by Steve Callahan - August 22, 2023
When the musical Ragtime was produced for Broadway in 1998 it was a colossal, big-budget show. It cost some ten million dollars. What in the world were the folks at tiny little Union Avenue Opera thinking when they decided to include this show in their twenty-ninth season? Ragtime, the musical tr...