Opera Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 46

BWW Reviews: Deal or No Deal, Dutch National Opera's FAUST Is Damned
by Richard Sasanow - May 27, 2014

Even with its visions of damnation and redemption, Gounod's FAUST, with libretto by Barbier and Carre, is pretty tame stuff. In the wrong hands, it can be dull as well. Well, you can't accuse the Dutch National Opera's new production--by Barcelona's Alex Ollé and the theatre company La Fura dels Ba...

ST. LOUIS OPERA FLOURISHES THIS SUMMER
by Steve Callahan - May 27, 2014

Seven productions tempt opera-lovers in a bright summer season....

BWW Reviews: The Foibles of DON GIOVANNI at Opera Philadelphia
by Marakay Rogers - May 19, 2014

Nicholas Muni gives a stylish yet peculiar take on an age-old story...

BWW Reviews: Opera Colorado's Subdued, Stifled, and Subpar Version of the Operatic Classic, CARMEN
by Michael Mulhern - May 19, 2014

Sometimes less is more, but in this case more is more....and much more was needed!...

BWW Reviews: From Kaufmann and Florez to Beczala and Camarena, It's the Year of the Tenor
by Richard Sasanow - May 13, 2014

“The party's over,” wrote Betty Comden & Adolph Green in BELLS ARE RINGING. “It's time to call it a day.” The opera season at the Metropolitan said its farewells to 2013-2014 on May 10 with a bel canto doubleheader of Rossini's LA CENERENTOLA (a shot heard round the world via radio and The Met's LIV...

BWW Reviews: LA TRAVIATA Is a Heartrending Tale of Doomed Love, Duty, and Honour
by Barry Lenny - May 05, 2014

With only three more performances of this operatic masterwork, it is essential to waste no time in booking tickets. This is not to be missed....

BWW Reviews: WNO's Eye-Popping MAGIC FLUTE Casts a Musical Spell
by Jeffrey Walker - May 04, 2014

A winner from start to finish, THE MAGIC FLUTE features Mozart's score, a delightful new translation, superb casting, and the stunning design work of Jun Kaneko. Perfect for fans and novices, this MAGIC FLUTE is a must see....

BWW Reviews: ALO Introduced Austin to Up-And-Coming Opera Stars with ELIXIR OF LOVE
by Jeff Davis - May 02, 2014

Poor, plain, easily ignored Nemorino. He's so in love with the beautiful Adina, but she doesn't love him back. Ultimately, lovesick Nemorino is forced to buy a love potion from a charlatan to win Adina's heart. While that may be the plot of Gaetano Donizetti's comic opera, it doesn't take a potion t...

BWW Reviews: The Tenor's a Cinderella, the Mezzo's Charming and the Met's CENERENTOLA is a Dream
by Richard Sasanow - May 02, 2014

When the Met's production of LA CENERENTOLA, Rossini's version of the Cinderella story. arrives in movie theatres around the world next week, the star for many will be tenor Juan Diego Florez as the prince. But he didn't make it to the first three performances of the opera this season in New York--n...

BWW Reviews: Soprano Olga Peretyatko Debuts in I PURITANI at the Met, But, Oh, That High F from Tenor Lawrence Brownlee
by Richard Sasanow - April 28, 2014

One of the thrilling things about live opera performance is that it's like watching a tightrope walker, particularly when it's one with as many high notes and such florid writing as in Bellini's I PURITANI. Only daredevils need apply. That was the atmosphere when Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko made...

BWW Reviews: Houston Grand Opera's CARMEN is Sultry and Opulent
by David Clarke - April 27, 2014

Closing their 2013-14 Season, HGO is presenting Georges Bizet's acclaimed CARMEN. For this production, Award winning Broadway Director and Choreographer Rob Ashford took the reins and has created a CARMEN that is as beautiful as it is exciting....

BWW Reviews: One Small Step for MACBETH, One Huge Leap for Opera in Africa
by David Fick - April 28, 2014

In MACBETH, Brett Bailey gives us Shakespeare by way of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, filtered through Third World Bunfight's trademark post-colonialist, avant-garde manifesto....

BWW Reviews: Kristine Opolais' BUTTERFLY Spreads Its Glorious Wings at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - April 21, 2014

By this time in the Met's season, audiences can be a little “been there, done that”--but not when it came to Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais, singing the title role in Puccini's MADAMA BUTTERFLY for the first time in New York. They nearly stormed the stage when she came out for her curtain call, an...

BWW Reviews: Soprano Karita Mattila Shimmers in Strauss's FOUR LAST SONGS at Carnegie Hall
by Richard Sasanow - April 16, 2014

Of all the music that Richard Strauss wrote during his long career—and he'd composed almost 60 songs and more than 40 piano works by the time he was 18—perhaps none are more gorgeous and moving than his FOUR LAST SONGS (VIER LETZTE LIEDER). Finnish soprano Karita Mattila's performance on Saturday ...

BWW Reviews: Houston Grand Opera's DAS RHEINGOLD is Full-Throttle Spectacle
by David Clarke - April 15, 2014

Houston Grand Opera, which opened a lavish production of DAS RHEINGOLD this past weekend, is proudly kicking off their first Ring Cycle by Richard Wagner. Like any modern production of Wagner's Ring Cycle, Houston Grand Opera is sparing no expense. At Sunday's matinee, the audience leapt to their fe...

BWW Reviews: Furlanetto Conquers La Mancha - With Dignity
by Erica Miner - April 07, 2014

For two magical hours, Ferruccio Furlanetto lifted an embattled San Diego Opera from its doldrums to the lofty heights only such an artist can invoke, in his exquisite rendering of Jules Massenet's noble, genteel Don Quixote....

BWW Reviews: Millennials Approach and Amaze at Met Council Auditions Concert
by Richard Sasanow - April 02, 2014

In our age of 20-somethings suffering from arrested development, they say “25 is the new 15.” This certainly was not true at the Met auditions concert (formally, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Grand Finals Concert, a real mouthful!). At the opera house, Sunday afternoon, the conce...

BWW Reviews: Opera in the Height's LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR is Evocative and Atmospheric
by David Clarke - March 31, 2014

Gaetano Donizetti was a tremendous influence on the operas of Giuseppe Verdi and laid the foundation for the popularity of Italian opera in the latter half of the nineteenth century. At Opera in the Heights, their rousing production of the tragic opera fully exposes audiences to why this opera has h...

BWW Reviews: What a Difference a Cast Makes, with Damrau and Camarena, in LA SONNAMBULA at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - March 26, 2014

It's always reassuring when a change of cast--in this case soprano Diana Damrau and tenor Javier Camarena in wonderful performances--transforms a truly terrible production into an exciting night at the opera. But that's exactly what happened with the revival of Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA at the Met las...

BWW Reviews: Opera Australia's MADAMA BUTTERFLY
by Emma Cambey - March 25, 2014

The opening night of Madama Butterfly was an experience like no other. Mrs Macquarie's Point, near the iconic home of Australian opera, the Sydney Opera House, has been transformed into the perfect location for a night out at the opera....

BWW Reviews: Poulenc's DIALOGUES OF THE CARMELITES is Timely, Compelling, at Aurora Chamber Opera Series
by Marakay Rogers - March 25, 2014

Poulenc's work about martyred nuns shows its modern relevance on stage at the Perelman Theatre in Philadelphia...

BWW Reviews: WNO's THE ELIXIR OF LOVE Enchants With Expert Cast and Visually Stunning Production
by Audrey Liebross - March 23, 2014

THE ELIXIR OF LOVE, appearing in Italian at the Kennedy Center Opera House, is a feast for the ears and eyes. Donizetti's comic tale will appeal to both opera buffs and lovers of Broadway musicals hoping to expand into opera....

BWW Reviews: New Voices Add Luster to LA BOHEME at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - March 23, 2014

I thought someone spiked the water cooler backstage at the Met during the first half of LA BOHEME on March 19. Tenor Vittorio Grigolo's Rodolfo jumped around in the opening scene like he had too much caffeine or needed medication for hyperactivity (think Ritalin). Charming, yes, boyish, definite...

BWW Reviews: Triumphal March to Brilliance - Verdi's REQUIEM at San Diego Opera
by Erica Miner - March 21, 2014

Otello. Aida. Don Carlo. The comparisons are irresistible....

BWW Reviews: WOZZECK Redux - Levine and the Met Orchestra Show Vienna Who's Boss
by Richard Sasanow - March 19, 2014

When the Vienna State Opera visited New York at the end of February, it brought Alban Berg's WOZZECK to Carnegie Hall as part of the “Vienna: City of Dreams” festivities. With the big sound of the Vienna Philharmonic central to the concert performance, it set out to show what a quintessentially Vien...