Opera Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 47

BWW Reviews: Houston Grand Opera's A COFFIN IN EGYPT is Rarely Moving
by David Clarke - March 16, 2014

Houston Grand Opera is presenting the World Premiere of A COFFIN IN EGYPT, a one-act chamber opera based on Horton Foote's play by the same title. Known for crafting touching sentimentality and riveting drama, Horton Foote's legacy is sure to be celebrated for centuries to come. However, this operat...

BWW Reviews: At the Met, Kaufmann in WERTHER Is to Die For
by BWW News Desk - March 15, 2014

Maybe Richard Eyre's new production of WERTHER for the Metropolitan Opera, with strong performances by German tenor Jonas Kaufmann and French mezzo Sophie Koch, should have been called WERTHER: THE BACKSTORY or WERTHER: A FOOL'S GUIDE. Eyre took what was otherwise a beautiful and interesting interpr...

BWW Reviews: VITTORIO GRIGOLO--in Concert at the Met--Is Just Warming Up
by Richard Sasanow - March 12, 2014

Ever since the Three Tenors--Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras--got together in Rome's Baths of Caracalla in 1990, the world of opera has never been the same. And while the lookout for “the next big thing” has always been part of the opera world, the race to the finish has intensified over the last two...

BWW Reviews: At the Met, Kaufmann in WERTHER Is to Die For
by Richard Sasanow - March 10, 2014

Maybe Richard Eyre's new production of WERTHER for the Metropolitan Opera, with strong performances by German tenor Jonas Kaufmann and French mezzo Sophie Koch, should have been called WERTHER: THE BACKSTORY or WERTHER: A FOOL'S GUIDE. Eyre took what was otherwise a beautiful and interesting interpr...

BWW Reviews: Houston Grand Opera's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is Extraordinarily Gorgeous
by David Clarke - March 09, 2014

Ever since it premiered on Broadway in 1973, Stephen Sondheim's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, with a book by Hugh Wheeler, has been a favorite of musical theatre fans. The Michigan Opera Theatre was the first American opera company to present the piece in 1983, and other companies followed suit. It last gra...

BWW Reviews: Sondheim's SWEENEY TODD Is a Killer at the New York Philharmonic
by Richard Sasanow - March 08, 2014

Like the young Anthony Hope in Stephen Sondheim's scintillating SWEENEY TODD, “I've sailed the world, beheld its wonders…,” with SWEENEY TODDs ranging from the original cast in New York, to an all-Japanese version in Tokyo, and have never failed to be thrilled by it. But there was something about he...

BWW Reviews: Sensational SALOME Seduces Carnegie Hall Audience
by Richard Sasanow - March 04, 2014

At a time when we're bombarded by lurid stories—in books, newspapers, television and film—it is a tribute to Richard Strauss's SALOME, first performed in 1905, that it has lost none of its impact and ability to shock. The opera is sensational in every sense of the word, particularly in a performance...

BWW Reviews: Carnegie Hall's Audience Votes for WOZZECK from Vienna State Opera
by Richard Sasanow - March 03, 2014

Was baritone Thomas Hampson looking for some last-minute pointers at last night's concert performance of Alban Berg's WOZZECK with the Vienna State Opera/Vienna Philharmonic under music director Franz Welser-Most at Carnegie Hall? If he did--his role debut at the Met is Thursday--then he came to the...

BWW Reviews: Gotham Chamber Opera Up in Arms at New York's Metropolitan Museum
by Richard Sasanow - February 28, 2014

Monteverdi's “Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda” twice in one season in New York, in performances only months apart? Especially after Anna Caterina Antonacci's riveting take on the 20-minute work last November at the Lincoln Center's White Light Festival, what more could a small opera company lik...

BWW Reviews: Follow the Lieder, Part Two--JONAS KAUFMANN Conquers Carnegie
by Richard Sasanow - February 24, 2014

What does an opera singer do on his night off from singing the title role in Massenet's WERTHER in a new production at the Metropolitan? If he's the charismatic wunder-tenor Jonas Kaufmann, he heads over to Carnegie Hall to conquer another world, with his recital debut in an evening of German art so...

BWW Reviews: Follow the Lieder, Part One--GERALD FINLEY at Carnegie's Zankel Hall
by Richard Sasanow - February 19, 2014

When I last heard bass-baritone Gerald Finley in New York, he was a nameless prisoner in a dungeon during the Spanish Inquisition, in Dallapiccola's IL PRIGIONIERO with the New York Philharmonic. But even the eponymous title character of that 12-tone opera seemed less tortured than the singer of Sch...

BWW Reviews: A Fascinating PRINCE IGOR Finally Makes Back It to the Met
by Richard Sasanow - February 17, 2014

PRINCE IGOR was a glorious mess when Alexander Borodin died suddenly in 18, leaving it to others to finish a work he'd toiled on for nearly 20 years but hadn't quite made whole. With no definitive version of the opera, it was only performed by the Met in 1917--until Dmitri Tcherniakov's new producti...

BWW Reviews: French-Greek Tenor George Perris Makes Sensational New York Debut
by Peter Danish - February 18, 2014

French-Greek Tenor George Perris makes sensational debut at Lincoln Center's Allen Room....

BWW Reviews: Best Date Night Ever: San Diego Opera's ELIXIR OF LOVE
by Erica Miner - February 17, 2014

Once more, with feeling! This year's SDO Valentine offering, Donizetti's 1832 comic masterpiece, 'Elixir of Love,' echoed last season's midwinter love fest, the composer's 'Daughter of the Regiment.'...

BWW Reviews: Opera Philadelphia Presents Golijov's AINADAMAR
by Marakay Rogers - February 14, 2014

Opera Philadelphia presents its staging of Golijov's controversial short opera on Garcia Lorca...

BWW Reviews: Opera in the Height's DON GIOVANNI is Engaging Fun
by David Clarke - February 07, 2014

Based on the legends of Don Juan, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's DON GIOVANNI is a true staple in the operatic repertoire and is the tenth most-performed opera worldwide. The opera is often considered to be a dramma giocoso, which means that it mixes serious drama with comedy to create a melodramatic plo...

BWW Reviews: Austin Lyric Opera's TOSCA Triumphs
by Jeff Davis - February 05, 2014

My apologies to Verdi and Mozart. No one does romance like Puccini. If you were lucky enough to catch Austin Lyric Opera's recent production of Tosca, I assume you'd agree with me. The production is easily among the best productions in ALO's recent history....

BWW Reviews: THEODORA--With Daniels, Roschmann and English Concert--Scores a Touchdown on Super Bowl Sunday at Carnegie
by Richard Sasanow - February 04, 2014

It wasn't Theodora, but the Carnegie Hall audience, who went wild on Sunday at the performance by the English Concert of Handel's rarely heard THEODORA. With the modern rebirth of interest in all-things Handel, why has THEODORA remained a sometimes-thing? Well, let's face it: It's not GIULIO CESARE ...

San Diego Opera's 'Pagliacci' Stands On Its Own
by Erica Miner - January 27, 2014

This season's San Diego Opera Opening Night incited passion, drama, and nonstop thrills for the audience. The festive atmosphere at the Civic Theatre provided the perfect complement for the exciting intensity of one of opera's grittiest dramas, 'Pagliacci.'...

BWW Reviews: An Unrivaled Performance from the Bronx Opera
by Richard Sasanow - January 27, 2014

If your musical taste runs to Elliott Carter--or even Nico Muhly, whose TWO BOYS premiered at the Met this fall--then Kirke Mechem's THE RIVALS, which had its NY premiere this month at the Bronx Opera Company, may not be your cup of tea. But for a rollicking good time, this operatic adaptation of th...

BWW Reviews: Tchaikowsky's PIQUE DAME at Academy of Vocal Arts
by Marakay Rogers - January 24, 2014

Ghenady Meirson brings a condensed but not lacking production of Tchaikowsky's moody, Pushkin-inspired thriller to the AVA stage....

BWW Reviews: Horne of Plenty for Diva's 80th Birthday at Zankel Hall
by Richard Sasanow - January 21, 2014

There was a lovefest for the great mezzo Marilyn Horne in New York last week, filled with the music of friends, acquaintances and admirers at Carnegie Hall's sibling, Zankel Hall....

BWW Reviews: Houston Grand Opera's US Premiere of THE PASSENGER is Brilliant
by David Clarke - January 20, 2014

Houston Grand Opera is kicking off 2014 with the most harrowing and exhausting evening of opera I have ever experienced, and as an audience member I couldn't be more thrilled. If you're simply looking for entertainment, you'll be better off seeing RIGOLETTO (the other opera being performed in repert...

BWW Reviews: Hagerstown Hub Opera Presents Delightful Double Bill of Operas
by Johnna Leary - January 16, 2014

The Hagerstown Hub Opera Ensemble concert production of Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana on January 11 and 12 was an enjoyable double bill of one-act operas and a delightful way to break up the winter doldrums....

BWW Reviews: Modernist Score Releases Trials of Skylight's El Cimarrón
by Peggy Sue Dunigan - January 09, 2014

The truth in a story can move an audience to powerful reflection. The Skylight Music Theatre presents a brief production run of El Cimarron in the Studio Theatre to open 2014. A stage where the uncomfortable truth of slavery unfolds through the trials of a runaway Cuban slave, Esteban Montejo, and t...