Opera Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 18

BWW Review: L'EGISTO, Cockpit Theatre
by Gary Naylor - June 07, 2021

Hampstead Garden Opera bring a slice of 17th century Venetian sensibility to our Covidy times....

BWW Review: New Name, Same Competition as Met Council Awards Morph into Laffont Competition and Announce 2021 Winners
by Richard Sasanow - May 17, 2021

On Sunday afternoon, the winners of what had been the Met’s annual National Council Auditions now, the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition (charmingly emceed by Ryan Speedo Green), were named. This year’s Fab Five were Korean soprano Hyoyoung Kim (the Birgit Nilsson Award), soprano Raven McMillon...

BWW Review: Los Angeles Opera and Opera San Jose Celebrate Latina Composers
by Maria Nockin - May 17, 2021

On Saturday, May 15, 2021, Los Angeles Opera and Opera San Jose presented a recital honoring Latina composers. It includes songs by Modesta Bor, María Luisa Escobar, Chabuca Granda, María Grever, Ernestina Lecuona , Ángela Peralta, Consuelo Velázquez, and contemporary writers, Gabriela Lena Frank,...

BWW Review: All Hail the Met's “Wagnerians in Concert,” Live from Wiesbaden, Germany
by Richard Sasanow - May 09, 2021

With nary a “Ho-yo-to-ho” to be heard, the Met’s “Met Stars Live in Concert” series brought four eminent Wagnerians--sopranos Christine Goerke and Elza van den Heever, tenor Andreas Schager and baritone Michael Volle--together from the dazzlingly Baroque Hessisches Staatstheater in Wiesbaden, German...

BWW Review: dwb (driving while black) film at UrbanArias
by Barbara Trainin Blank - May 03, 2021

The title and content of this filmed opera reminded me of a friend with a young biracial relative. Whenever he ventures out, whether by foot or car, his mother provides him with a letter explaining who he is and asserting that his purpose is benevolent in case the police may approach him....

BWW Review: BRYAN HYMEL RECITAL FOR ARIZONA OPERA AND TUCSON DESERT SONG FESTIVAL
by Maria Nockin - April 29, 2021

On April 28, 2021, Arizona Opera, in partnership with Tucson Desert Song Festival, presented an online recital by dramatic tenor Bryan Hymel and pianist Michael Borowitz. They opened their streamed recital with the lyrical aria, 'Ombra mai fu” from Handel’s opera Xerxes. Sung by Xerxes I of Persia i...

BWW Review: THE SAN DIEGO OPERA'S BARBER OF SEVILLE at Pechanga Sports Arena
by Ron Bierman - April 29, 2021

The San Diego Opera continued its quixotic foray into parking-lot adventures with The Barber of Seville by Rossini, social distancing once again forcing substantial changes to a production's length and cast size. Revisions to libretto, costumes, set and lighting went all out for a zany farcical effe...

BWW Review: Lyricist-Librettist Mark Campbell Brings His Vision of the World to NY Festival of Song
by Richard Sasanow - April 18, 2021

Whether he’s writing about soldiers in World War I (SILENT NIGHT with Kevin Puts) or immigrants landing on Ellis Island (A NATION OF OTHERS with Paul Moravec), setting a ‘penny dreadful’-inspired story (ELIZABETH CREE with Puts) or looking inside a mad genius of technology [THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE...

BWW Review: DON PASQUALE at Opera Santa Barbara
by Maggie Yates - April 12, 2021

Don Pasquale, directed by Josh Shaw, is a comic opera that pits the vivacious young Norina (Jana McIntyre) and her lover, Ernesto (Matthew Grills), against Ernesto's blustering, elderly uncle, Don Pasquale (Andrew Potter)....

BWW Review: THE IMPRESARIO at Enigma Chamber Opera
by Andrew Child - April 08, 2021

There is a lot good about Enigma Chamber Opera’s new meta-comedy adaptation of Mozart’s The Impresario, but the highest praise must be reserved for its formatting as a highly scroll-able hour-long entertainment (mainly because it is actually at most a 20 minute performance trapped inside a redundant...

BWW Review: Merola Opera Program: ANYTHING FOR LOVE AND HONOR
by Maria Nockin - March 24, 2021

On Sunday, March 21, 2021, tenor Issachah Savage and collaborative pianist Laurie Rogers gave a half-hour recital called Anything for Love and Honor for the Merola Opera Program. Savage, a former member of Merola, won three prizes at Seattle’s International Wagner Competition in 2014: First Prize, t...

BWW Review: San Francisco Opera Streams SIEGFRIED
by Maria Nockin - March 22, 2021

On March 20, 2021, San Francisco Opera presented a free stream of Richard Wagner’s opera Siegfried as part of Francesca Zambello’s 2017-2018 American Ring. Forest projections set the mood for Runnicles and Zambello’s nature-friendly, quasi-impressionistic rendering of the opera. Lighting Designer Ma...

BWW Review: A CHILD OF OUR TIME: ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 2021 at Adelaide Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
by Barry Lenny - March 17, 2021

It begins with the mezzo-soprano, the wonderful Elizabeth Campbell....

BWW Review: Houston Opera's Jack Swanson Recital
by Maria Nockin - March 15, 2021

On Friday evening March 12, 2021, Houston Grand Opera presented Live from The Cullen: Jack Swanson and Richard Bado in a wide-ranging recital of music by Robert Schumann, Leonard Bernstein, Roger Quilter, Kurt Weill, Franz Liszt, and Gioachino Rossini. Swanson can hold his audience spellbound with ...

BWW Review: Santa Fe Opera Online Benefit Concert
by Maria Nockin - March 12, 2021

On March 11, 2021, Santa Fe Opera presented an online benefit concert for its renowned apprentice programs. Singing the concert were former apprentices mezzo-soprano Emily Fons, tenor Jack Swanson, and baritone Will Liverman. Fons sings an aria from The Haunted Manor, Liverman sings an aria from Pag...

BWW Review: BOULDER OPERA THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO at Home Computer Screens
by Maria Nockin - March 08, 2021

On Sunday afternoon March 7, 2021, The Boulder Opera Company of Colorado presented Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro to audiences in the theater and online. Stage Director Michael Travis Risner set the time in the present. He provided the necessities required by the story and allowed the cast to prov...

BWW Review: DAS RHEINGOLD at Home Computer Screens
by Maria Nockin - March 08, 2021

On Saturday, March 6, 2021, San Francisco Opera did a wonderful thing. The company put the opening opera of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungen online, free to  the world of opera lovers and the universe of the curious. Anyone with access to the Internet can see the entire Ring on weekends in March, an...

BWW Review: Ups and Downs Mark Yoncheva's Daredevil Concert in Germany for Met Series
by Richard Sasanow - March 05, 2021

If you need any convincing that a “simple” recital, with lots of breaks, isn’t easier for the performer than being in a full-fledged opera, you have only to look as far as Bulgarian soprano’ Sonya Yoncheva's concert--shown live from Germany on February 27 but still available on-demand from the Met’s...

BWW Review: LA Opera's DIGITAL SHORT DEATH Now Streaming
by Maria Nockin - February 23, 2021

Los Angeles Opera’s digital short film, Death, is Nadia Hallgren’s nine-minute creative take on Paul Laurence Dunbar’s turn-of-the 20th century poem, entitled Death. Two crows in seemingly choreographed flight introduce scenes with myriad black birds circling the edge of a leafless forest....

BWW Review: SOME ENCHANTED EVENING from Pittsburgh Festival Opera
by Maria Nockin - February 15, 2021

On February 14, 2021, Valentine’s Day, Pittsburgh Festival Opera presented seven singers in a romantic concert entitled Some Enchanted Evening.  James Lesniak and Robert Frankenberg provided thoughtful and supportive piano accompaniment and Festival Opera Board members added charming love stories....

BWW Review: Met Concert Shows Netrebko's Got the Technique to Do Anything She Pleases
by Richard Sasanow - February 07, 2021

I couldn’t help but admire Anna Netrebko’s taking on many of the pieces that comprised her concert from Vienna’s historic Spanish Riding School on February 6, which was part of the Met Stars Live in Concert. They may not have fit her voice to a tee but she almost made you think they did. ...

BWW Review: P R I S M at Los Angeles Opera
by Maria Nockin - January 29, 2021

On January 28, 2021, Los Angeles Opera streamed a newly filmed version of Roxie Perkins and Ellen Reid’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera  p r i s m. An operatic tapestry, p r i s m tells of the psychological dreams, desires and struggles of Bibi, a sexual assault survivor....

BWW Review: Radvanovsky Gets Better and Better, Beczala Shows Off His Slavic Roots in Latest “Met Stars Live” Concert
by Richard Sasanow - January 25, 2021

In the latest in the Met’s live, pay-per-view concert series from varied fascinating locales around the world, Radvanovsky boldly chose Verdi’s “Pace, pace” from LA FORZA DEL DESTINO as her “warm up”--a whopper of a piece under any circumstances--while Beczala went for the composer’s “Quando le sere...

BWW Review: SOLDIER SONGS, THE MOVIE at Home Computer Screens
by Maria Nockin - January 25, 2021

Soldier Songs is a filmed opera that tells about the life and memories of a returning soldier. Composer and librettist David T. Little says Johnathan McCullough approached him about a production in an Airstream....

BWW Review: SOLDIER SONGS, THE MOVIE
by Maria Nockin - February 01, 2021

Soldier Songs is a filmed opera that tells about the life and memories of a returning soldier. Composer and librettist David T. Little says this concept took shape when Johnathan McCullough approached Little with an idea for a production of the opera involving an Airstream. When the pandemic happene...