Opera Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 22

BWW Review: Against the Grain Theatre Champions Accessibility in Their Cozy, Emotional LA BOHÈME
by Isabella Perrone - October 14, 2019

One of the most unique opera experiences in Toronto this year is that of a classic story brought to life in a dive bar. The Tranzac Club's unassuming entry makes it easy to miss if you aren't looking for it, but upon entering the building there's an unshakeable feeling that something special is happ...

BWW Review: Elizabeth Caballero's Captivating Performance Highlights Nashville Opera's MADAME BUTTERFLY
by Jeffrey Ellis - October 12, 2019

Elizabeth Caballero's captivating performance as the tragic romantic heroine Cio Cio San, the titular lead of Puccini's classic opera Madame Butterfly, is so breathtakingly, so exquisitely heartbreaking that she alone is enough to make the 2019-20 season opening production from Nashville Opera a tri...

BWW Review: Double, Double, Netrebko's Got No Trouble with MACBETH's Lady, in a Take-Charge Performance
by Richard Sasanow - October 11, 2019

Five years ago, Anna Netrebko unveiled her take on Verdi's Lady Macbeth at the Met and wowed audiences from here to eternity. But since the first week of the Met season, she's brought her sexy, ebullient and take-no-prisoners Lady Macbeth back and showed that she's even better than ever--singing ...

BWW Review: TURANDOT At The Metropolitan Opera
by George Weinhouse - October 07, 2019

Birgit Nilsson, one of the greatest Turandots of our time, was fond of saying that Wagner made her famous but TURANDOT made her rich. Why was this so? Simply because very few sopranos can toss out the high notes, cut through the thick orchestration and sing over the huge chorus, which are the minimu...

BWW: Apples, ORANGES--Opera Philadelphia's O19 Shows Us What the Difference is
by Richard Sasanow - September 29, 2019

If you can imagine Rossini's IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA with all its comedy but without any of its great arias, you can begin to imagine why Sergei Prokofiev's LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES isn't only anyone's top-ten list of favorite operas. Yet Alessandro Talevi's wild-eyed production at Opera Philadelphia'...

BWW Review: The Met's MANON a Showcase for the Charms of Tucker Award-Winner Lisette Oropesa
by Richard Sasanow - September 26, 2019

Lisette Oropesa, where have you been all my life? Of course, I've heard her before--she's appeared 100 times or so at the Met so one could hardly miss her--but never in a showpiece like the title role of Jules Massenet's MANON, opposite tenor Michael Fabiano's Chevalier des Grieux on the second nigh...

BWW Review: PORGY AND BESS at The Metropolitan Opera
by Joanna Barouch - September 26, 2019

Opening Night at the Metropolitan Opera! The very words tingle with palpable electricity and anticipation. Whether you attend in person, or go to the Times Square simulcast, or whether you listen on the radio or on the Met website, you are participating in one of the most thrilling events of the Ne...

BWW Review: Forget Brooklyn. Opera Philadelphia World Premieres Show Only the Dead Know Philadelphia
by Richard Sasanow - September 24, 2019

Thomas Wolfe--famed for his novels including “Look Homeward, Angel”--is also remembered for the quotable title of one of his short stories: “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn.” Judging my weekend at Opera Philadelphia's O19 opera festival, and its two world premieres, DENIS & KATYA and LET ME DIE, he coul...

BWW Review: AGRIPPINA, Royal Opera House
by Gary Naylor - September 24, 2019

Despite a distracting set, the music and singing triumph on an evening that reminds us that you can be too clever by half when you seek to be kingmaker....

BWW Review: THE ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO at KC Lyric Opera
by Kelly Luck - September 22, 2019

KC Lyric's 'Seraglio' delivers a fun production, despite the subject matter....

BWW Review: The World Premiere of DENIS AND KATYA at Opera Philadelphia
by Alyssa Biederman - September 19, 2019

Two teens. One livestream that resulted in their untimely deaths. Opera Philadelphia's Denis and Katya, a world premiere part of their annual opera festival, uses this true story to ask questions about life, death, voyeurism and entertainment in an innovative 70 minute opera....

BWW Review: I CAPULETI E I MONTECCHI, Grimeborn, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - September 03, 2019

Gary Naylor sees his last show at this season's Grimeborn, an Italian opera based on the original sources of Romeo and Juliet sung with tremendous panache....

BWW Review: HOTSPUR/PIERROT LUNAIRE, Grimeborn, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - August 30, 2019

FormidAbility's unique approach to integrating those with disabilities on either side of the fourth wall enhances two pieces that prove tricky for the uninitiated to appreciate fully....

BWW Review: TREEMONISHA, Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - August 28, 2019

You know Scott Joplin is a genius, but having that conformed by this wonderful, uplifting, yet shocking opera, is a delight and a privilege. Beautifully performed too....

BWW Review: A GRIM AND POWERFUL 'GLORY DENIED' at Union Avenue Opera
by Steve Callahan - August 19, 2019

A soldier gone to a far off war, absent for years. His wife in anguish, not knowing whether she's a widow. It's a story far older than The Odyssey....

BWW Review: COUNT ORY, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - August 14, 2019

Opera Alegría plonk Rossini's naughty Count on the Home Front in 1943, with lots of laughs in between the fine singing and beautifully played piano....

BWW Review: PROM 31: BRAHMS, BRUCKNER & STRAUSS, Royal Albert Hall
by Sophia Lambton - August 11, 2019

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted an evening of music where emotion overrode pristine beauty....

BWW Review: Am I BLUE at Glimmerglass? You Bet. But There Are Also Some Guilty GHOSTS, and, Oh that Notorious RBG!
by Richard Sasanow - August 02, 2019

A summer's trip to Cooperstown, NY, is for two distinct audiences: Those who come for the Baseball Hall of Fame and those, like me, who come for the opera--the Glimmerglass Festival, under General Director Francesca Zambello, where i caught up with the John Corigliano-William Hoffman THE GHOSTS OF V...

BWW Review: DAS RHEINGOLD, Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - August 01, 2019

Grimeborn sees a condensed version version of the early part of Wagner's Ring Cycle that packs a punch in its intense 100 minutes running time....

BWW Review: VIOLETTA, Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - July 30, 2019

Violetta kicks off the Grimeborn Festival with a perfect example of how to pare back a grand opera and make a fine chamber piece that is played and sung beautifully....

BWW Review: LA BOHEME at Union Avenue Opera
by Steve Callahan - July 29, 2019

Union Avenue Opera is on a roll! Two homers in a row! First their sublime Candide, and now an equally fine production of Puccini's La bohème. Union Avenue knocked them both right into the bleachers, and those of us who were lucky enough to catch one of those prize performances now own a true treasur...

BWW Review: JENUFA at Santa Fe Opera
by Maria Nockin - July 25, 2019

On Wednesday, July 24, 2019, Santa Fe Opera presented Leoš Janáček's powerful dramatic opera Jenůfa. Laura Wilde, a former Santa Fe Apprentice who performed the title role at English National Opera in 2016, again sang the lead while Patricia Racette, who has often sung Jenůfa, portrayed her stepmoth...

BWW Review: JETTE PARKER YOUNG ARTISTS SUMMER PERFORMANCE, Royal Opera House
by Sophia Lambton - July 22, 2019

Evolving artists with differing amounts of stage experience formed a variably green, prepared and overworked ensemble in this summer showcase of the Royal Opera's young roster singers....

BWW Review: Mostly Mozart's MAGIC FLUTE versus Teatro Nuovo's STRANIERA, Ingenuity Outdoes Purism
by Richard Sasanow - July 22, 2019

This week's opera performances--Teatro Nuova's LA STRANIERA by Bellini and Mostly Mozart's MAGIC FLUTE--proved that opera can be considered alive and well (and living in New York), as long as those producing it believe in it and give us some voices worth hearing....

BWW Review: Gordon-Artman ACQUANETTA is No Grade-B Horror at Bard, Directed by Tony-winner Fish
by Richard Sasanow - July 15, 2019

ACQUANETTA, which just opened at Bard's SummerScape, was the piece that opened 2018's edition of PROTOTYPE festival in New York. Musically and dramatically, written by Michael Gordon, composer (of 'Bang on a Can' fame), Deborah Artman, librettist (ditto), the piece is very much in a class of its own...