Opera Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 42

BWW Reviews: Without Gypsies or Mistaken Identities, Soprano Meade Wins Four-Sided Tug of War in ERNANI at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - April 02, 2015

Nine years before IL TROVATORE took the prize for Verdi's most outlandish story line--with gypsies, stolen babies and mistaken identities--there was ERNANI, with a different kind of complicated plot to make your head spin. The Met's current revival of its 1983 production of the opera stars a formida...

BWW Reviews: Oh!'s LA TRAGEDIE DE CARMEN Not Bizet But Far From A Tragedy
by Katricia Lang - March 31, 2015

Peter Brook's pared down LA TRAGEDIE DE CARMEN is perfect for Opera in the Heights, but it lacks the magic and richness of Georges Bizet's CARMEN. However, if you combine all that is good about Brook's LA TRAGEDIE DE CARMEN with the talented cast and crew of Opera in the Heights, you have a good tim...

BWW Reviews: Handa Opera On Sydney Harbour's AIDA Combines The Timeless Story of Love and War With The Sydney Skyline
by Jade Kops - March 28, 2015

Giuseppe Verdi's AIDA, written to open the Khedivial Opera House in Egypt in 1871, proves its timelessness as Director Gale Edwards blends old and new worlds on the waterfront stage. With a 18meter tall partial ruins of the head of Nefertiti towering over Farm Cove, the original setting in Egypt ha...

BWW Reviews: Thrills and Chills at Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Finals Concert
by Richard Sasanow - March 26, 2015

Long before there was “American Idol” or “The Voice,” there were the Metropolitan Opera's National Council Auditions. A 62-year tradition in the opera world, it comes to a head at the National Council Auditions Finals Concert, which took place this year on Sunday afternoon. It was the culmination of...

BWW Reviews: In LUCIA at the Met, Tenor Calleja Has the Last Word
by Richard Sasanow - March 23, 2015

The title role of Donizetti's LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR was so important to star sopranos during the last half of the 20th century, that it's hard to recall that in Caruso's day, the tenor was the main attraction. I thought of that during the current performance of the opera at the met, with Russian sopra...

BWW Reviews: Missed Opportunities Abound in SEMELE from Canadian Opera at BAM
by Richard Sasanow - March 20, 2015

The Canadian Opera Company's production of Handel's SEMELE came to BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House complete with a marvelous 17-ton Ming Dynasty temple, transported from the town of Quhou, China. It was central to the production concept by Zhang Huan, a visual and performance artist who admits to ig...

BWW Reviews: 'China' Comes to San Diego Opera
by Erica Miner - March 16, 2015

In a bold move, SDO premiered a production of John Adams' most frequently performed opera...

BWW Reviews: Daredevil Damrau and Glorious Grigolo Make MANON Sizzle at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - March 13, 2015

Soprano Diana Damrau did another of her high-wire acts at the Met this week, with her third role debut here in under two years. After last year's spectacular Amina in Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA, she's taken on the title role in Massenet's MANON and proven once again that she is one of the company's gre...

BWW Reviews: New Line Theatre's Shocking and Superb JERRY SPRINGER THE OPERA
by Chris Gibson - March 11, 2015

I always know to expect the unexpected when I attend a production by New Line Theatre. Artistic Director Scott Miller has a gift for choosing shows that are consistently engaging, entertaining, and smartly cast and directed. Whether it's a revival of a classic or something of a more recent vintage, ...

BWW Reviews: SEMELE at BAM, Handel in a Temple
by Wesley Doucette - March 10, 2015

Zang Huan's imaginative retelling of the baroque Opera at BAM as performed by the Canadian Opera Company....

BWW Reviews: Soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci Is Only HUMAINE in Poulenc Opera at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall
by Richard Sasanow - March 10, 2015

It's an old story: Woman meets man. Woman loses man…and loses him over and over again on a party-line. Luckily, the woman is Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci and the composer of LA VOIX HUMAINE is Francis Poulenc. Together, they made for a fascinating performance at Lincoln Center's Alice Tul...

BWW Reviews: An Adrift FLYING DUTCHMAN Makes Port at Washington National Opera
by Benjamin Tomchik - March 09, 2015

Passionate performances by Libor, Morris and Owens are what propel an otherwise adrift Flying Dutchman. Clearer staging and dynamic direction could have made this production of Wagner's classic opera thrilling....

BWW Reviews: LA DONNA DEL LAGO is Far from Pitch-Perfect at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - March 02, 2015

Maria Callas got the world used to hearing singing that was not always pitch-perfect yet still essential listening. I kept thinking about this at the Met the other night during the new production of Rossini's LA DONNA DEL LAGO with a cast headed by a couple of stars, mezzo Joyce DiDonato and tenor J...

BWW Reviews: That Voice, Voluminous and Voluptuous, Marks Mezzo Jamie Barton Debut at Zankel Hall
by Richard Sasanow - February 23, 2015

It's the wrong time of year to expect a hurricane in New York, but that didn't stop mezzo Jamie Barton from taking Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall by storm this week. With her warmth, sly sense of playfulness and a voice that just won't quit, Barton held the audience captive....

BWW Reviews: OSCAR East Coast Premiere at Opera Philadelphia
by Marakay Rogers - February 21, 2015

The joint production of Santa Fe and Opera Philadelphia, Theodore Morrison's opera of the decline and fall of Oscar Wilde has its hits and misses. It's a magnificent production of an unripe work....

BWW Reviews: Opera Australia's FAUST Is A Fantastic Dance with The Devil
by Jade Kops - February 20, 2015

Opera Australia's new interpretation of FAUST is a delicious mix of hedonism, debauchery, desire and despair....

BWW Reviews: HGO's MAGIC FLUTE Hits Every Note
by Guest Blogger: Bryan-Keyth Wilson - February 17, 2015

I am taken back to the first Opera I saw as a kid and the pomp and circumstance with wearing a tux and walking to the lavish theatre; this was when I fell in love with classical music. Often times we hear opera and other classical art forms are inaccessible to the people, but Houston Grand Opera's E...

BWW Reviews: With Mattei as the Lead and Gilbert at the Helm, GIOVANNI Settles the Score at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - February 09, 2015

I consider Mozart's DON GIOVANNI at the top of my list of favorite operas--the music starts to go through my head without much encouragement and gets stuck there. Yet, it's also one of the most problematic in performance, calling for a large group of A-list singers to do justice to the ripe and some...

Opera in the Heights Wins with the Rare LA CLEMENZA DI TITO
by Nyderah Williams - February 08, 2015

Mozart's infrequently performed LA CLEMENZA DI TITO is well-done by Opera in the Heights. From start to finish, their LA CLEMENZA DI TITO is a marvelous work, filled with beautiful, emotive singing, accompanied by an orchestral performance that is sumptuous and dynamic, all working together to bring...

BWW Reviews: SWEENEY TODD, the Demon Barber of State Street
by Amanda Finn - February 07, 2015

Emerging from the dark prisons of Fidelio comes a show with darker themes, a more sinister villain, and higher stakes. Madison Opera premiered their Sweeney Todd in Capitol Theatre last night to a crowd eager to see what they could do. Fans of the Stephen Sondheim musical in its original capacity, t...

BWW Reviews: Westmont's NIGHT AT THE OPERA
by Maggie Yates - February 06, 2015

Westmont's one-act operas are an example of student theatre that takes risks and introduces conversations about the diverse range of possibilities within the sphere of the theatrical arts....

BWW Reviews: Netrebko and Beczala A Potent Duo in IOLANTA Debut at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - February 04, 2015

I don't know when the next time the Met is planning to bring back Tchaikovsky's final opera, IOLANTA (libretto by his brother Modest) into its repertory, but they should, and quickly. And if you have the opportunity, run to see it as fast as you can. It's not often that the Met puts on a opera and p...

BWW Reviews: Austin Opera's Star-Crossed Lovers Shine in ROMEO & JULIET
by Michelle Hache - January 31, 2015

Without a doubt, Gounod's ROMEO & JULIET is one of Austin Opera's finest productions, and they have assembled a cast of the highest caliber. Paired with a gorgeous set, costumes and staging, this is not a production that one would want to miss. 'If music be the food of love, play on.'...

BWW Reviews: Winter Opera St. Louis Shines with Rare Mascagni
by Steve Callahan - January 29, 2015

Winter Opera St. Louis, after a brilliant production of 'Le Nozze di Figaro', continues its eighth season with a venture into less familiar fare - Pietro Mascagni's 'L'amico Fritz'....

BWW Reviews: NY Philharmonic Flexes Its Operatic Muscles with Verdi REQUIEM
by Richard Sasanow - January 28, 2015

With all its money problems, why hasn't the Met thought about doing some lesser known works in concert? Or, for that matter, marshalled some of its glamorous resources to put on the Verdi REQUIEM? For the time being, we have to be grateful for the New York Philharmonic and its Music Director Alan Gi...