Opera Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 11

Review: RUDDIGORE, Opera Holland Park
by Gary Naylor - August 10, 2023

Super show, a little slow at first, but blossoming into an escapist entertainment that can be enjoyed as much in the 2020s as it was in the 1880s...

Review: In Saint-Saens' HENRI VIII, the King Has the Title but the Queens Are in Charge at Bard Festival
by Richard Sasanow - July 30, 2023

Donizetti’s so-called “Tudor Trilogy”--ANNA BOLENA, MARIA STUARDA and ROBERTO DEVEREUX (aka, “the one about Elizabeth I”)--suddenly has some competition on British history in opera: Camille Saint-Saens' HENRI VIII....

Review: NO FOR AN ANSWER, Grimeborn, Arcola Theatre
by Michael Higgs - July 28, 2023

A strong score, neat production by Mehmet Ergen and an excellent cast make it worth a watch, even if it has several plot-related issues...

Review: ITCH, Opera Holland Park
by Gary Naylor - July 27, 2023

Jonathan Dove's music underpins and enhances the tale of a teen suddenly thrust into a world of corporate power and environmental exploitation...

Review: Crutchfield's Teatro Nuovo Turns Fairy Godmother as CRISPINO Returns to New York
by Richard Sasanow - July 23, 2023

The famed playwright and wit George S. Kaufman once said, “Satire is what closes on Saturday night.” One can only imagine what Kaufman--whose many credits include YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU, as well as the source of Sondheim’s MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, which is circling Broadway for a return this fall-...

Review: PROM 11: HORRIBLE HISTORIES - 'ORRIBLE OPERA, Royal Albert Hall
by Kat Mokrynski - July 24, 2023

Prom 11: Horrible Histories ‘Orrible Opera is a delightful show that will amuse audiences of all ages while making opera more approachable....

Review: Splendid Donizetti Rarity POLIUTO Showed Its Great Bones via Crutchfield's Teatro Nuovo
by Richard Sasanow - July 20, 2023

Usually, when long-neglected works somehow find their way to the forefront, we find there’s a pretty good reason for the lack of interest. Happily for us, this does not apply to Donizetti’s POLIUTO, which Will Crutchfield’s Teatro Nuovo performed last weekend at Montclair State’s Kasser Theatre and ...

Review: THE TURN OF THE SCREW at Union Avenue Opera
by Benjamin Torbert - July 10, 2023

“The Turn of the Screw,” a deft psychological exploration of the dimensions of horror and the human mind. UAO’s successful staging of the work appropriately raised more questions than it answered, about danger, fear, the limits of human perception, and a host of other commonplaces in horror....

Review: CINDERELLA (CENDRILLON) at Artscape Opera House Is a Magical Blend of Opera, Ballet and Dialogue
by Jaime Uranovsky - July 05, 2023

Everyone has been acquainted with the story of CINDERELLA in some way, shape or form. What not everyone has experienced is this timeless tale told through a mixture of opera, ballet and acting. Indeed, this self-aware adaptation of Pauline Viardot’s chamber opera CINDERELLA (CENDRILLON), presented b...

Review: WOMAN AT POINT ZERO, Royal Opera House
by Gary Naylor - June 29, 2023

Unique production defies easy categorisation, but thrills and appals to live long in the memory...

Review: EVEREST, Barbican Theatre
by Alexander Cohen - June 26, 2023

An atmospheric story of a group of trapped explorers at the mercy of mother nature, the UK premiere of Joby Talbot’s Everest has a chillingly eerie resonance....

Review: WERTHER, Royal Opera House
by Alexander Cohen - June 21, 2023

A lacklustre central performance shifts the focus towards Charlotte's tragedy instead of Werther's....

Review: Madrid's Teatro Real Brings Out the Charms of Rossini's TURCO IN ITALIA with Oropesa
by Richard Sasanow - June 17, 2023

As I sat down to write about the delightful recent performance I heard of Rossini’s IL TURCO IN ITALIA at Madrid’s Teatro Real, with soprano Lisette Ororpesa in a charming new production by Laurence Pelly, I went to Spotify to see what kind of recordings were around. I was surprised to find more tha...

Review: Madrid's Teatro Real Brings Out the Charms and Laughs of Rossini's TURCO IN ITALIA
by Richard Sasanow - June 22, 2023

As I sat down to write about the delightful recent performance I heard of Rossini’s IL TURCO IN ITALIA at Madrid’s Teatro Real, with soprano Lisette Ororpesa in a charming new production by Laurence Pelly, I went to Spotify to see what kind of recordings were around. I was surprised to find more tha...

Review: HANSEL AND GRETEL, Opera Holland Park
by Cheryl Markosky - June 12, 2023

As a first taster to opera, Opera Holland Park's Hansel and Gretel isn't a bad place to start....

Review: IL TROVATORE, Royal Opera House
by Alexander Cohen - June 04, 2023

Adele Thomas' new production is a rollicking clash of carnivalesque weirdness and heartfelt desire....

Review: THE FLYING DUTCHMAN at Metropolitan Opera
by Peter Danish - June 02, 2023

Thomas Guggeis, the young German conductor making his Met debut, is Kapellmeister at the Staatsoper Berlin and the designated Generalmusikdirektor of the Oper Frankfurt; pretty impressive for one who has yet to hit his 30th birthday!   His Met debut was justly anticipated, as across Europe he is kno...

Review: Love It or Hate It, the Met's New MAGIC FLUTE Is a Creative Roller Coaster Ride
by Richard Sasanow - May 21, 2023

Of all the theatre directors that the Met has marshalled into its forces, Simon McBurney--who brought his version of Mozart’s DIE ZAUBERFLOTE (THE MAGIC FLUTE) to the Met on Friday in his house debut--may be the most successful in melding music and theatre, storytelling and visual elements....

Review: On Site Opera's TABARRO Brings Noir Puccini to New York's South Street Seaport
by Richard Sasanow - May 17, 2023

IL TABARRO has a special relationship to New York, since it’s the only Puccini to premiere here at the Metropolitan, in 1918. While it’s only the first third of the trio of short operas that go by the title IL TRITTICO, no one attending the other night’s performance by On Site Opera in partnership w...

Review: LA BOHÈME at Kennedy Center
by David Friscic - May 17, 2023

The glorious music of Puccini remains the principal reason to see the Washington National Opera’s (WNO)current production of the beloved classic opera La bohème. This oft-referenced opera that has influenced everything from the famous film Moonstruck to the hit Broadway musical Rent, must be a fairl...

Review: Splendid Singing, Erratic Direction Mark the Met's New DON GIOVANNI from Van Hove
by Richard Sasanow - May 11, 2023

While I’ve always been bothered by the cruelties and misogyny of the main character, Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI has (musically) been my favorite of the composer’s operas, though either casting or design has been a regular issue in bringing off the work at its best. Happily, the Met’s new production by Be...

Review: Opera Philadelphia's Mimi and Rodolfo Walk Off into the Sunset in Yuval Sharon's LA BOHEME
by Richard Sasanow - May 10, 2023

In an opera filled with gorgeous music, it’s hard to beat the end of LA BOHEME’s Act One, with the trifecta of arias about young love. If only tragedy and sadness weren’t going to catch up with the central pair, Mimi and Rodolfo, and their friends, in the succeeding three “tales from the Bohemian li...

Review: MasterVoices Shows that There's Still Life in Gilbert & Sullivan's IOLANTHE in the 21st Century
by Richard Sasanow - May 05, 2023

Maybe the Met should stop thinking about THE MERRY WIDOW and DIE FLEDERMAUS when it takes a turn at operetta—let alone the bevy of comic operas by Rossini and Donizetti that are given more than their due on a regular basis—and let Gilbert & Sullivan (G&S) have a turn at bat....

Review: Thar's Gold – DAS RHEINGOLD – at Atlanta Opera in Tomer Zvulun's Entry into 'The Ring'
by Richard Sasanow - May 01, 2023

There are no supernatural women arriving on horseback to escort slain warriors to the afterlife--just a trio of mermaids, a couple of giants and a loveless dwarf, along with a bunch of gods, demi-gods and grotesque humans in Richard Wagner’s DAS RHEINGOLD, the first part of the composer’s Ring cycle...

Review: The Met Welcomes the Next Generation at Its Laffont Competition
by Richard Sasanow - April 25, 2023

While there’s always a great deal of talk about where the next generation of operagoers is coming from, there’s much less hand-wringing about the sources of the new generation of singers. After hearing the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition’s Grand Finals Concert at the Met on Sunday afternoon, ...