Opera Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 14

Review: A Singular Sensation Returns to Philadelphia Opera with the O22 Festival
by Richard Sasanow - October 06, 2022

O22, as Opera Philadelphia's festival was called this year, wasn’t exactly “something old, something new” but more like big fat sandwich cookie. On one side, there was a kind of “traditional” contemporary opera, Hosokawa’s THE RAVEN , a big filling of Rossini’s OTELLO opera seria in the middle, and ...

Review: AIDA, Royal Opera House
by Gary Naylor - September 29, 2022

A provocative and ultimately successful reimagining of opera's most operatic of works...

Review: IDOMENEO Returns to Met with Splendid Spyres, Glistening Fang, under Honeck's Fluid Conducting in House Debut
by Richard Sasanow - September 30, 2022

On the second night of the new season, the Met went for Mozart, with his early success, IDOMENEO, in a fluid and elegant performance, but it was hardly 'business as usual.'...

Review: Cherubini's MEDEA with a Shattering Radvanovsky Opens Met Season, Proving 'Hell Hath No Fury like a Woman Scorned'
by Richard Sasanow - September 28, 2022

Written over 400 years ago, Cherubini’s MEDEA finally made it to the Met on the season’s opening night, in a new production by David McVicar. Was it worth the wait? If you take it for Sondra Radvanovsky’s performance in the title role, a chilling, a Herculean task, it earns an unqualified yes. She’s...

Review: DIDO AND AENEAS at Bodhi Tree Concerts is filled with 'Music, Love, Magic, And Tragedy'
by E.H. Reiter - September 24, 2022

The opera DIDO AND AENEAS may clock in under an hour, but this production by Bodhi Tree Concerts is a delightful evening spent at a theatre. Performances are only this weekend through Sunday, September 25th so don’t delay!...

Review: New Camerata Opera Has 'Something Familiar, Something Peculiar…' in Its Boulanger-Ravel Double Bill at the Irondale Center
by Richard Sasanow - September 22, 2022

The new opera season started out for me far from Lincoln Center’s madding crowds, in Brooklyn’s Irondale Center, near BAM, with a pair of short pieces by French composers that definitely had their charms....

Review: THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO at Opera San José Transports the Action to Colorful Northern India
by Jim Munson - September 19, 2022

What did our critic think? BroadwayWorld reviews Opera San Jose's vibrant new production of Mozart's 'The Marriage of Figaro' set in a colorful Northern India, running through September 25th.hat did our critic think of THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO at Opera San Jose?...

Review: THE BEAR and AND I DECIDED..., Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - September 07, 2022

Opera at Home's double bill offers the traditional and the avant-garde...

Review: THE MAGIC FLUTE, Arcola Theatre
by Clementine Scott - August 18, 2022

Mozart’s elaborately plotted Singspiel concerning Prince Tamino’s fish-out-of-water immersion in a fantasy land of seductive Egyptian cults, demons, and vengeful queens resists straightforward transferral to a modern setting, but this is what Opera Alegría has attempted....

Review: Preview of Upcoming AMERICAN APOLLO Brings Des Moines Metro Opera Season to a Fine End
by DC Felton - August 17, 2022

Des Moines Metro Opera recently brought its 50th Anniversary season to a close, and they saved a special treat for their audiences. For the 2024 season, they are commissioning a full-length opera of AMERICAN APOLLO. As a treat to those in attendance this season, they offered the opportunity to see t...

Review: HMS PINAFORE, Opera Holland Park
by Gary Naylor - August 10, 2022

The Charles Court Opera company team up with Opera Holland Park in a co-production that that is just what we need right now...

Review: A THOUSAND ACRES by Kristin Kuster and Mark Campbell Makes a Stunning World Premiere at Des Moines Metro Opera
by DC Felton - August 08, 2022

When an organization reaches a milestone like 50 years, it can be easy to look back at everything that brought you to that milestone. While Des Moines Metro Opera's productions of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and PORGY AND BESS do that, they are also looking at the future with the world premiere produ...

Review: BLACK, EL PAYASO, THE CLOWN, Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - August 04, 2022

Grimeborn delivers another little gem with this pared back version of a somewhat obscure Spanish zarzuela...

Review: It's THREE DECEMBERS in July at Berkshire Opera Festival in New York
by Richard Sasanow - July 28, 2022

I’ve heard much praise about the quality of the vocal writing of Jake Heggie from singers who adore the way his music caresses their voices. But THREE DECEMBERS, performed this past weekend at the Berkshire Opera Festival at Pavilion Theatre, PS21 in Chatham, New York, was the first time I heard a c...

Review: DIE LUSTIGE WITWE/THE MERRY WIDOW at Opera On The Lake
by Jared Fessler - July 27, 2022

What did our critic think of THE MERRY WIDDOW at Opera On The Lake? Opera On the Lake is thrilled to be bringing Franz Lehar's operetta masterpiece to life at the Como Lakeside Pavilion on July 26, 27, and 29, 2022!...

Review: LITTLE WOMEN, Opera Holland Park
by Gary Naylor - July 25, 2022

Bold programming pays off with an opera that has its demands but offers rewards in equal measure...

Review: SUOR ANGELICA at Clayton Wesley Uniting Church
by Barry Lenny - July 24, 2022

An intimate and sensitive performance....

Review: MARGOT LA ROUGE/LE VILLI at Opera Holland Park
by Cheryl Markosky - July 22, 2022

What did our critic think of MARGOT LA ROUGE/LE VILLI at Opera Holland Park? You have to applaud Opera Holland Park for not only focusing on money-spinning blockbusters, but for giving rarely performed works an airing. In a double bill of short operas (think bite-sized short story rather than weight...

Review: MANON at Opera Wroclaw
by Natalia Jarczynska - July 21, 2022

What did our critic think of MANON at Opera Wroclaw? Manon has it all. Great duets, splendor, fantastic music, great scenography, perfect choir, and harmonious choreographies. This opera comique from the 19th century has a big come back after 40 years of absence on polish scenes, last production in ...

Review: J'NAI BRIDGES At Caramoor
by Peter Danish - July 14, 2022

Mezzo delivers powerful evening of song highlighting African American composers. On a spectacularly beautiful evening, in a spectacularly beautiful venue (Caramoor's Spanish Pavillion) the birds were singing brightly, children were running around playfully (some continued to do so right through the ...

Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at Des Moines Metro Opera
by DC Felton - July 13, 2022

Starting a theatre company is no easy feat, but for a theatre to be around for 50 years is something worth celebrating. You can celebrate 50 years with Des Moines Metro Opera this summer, which just opened up its 50th season with two spectacular productions. The season opened up a sold-out run of Th...

BWW Review: OTELLO, Royal Opera House
by Gary Naylor - July 13, 2022

Russell Thomas, Christopher Maltman and Hrachuhi Bassénz excel in an emotional and relevant production of Verdi's adaptation of Shakespeare's masterful study of jealousy, ruthlessness and much more....

Review: Snider's MASS Never Feels Endangered in Green-Wood Cemetery Catacombs
by Richard Sasanow - June 20, 2022

Last week, “The Angel’s Share”--which falls under the 'Death of Classical' umbrella--kicked off its new season at Green-Wood with a deeply poignant piece, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s MASS FOR THE ENDANGERED, a re-imagining of the Latin Mass with text, combining traditional and new, by poet Nathan Bellow...

Review: Met Orchestra with Goerke, Jovanovich, Owens under Nezet-Seguin Conquers Wagner, Lets Mazzoli Shine Through
by Richard Sasanow - June 18, 2022

You’d have thought that the Met Orchestra would have had enough by the end of the season in the opera house, but, no. Their New York season really ended at Carnegie Hall this week with a pair of concerts combining some opera excerpts with orchestral pieces by composers also known for their opera wor...

BWW Review: MADAME BUTTERFLY at Opera Wroclaw
by Natalia Jarczynska - June 20, 2022

If you want to witness the materialization of the word beauty, see this show. With thrilling voices, amazing Puccini music, and vital presentation this opera will lead you straight to musical heaven....