Opera Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 32

BWW Review: Moved by WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED at Harlem's Apollo Theatre via Opera Philadelphia
by Richard Sasanow - October 10, 2017

WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED, which made its NY debut in a pair of performances at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem last weekend, after its world premiere at Opera Philadelphia's O17 festival last month, is more than an opera or performance piece. And it sure as hell isn't an evening's entertainment. Compose...

BWW Review: Grigolo in Fine Form and Morley is a Doll in Met's HOFFMANN
by Richard Sasanow - October 08, 2017

There are no happy endings for the poet Hoffmann (even in the solid hands of the charismatic tenor Vittorio Grigolo) or any of the women he fantasizes about in Offenbach's LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN (TALES OF HOFFMANN). Still, there are enough enjoyable moments to make Offenbach's music worth hearing onc...

BWW Review: THE PEARL FISHERS at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
by Maria Nockin - October 08, 2017

On October 7, 2017, Los Angeles Opera presented Georges Bizet's THE PEARL FISHERS starring sweet-voiced Mexican star tenor Javier Camarena as Nadir. Steel-voiced Mexican baritone Alfredo Daza, was Zurga, his rival for the hand of Leila, a beautiful priestess who had taken a vow of chastity....

BWW Review: Aucoin's CROSSING at BAM's New Wave Festival Hears America Singing and Crying
by Richard Sasanow - October 06, 2017

I wouldn't exactly call Matt Aucoin, 27, a show-off, even though he wrote the music and libretto for THE CROSSING--his 2015 opera having its NY debut at BAM's Next Wave Festival this past week--and conducted the performance as well. (He left the subtle, fine direction to Diane Paulus, who originally...

BWW Review: Canadian Opera Company's ARABELLA Sparkles in Every Way
by Taylor Long - October 06, 2017

Swanky sets, shimmering voices, sumptuous costumes - it all sparkles when met with sublime Strauss. The Canadian Opera Company presents the Canadian premiere of ARABELLA, a lyric comedy by Richard Strauss. A co-production with Santa Fe Opera and Minnesota Opera, ARABELLA is sung in German with Engli...

BWW Review: BORGIA INFAMI Premieres at the Edison Theatre
by Steve Callahan - October 04, 2017

Now, modern scholars tend to exonerate Lucrezia from being the diabolical poisoner that her enemies have portrayed for 400 years. But let's face it, that diabolical Lucrezia makes much better opera. Donizetti knew that, as shown in his 1833 opera about her. Victor Hugo displayed the same sensibility...

BWW Review: Radvanovsky is a Blazing NORMA, DiDonato Shines in New Met Production
by Richard Sasanow - October 04, 2017

The trio of soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, mezzo Joyce DiDonato and tenor Joseph Calleja promised a fine evening of singing for the Met's new NORMA and, for the most part, there wasn't much to quibble about. Too bad Sir David McVicar--and his design team--couldn't come up with something a little bolder...

BWW Review: A Whirlwind Named ELIZABETH CREE by Puts and Campbell Blows into Opera Philadelphia
by Richard Sasanow - September 29, 2017

Winston Churchill called Russia 'a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.' Well, Mother Russia had nothing on ELIZABETH CREE, the new chamber opera by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell, based on Peter Ackroyd's novel--having all those traits plus a brilliant score and a smart libretto that raced f...

BWW Review: Of Fairy Tales and Trials at Opera Philadelphia's WAKE WORLD and MAGIC FLUTE
by Richard Sasanow - September 27, 2017

Superficially, Wolfgang Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE (or DIE ZAUBERFLOTE for you purists) and David Hertzberg's THE WAKE WORLD couldn't seem less alike and, taken together, they stretch the definition of what makes an opera. Yet, as part of Opera Philadelphia's daring new O17 opera festival, they have a...

BWW Review: FOUR NIGHTS in a Single Evening at the Japan Society
by Richard Sasanow - September 22, 2017

FOUR NIGHTS OF DREAM, composer/librettist Moto Osada's opera performed in its US premiere last week at the Japan Society, is based on a cornerstone of 20th century Japanese literature, 'Ten Nights of Dream' by Natsume Soseki. While the four stories Osada has chosen may seem stylized and foreign to ...

BWW Review: STL Opera Collective Presents TESLA'S PIGEON and TO HELL AND BACK
by Chris Gibson - September 13, 2017

Since our resident opera critic, Steve Callahan, was appearing in one of the pocket operas produced this past weekend (September 8-9, 2017) by the STL Opera Collective, he asked if I would cover the shows, and I was happy to do so. This is a group that is just in their second season, but judging b...

BWW Review: AIDA is a Visual and Auditory Sensation at The Kennedy Center
by Evann Normandin - September 11, 2017

Verdi's sumptuous epic AIDA graces the Kennedy Center for the first time in more than 25 years, and it is a knock-out. The three hour visual and auditory spectacle helmed by director Francesca Zambello and conductor Evan Rogister with original sketches and concept design by famed visual artist RETNA...

BWW Review: Puccini's Minnie is No Mouse in NY City Opera's Lively FANCIULLA DEL WEST
by Richard Sasanow - September 10, 2017

The last time the Met did Puccini's LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST--GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST--it was such a dispiriting affair that I was ready to write it off as past its expiration date. New York City Opera to the rescue!, opening its season with a lively revival of the Italian master's work about the Calif...

BWW Review: CARMEN at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
by Maria Nockin - September 10, 2017

CARMEN, the title character in Georges Bizet's opera, is a young woman who wants the social freedoms nineteenth century men simply took for granted. Sung magnificently by Ana Maria Martinez, Carmen is suave and self-confident, but enroute to certain destruction. Currently, L A Opera is offering an e...

BWW Review: LA VIDA BREVE/GIANNI SCHICCHI at Adelaide Town Hall
by Barry Lenny - August 31, 2017

You will have to hurry to catch this terrific night out....

BWW Review: Mostly Mozart's DON GIOVANNI Goes Back in Time
by Richard Sasanow - August 29, 2017

Though the title role in Mozart's DON GIOVANNI goes to the fabled lady killer--and Mostly Mozart's production was lucky to have a first-rate Don in baritone Christopher Maltman--the opera is a real ensemble piece, with every one of a half dozen characters key to a successful performance. In the Buda...

BWW Review: HANSEL UND GRETEL at Union Avenue Opera
by Steve Callahan - August 23, 2017

The Union Avenue Opera has opened a delightful production of H nsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck. You'll never hear this work performed by a more glorious collection of voices....

BWW Review: CAROUSEL at Union Avenue Opera
by Steve Callahan - August 10, 2017

The Union Avenue Opera is so good at fulfilling our expectations - our expectations of really fine traditional opera. But once in a while they enjoy surprising us, jerking us out of that normal path. For instance, with 'Trouble in Tahiti' several years ago the orchestra was a jazz trio. Now this spl...

BWW Review: ALCINA at Santa Fe Opera
by Maria Nockin - July 31, 2017

George Frideric Handel composed the opera seria, ALCINA, for a 1735 premiere at London's Covent Garden. Handel's anonymous librettist based his text on Riccardo Broschi's 1728 book for L'ISOLA DI ALCINA. Three years following its 1735 run, ALCINA was revived but after that it fell dormant until the...

BWW Review: THE GOLDEN COCKEREL at Santa Fe Opera
by Maria Nockin - July 29, 2017

The Golden Cockerel was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's last opera. He wrote it in 1905 as a satire on the Russian government of the time. As with many political satires, the libretto that Vladimir Belsky based on Pushkin's poem THE TALE OF THE GOLDEN COCKEREL can still make some points over one hundred y...

BWW Review: MADAMA BUTTERFLY at The Israeli Opera
by Ronit Suzan - July 22, 2017

For such a highly renowned opera such as Madama Butterfly numerous productions have been presented in the past century all around the world, and rightfully so, but with the new exquisite Israeli-Italian production, under the innovative and fresh direction of Keita Asari, it's clear that there's alwa...

BWW Review: Costanzo Itchy to Bring Obscure Handel ACI to National Sawdust Audiences
by Richard Sasanow - July 14, 2017

ACI, GALATEA E POLIFEMO (ACIS, GALATEA AND POLYPHEMUS)--which just opened a short run at Brooklyn's National Sawdust venue, ending on July 20, with star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo--may be the most obscure Handel opera that you think you know but don't. (And it's not an opera, either, for tha...

BWW Review: With Meade and PIRATA, Crutchfield's Bel Canto at Caramoor Goes Out with a Bang
by Richard Sasanow - July 11, 2017

Chemistry in an opera performance is a funny thing. It's not always easy to explain why it's there, but you know when it isn't. But when it works, it works—and, boy, the Caramoor Festival's concert staging of Bellini's IL PIRATA on Saturday was on fire, with Angela Meade as the star soprano and Will...

BWW Review: Will Albert Herring ever shed his innocence?
by Steve Callahan - July 11, 2017

Union Avenue Opera mounts a delightful production of 'Albert Herring,' Benjamin Britten's only comic opera....

BWW Review: IN THE DOME ROOM AT TWO O'CLOCK at The Madrigal Room At The Opera Studio
by Barry Lenny - July 02, 2017

If you hear of a repeat season, book early....