Opera Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 25

BWW Review: MN Opera's Memorable THE FIX Composes Requiem for the American Dream
by Peggy Sue Dunigan - March 20, 2019

This past weekend at the Ordway Center, MN Opera unveiled their World Premiere The Fix in tribute to the All-American sport and spirt of baseball. The story created through the company's New Works Initiative by Eric Simonson, who wrote the libretto and also directed the production, was accompanied b...

BWW Review: Washington National Opera's FAUST is a Devilishly Good Time
by Sam Abney - March 20, 2019

Few works have inspired such a long-lasting legacy as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust. The Faustian bargain has become a common expression for metaphorically selling one's soul in order to obtain their goals. Of course, the metaphor is much less metaphorical in von Goethe's work and, subsequently...

BWW Review: Exhilarating CARMINA BURANA Brings 'Total Theatre' to the Skylight
by Kelsey Lawler - March 19, 2019

17 Skylight artists. Seven Danceworks dancers. 25 Chant Claire Chamber Choir members, plus four Chant Claire guest artists. Six percussionists. Two pianists. One conductor. One visionary artistic team. One stage. It all adds up to Skylight's exhilarating Carmina Burana, an experience dubbed ''total ...

BWW Insight: Opera and Music as More than Simply a Night Out? BLUE and THE JUST Say Yes
by Richard Sasanow - March 20, 2019

Can opera be a medium for social commentary and change? I've been thinking about this lately--or, more accurately, yet again--since attending a preview of the new Jeanne Tesori-Tazewell Thompson opera, BLUE, which was part of the Guggenheim Museum's fascinating Works & Process series. The performanc...

BWW Review: San Diego Opera's JAKE HEGGIE'S THREE DECEMBERS at The Patrick Henry Phame Theatre
by Ron Bierman - March 12, 2019

Mezzo soprano Frederica von Stade starred in the San Diego Opera's staging of Three Decembers. One of several works written with her in mind by her close friend Jake Heggie, it' s a chamber opera for three singers and 11 musicians. In a recent Interview Von Stade said, 'I've done three productions, ...

BWW Review: Here's Hoping For The Return of the People's Opera, NOLI ME TANGERE
by Jared Echevarria - March 11, 2019

Gone are the days when the opera is treated like an old-world passion and a cultural event where people are required to dress to the nines. The arrival of National Artists Guillermo Tolentino and Felipe Padilla de Leon's “Noli Me Tangere, The Opera” for the nth time in Manila was welcomed mostly by ...

BWW Review: WNO's Exquisite EUGENE ONEGIN at the Kennedy Center
by Benjamin Tomchik - March 12, 2019

Washington National Opera's (WNO) Eugene Onegin is exquisite! The entire evening soars like a dream with pitch-perfect performances led by the immaculate Anna Nechaeva as Tatiana....

BWW Review: Winter Opera brings Remarkable Voices to the Druidic World of NORMA
by Steve Callahan - March 11, 2019

Winter Opera has opened a sumptuous production of Norma, Vincenzo Bellini's bel canto masterpiece from 1831....

BWW Review: Finding GOLD as the Met's Ring Cycle Begins Anew
by Richard Sasanow - March 11, 2019

If Robert Lepage's production of Wagner's Ring Cycle (formally, DER RING DAS NIBELUNGEN) had worked as smoothly when it opened in 2010 as it did at this season's marvelous premiere of its prologue, DAS RHEINGOLD, on Saturday afternoon, there probably still would have been complaints--not about its f...

BWW Review: Live from the Crypt, It's Baritone Lucas Meachem
by Richard Sasanow - March 09, 2019

The Crypt Sessions, which take place in the stone chamber beneath the Church of the Intercession on West 155th Street in Manhattan, might conjure up visions of horror, though it bears no relation to HBO's long-running anthology, “Tales from the Crypt.” Add that the center of attraction for the recit...

BWW Review: THE MAGIC FLUTE at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood
by Maria Nockin - March 04, 2019

On March 3, 2019, Pacific Opera Project (POP) presented its more-than-a-little-bit-zany version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE (DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE) at Los Angeles's El Portal Theatre. POP Director and Designer Josh Shaw and Baritone E. Scott Levin premiered a new English version of Emanue...

BWW Review: Carsen's Stellar FALSTAFF with Ambrogio Maestri and Game Cast Returns to the Met
by Richard Sasanow - February 28, 2019

Will anyone else but Ambrogio Maestri bring the same dynamism to Robert Carsen's 1950's take on Verdi's masterpiece, FALSTAFF? Time will tell. But the return of the wonderful production, with the great Met orchestra under conductor Richard Farnes and an all-around terrific cast, brought a little sun...

Andre Previn - of Opera and Classical Music, as well as Hollywood, Broadway and Television - Dies at 89
by Richard Sasanow - March 01, 2019

Composer, conductor and pianist Andre Previn has died at the age of 89 on February 28. Previn was composer of the opera versions of Tennessee Williams's A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and Noel Coward's BRIEF ENCOUNTER, dozens of orchestral works, film scores, jazz works and the score for Tom Stoppard's ...

BWW Review: ARIODANTE at Monte-Carlo Opera
by Marieke van den Wall Bake - March 01, 2019

For the first time in history, Ariodante has stepped on the Monte-Carlo Opera stage, bewildering and enchanting the Monegasque audience in this 3+ hour opera by Handel. Following the success of the Salzberg Festival production (under the keen eye of Christof Loy), the opera is set in the captivating...

BWW Review: COSI FAN TUTTE, Royal Opera House
by Gary Naylor - February 26, 2019

The Royal Opera House revives its 2016 Cosi with all the mischievous wit and splendid music of Mozart and Da Ponte - but also lets us in on the game within the game - and the price that's paid...

BWW Review: How Did the Queen of Carthage Die? Juilliard's Version of Purcell's DIDO Isn't Telling
by Richard Sasanow - February 24, 2019

Purcell's DIDO AND AENEAS, written in about 1689 with a libretto by Nahum Tate, doesn't exist in a final version approved by the composer but, well, never mind. In the care of the more-than-budding artists of the Juilliard415 historical music ensemble and singers from Juilliard's Marcus Institute fo...

BWW Review: KING ARTHUR at Elder Hall, University Of Adelaide
by Barry Lenny - February 18, 2019

State Opera is presenting the semi-opera, or dramatick opera, King Arthur,...

BWW Review: Laugh a Little, Cry a Little for Met's Well-Sung RIGOLETTO
by Richard Sasanow - February 18, 2019

No matter what one thinks of the Met's transfiguration of Verdi's RIGOLETTO from Francesco Maria Piave's Mantua to '60s Las Vegas--I personally like much of this “Rat Pack” production from director Michael Mayer--the singing at Saturday's performance [the second of the season] was first rate....

BWW Review: DON GIOVANNI at OPERA WROCLAW - Universal Madness
by Natalia Jarczynska - February 18, 2019

This is a well known story: Don Giovanni - addictive seducer - struggles with live in temptations to meet consequences. Classic Opera from 18th century is still watched all over the world. 'Opera buffa' as Mozart described it himself should be comic but in this version the world „comic' doesn't come...

BWW Review: The Kitchen Finds Room for IMPROVEMENT with Robert Ashley's Modern Classic
by Richard Sasanow - February 15, 2019

You may have your own idea about what “opera” means and is, but I'd bet it's a world away from what composer Robert Ashley--whose 1985 work, IMPROVEMENT (DON LEAVES LINDA), has been running this week at the Kitchen in west Chelsea--had in mind....

BWW Review: TURANDOT at Sarasota Opera
by Carolan Trbovich - February 14, 2019

Sarasota Opera Celebrates 60th Diamond Anniversary Opening With A Brilliant Production of Turandot...

BWW Review: A Yummy FILLE DU REGIMENT Thanks to Yende and Camarena (and Don't Forget Donizetti)
by Richard Sasanow - February 13, 2019

I've already cheered tenor Javier Camarena's Herculean take on “Ah, mes amis!” in the Met's current FILLE DU REGIMENT--with 1 ½ dozen high Cs, including an encore--but there's more than the tenor in Met's current revival of the Donizetti gem to make the season suddenly seem grand. He and soprano Pr...

BWW Review: ORCHESTRA OF THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE IN CONCERT, Royal Opera House
by Sophia Lambton - February 09, 2019

This evening of contrasting sentimental works was far too fiery to resound with echoes of the (Russian) soul....

BWW Review: ANA MARIA MARTINEZ at Crowder Hall, U Of AZ
by Maria Nockin - February 06, 2019

On February 5, 2019, The Tucson Desert Song Festival and the University of Arizona (UA) presented a recital of Spanish language art songs by soprano Ana Maria Martinez and pianist Craig Terry in Crowder Hall. The songs, from Spain, Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico were appropriate to the Puerto Rican s...

BWW Review: SAN DIEGO OPERA'S PRODUCTION OF RIGOLETTO at The San Diego Civic Center
by Ron Bierman - February 06, 2019

The San Diego Opera's opening-night production of Verdi's Rigoletto featured the powerful voice and convincing acting of baritone Stephen Powell in a title role he has sung often. In contrast, it was soprano Alisa Jordheim's debut as Rigoletto's naive ill-fated daughter Gilda. Her fresh innocent app...