Opera Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 17

BWW Review: DER FREISCHÜTZ at Opera Wroclaw
by Natalia Jarczynska - October 25, 2021

What a romantic night! Well, this show is considered the first German Romantic opera after all. This piece at the Wroclaw Opera House is easy to watch, even for people not used to the (German) opera. In my opinion it's more of a musical and I'm a huge fan of from this approach!...

BWW Review: Season's First TURANDOT Adds a Fourth Question - Is It Time to Retire Zeffirelli's Popular Production?
by Richard Sasanow - October 15, 2021

Nobody goes to see the Met’s TURANDOT for subtlety and, from that standpoint, the audience got what it paid for at the opera’s first performance of the season. That is, except, perhaps from soprano Christine Goerke in the title role, who gave a finely nuanced performance when the production didn’t g...

BWW Review: Well, Hello, Jonas, It's So Nice to Have You Back Where You Belong (New York, That Is)
by Richard Sasanow - October 11, 2021

The opening lines of Jonas Kaufmann’s lieder concert at Carnegie Hall Saturday night, weren’t exactly ones that fill the heart with joy: “My songs are filled with poison—why shouldn’t that be true? Into my budding manhood, you poured your poison through.” But to have Kaufmann back in New York was a ...

BWW Review: THE IDEA, Jack Studio Theatre
by Gary Naylor - October 08, 2021

Irrational Theatre resurrect a long neglected work from the early days of the celebrated composer and find plenty of parallels with 20th century comedy and 21st century politics....

BWW Review: The Met's Short Version of BORIS is Good-Enough for Me
by Richard Sasanow - September 30, 2021

The Lady or the Tiger? In this case, both are Mussorgsky’s BORIS GODUNOV—just different versions of it. Which is the preferred one? (Or, more properly, “the preferred one of several,” including one that the composer’s friend, Rimsky Korsakov, fiddled with after his death.) The Met chose Mussorgsky's...

BWW Review: Blanchard's FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES Opens Met Season with Fireworks
by Richard Sasanow - September 28, 2021

It’s been a long 18 months since the last opera on the Met’s stage. The Terence Blanchard-Kasi Lemmons FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES roared into Lincoln Center to let the audience know what it has been missing....

BWW Review: This CARMEN's Ready for Her Close-up on Film in Atlanta
by Richard Sasanow - September 20, 2021

For one of the most popular operas in the traditional repertoire--ABC in the opera world means AIDA, BOHEME and CARMEN--the work by Bizet has had to have more lives than the proverbial cat to get there. The version, now called THE THREEPENNY CARMEN, by the Atlanta Opera’s General and Artistic Direct...

BWW Review: Nezet-Seguin and Met Forces Return to the Stage with Verdi REQUIEM as Tribute to 9/11
by Richard Sasanow - September 18, 2021

Though the Met’s season doesn’t technically start till the end of the month, the company started off with a pair of what French chefs might call “amuses bouches”—sort of tastebud teasers. The first was Mahler’s Second, which was done in the open air; the second was its first inside the hall:The Verd...

BWW Review: RIGOLETTO, Royal Opera House
by Gary Naylor - September 17, 2021

Rigoletto delves deep into the human psyche to ask questions both through its subject matter and its melding of music and voices...

BWW Review: ORFEO ED EURIDICE / ZANETTO, Arcola Outside
by Gary Naylor - September 06, 2021

The Grimeborn Festival presents two short operas concerning love failing to land as required, leading to tragic consequences...

BWW Review: PAGLIACCI at Lyric Opera of Chicago
by Maria Nockin - September 01, 2021

Lyric Opera of Chicago announced that registration is now open for audiences to secure a free link to screen its new, original film production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, made at the Lyric Opera House. Audiences can now secure a free, on-demand viewing of this verismo production. More information ab...

BWW Review: TOSCA at Opera Wroclaw
by Natalia Jarczynska - September 01, 2021

​​​​What can I say, Tosca was so great I really don't know where to start. Set design, lights, costumes and actors were so perfect together that watching the show was like stepping into hot chocolate, a phenomenal pleasure for all the senses directed with a virtuosity by Michael Gieleta....

BWW Review: SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY'S OPENING CONCERT AT THE NEW RADY SHELL AMPHITHEATER in Jacobs Park
by Ron Bierman - August 11, 2021

What was a makes-you-jump BOOM!! doing in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue? Had someone mistakenly lit an 1812 Overture cannon? Were we under attack?! Oh wait! It was just a bass drum resonating through the San Diego Symphony’s spectacular new state-of-the-art sound system at the Rady Shell. And so, Rafa...

BWW Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Simulcast To Cars in Parking Lot
by Maria Nockin - August 05, 2021

British stage director Netia Jones put her singular stamp on a production of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream seen at the Santa Fe Opera on August 4, 2021. Performed in the opera house, it was simulcast to the lower parking lot where hundreds of patrons watched from the safety of their c...

BWW Reviews: Santa Fe's Back with a MIDSUMMER Treat and a LORD-ly Mishap
by Richard Sasanow - August 04, 2021

There are a number of parallels between the two operas I saw in Santa Fe (NM) this past weekend: The Benjamin Britten/Peter Pears treatment of Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and the world premiere of the John Corigliano/Mark Adamo THE LORD OF CRIES. The first was, for me at least, an all-ar...

BWW Review: Splendid FELLOW TRAVELERS at Des Moines Metro Opera
by DC Felton - July 22, 2021

Every once in a while, a show comes along that takes you completely by surprise. For me, this recently happened with Des Moines Metro Opera's one-night-only performance of FELLOW TRAVELERS at Hoyt Sherman Place....

BWW Review: PLATEE at Des Moines Metro Opera: An Exciting Updated Production for a Classic Opera
by DC Felton - July 13, 2021

Pink, voguing, drag, stiletto heels, opera, seeing that list, you may feel that opera seems out of place, but you couldn't be more wrong. On July 10, Des Moines Metro Opera (DMMO) took all those and melded them together as they opened the company's premiere production of 'Platée.' While many compani...

BWW Review: MAZEPPA - Opera Blockbuster at Bolshoi Theatre
by Ani Arutyunyan - July 08, 2021

Recently the Bolshoi Theatre presented Tchaikovsky's three acts opera 'Mazeppa', based on Pushkin's poem 'Poltava', part of cultural legacy of Mazeppa. Pushkin took some creative freedom in order to create powerful characters and grand passions. The opera was composed between June 1881 and April 188...

BWW Review: QUEEN OF SPADES in Des Moines Sets Off Fireworks of Its Own in Time for the Holiday
by DC Felton - July 06, 2021

While fireworks may have been going off outside on July 3, Des the Des Moines Metro Opera continued their grand opening weekend after a year with no live opera. The celebration inside was for the opening of their second production of the summer, Tchaikovsky's THE QUEEN OF SPADES, with a libretto b...

BWW Review: Attend the Tale of SWEENEY TODD in Des Moines—the Perfect Evening After a Year Without Theatre
by DC Felton - July 07, 2021

On June 27th, 2019, Des Moines Metro Opera announced its 2020 season to the public but what captured my attention was a barber's chair dimly lit by a window above it. There is only one show that this could have been, Stephen Sondheim's SWEENEY TODD. I had seen the recording of the original product...

BWW Review: Beethoven Rises from the Dead at Green-Wood Cemetery Thanks to Violinist Gil Shaham, The Knights and “Death of Classical”
by Richard Sasanow - June 29, 2021

Pre-Covid, to quote an old groaner, people were dying to get into Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery for the Angel’s Share concert series spearheaded by Andrew Ousley, producer of “Death of Classical.” The latest concert, on June 25, starred violinist Gil Shaham and The Knights ensemble in a sparkling '...

BWW Review: COSI FAN TUTTE at Opera Wroclaw
by Natalia Jarczynska - June 28, 2021

Opera is not always easy to digest, but this piece is an ideal start for beginners. Perfectly well prepared, full of life and elegance will be a wonderful evening that you can spend surrounded by high culture. It is a lively, cheerful and lively spectacle....

BWW Review: EXPRESS G&S, Pleasance Theatre
by Gary Naylor - June 24, 2021

Hop on the Express G&S and see a detective solve a mystery with the help of some of Gilbert and Sullivan's greatest hits....

BWW Review: J'Nai Bridges Recital for LA Opera
by Maria Nockin - June 23, 2021

On June 22, I watched J’Nai Bridges’ online recital at Los Angeles Opera’s website. Bridges has been making highly acclaimed debuts at major opera houses. For her LA Opera recital, she chose major selections by Johannes Brahms and Charles Gounod as well as many lesser-known shorter pieces. She sang ...

BWW Review: IOLANTHE, The Roman Theatre St Albans
by Gary Naylor - June 17, 2021

Fantastical fairies and pompous politicians collide in this sweet satire, one of Britain's favourite operas....