Opera Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 50

BWW Reviews: The Met's Stirring Production of Poulenc's DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES is 'the Anti-Machine'
by Richard Sasanow - May 07, 2013

What would the Metropolitan Opera (and its audiences) do without its production of Francis Poulenc's DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES, which opened for the season with Saturday's matinee, May 4? As created in 1977 for its Met premiere by director John Dexter, this CARMELITES is unlike anything else in the c...

BWW Reviews: SHOW BOAT Rolls Along at Washington National Opera
by Jeffrey Walker - May 06, 2013

SHOW BOAT is back in an appealing production by the Washington National Opera. The Kennedy Center Opera House is a fitting berth for Captain Andy's Cotton Blossom and the happy/troubled show folk who make it their home. Boasting a cast and chorus of 100, WNO's SHOW BOAT allows the story to roll alon...

BWW Reviews: Houston Grand Opera's IL TROVATORE is Spellbinding and Spectacular
by David Clarke - April 29, 2013

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BWW Reviews: Soprano Nina Stemme Leaves Audience 'In the Dark' with Swedish Chamber Orchestra
by Richard Sasanow - April 26, 2013

Anyone expecting vocal fireworks from soprano Nina Stemme's appearance last night at Alice Tully Hall with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, under Thomas Dausgaard, was woefully disappointed. Count me as one of them....

BWW Reviews: Stale Aesthetics Mar Strong Performances in Austin Lyric Opera's FAUST
by Jeff Davis - April 26, 2013

It's the timeless quality of the tale that have inspired director Bernard Uzan to set his production of Faust, first produced at Arizona Opera in 2011 and now re-staged for Austin Lyric Opera, in modern times. Unfortunately, despite the impeccable performances of the incredible cast, the tone and v...

BWW Reviews: Opera in the Height's FALSTAFF is a Delightful and Mirtful Comedy
by David Clarke - April 26, 2013

Last night, Houston's Opera in the Heights opened their production of Giuseppe Verdi's FALSTAFF. The mirthful and comedic opera is the last production of their 2012-2013 season, but the most exhilarating aspect of the production is seeing an opera performed so intimately. This was my first time to v...

BWW Reviews: A Visually Stunning MAGIC FLUTE at Opera Philadelphia
by Marakay Rogers - April 25, 2013

The Diane Paulus/Canadian Opera production now at Opera Philadelphia dazzles the eye, if not always the ear...

BWW Reviews: Robert Lepage's RING is in full Rotation
by Scott Frost - April 25, 2013

The first of three complete Ring Cycles concluded on Tuesday night at the Metropolitan Opera as our hero, Siegfried, his true love, Brunnhilde, as well as the entirety of Valhalla went up in a burst of video projected and staged lit flames behind the massive 45-ton set of 24 rotating planks come to ...

BWW Reviews: Monty Python Meets Offenbach in City Opera's Daffy LA PERICHOLE
by Richard Sasanow - April 23, 2013

New York City Opera's production of Jacques Offenbach's LA PERICHOLE feels right at home at City Center, home of the 'Encores!' series, which reintroduces audiences to lesser known Broadway musicals that failed or went out of fashion despite wonderful scores. PERICHOLE doesn't have a care in the wor...

BWW Reviews: HGO's TRISTAN AND ISOLDE is Immaculately Profound, Riveting, and Unforgettable
by David Clarke - April 22, 2013

The 2012-2013 season at Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has been filled with stunning performances of astounding operatic talent; however, their current production of Richard Wagner's TRISTAN AND ISOLDE may be the sparkling gem of this fascinating season. Every aspect of the production gels with perfectio...

Video: Watch a Preview of the COC's LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR; Opens Tonight!
by BWW News Desk - April 17, 2013

The Canadian Opera Company's production of LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, directed by David Alden, opens tonight, April 17. Watch the video below for a preview!...

BWW Reviews: New York Opera Returns to the City Center
by Scott Frost - April 15, 2013

Since moving out of the Lincoln Center two years ago, the New York City Opera has taken to playing its productions at a number of venues throughout the city, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, but Sunday marked a homecoming for the company. New York City Opera continued its season with a new ...

BWW Reviews: Hail Caesar! Metropolitan Opera's New GIULIO CESARE Is Victorious
by Richard Sasanow - April 13, 2013

The groans were audible--no, powerful--when the Metropolitan Opera's General Manager Peter Gelb stepped out in front of the curtain on the second night of the company's new David McVicar production of Handel's GIULIO CESARE. They grew louder as he announced that soprano Natalie Dessay was ill and wo...

BWW Reviews: HGO's THE MEMORY STONE is Haunting, Gorgeous, and Spellbinding
by David Clarke - April 10, 2013

Houston Grand Opera (HGO)'s 50th World Premiere Opera had its first public performance last night at Asia Society Texas Center. This enchanting chamber opera is a gorgeous and stirring piece that examines the power and necessity of memory for the advancement of the human species. It opens with rolli...

BWW Reviews: An Atomic Inspired FAUST Comes Back to the Met
by Scott Frost - March 28, 2013

Since its premiere in 1859, Faust has been a moderate success in comparison to its counterpart, Goethe's epic drama of the same name, and the Mets current revival of the 2011 production holds true. This production, directed by Tony Award winner Des McAnuff does well to add interest where the origin...

BWW Reviews: CRUZAR LA CARA DE LA LUNA is Astoundingly Beautiful and Compelling
by David Clarke - March 22, 2013

Houston Grand Opera's 41st World Premiere Opera CRUZAR LA CARA DE LA LUNA/TO CROSS THE FACE OF THE MOON premiered in the Brown Theater at the Wortham Center on November 13, 2012. The performance played in front of 2,400 patrons, the largest-ever audience in the Brown Theater. Following that rousing ...

BWW Reviews: American Symphony Blows a Kiss to DER VAMPYR at Carnegie Hall
by Richard Sasanow - March 19, 2013

I've always been a sucker for a good vampire story--and Heinrich Marscher's opera DER VAMPYR fits the bill, though I don't expect it to turn up at the Metropolitan Opera any time soon. The American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein, at Carnegie Hall this past Sunday, provided an exhilarating in...

BWW Reviews: STREETCAR with Renee Fleming Jumps the Rail at Carnegie Hall
by Richard Sasanow - March 18, 2013

Andre Previn's operatic version of Tennesee Williams's A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, with a libretto by Andrew Littell, made its belated New York debut at Carnegie Hall on Thursday. It plays to Renee Fleming's vocal strengths, with her shimmering, lyric soprano and soaring high notes. This is not surpri...

BWW Reviews: Jealousy Is a Wild-Eyed Monster Named Jose Cura in the Met's OTELLO
by Richard Sasanow - March 13, 2013

With a popular opera by Rossini already co-opting the title OTELLO, Verdi momentarily thought about calling his work IAGO, after the story's villain. But then, he'd never seen Jose Cura's portrayal of the title role, which made its house debut at the Met on March 11. It's over the top, a freight tra...

BWW Reviews: Audience Is Real Winner at the Met's National Council Auditions Grand Finals
by Richard Sasanow - March 11, 2013

On Sunday afternoon March 10, the air was buzzing with anticipation at the Met, before the performances by the ten singers who had made it to the Grand Finals of the opera company's National Council auditions. No, this wasn't the opera equivalent of American Idol, where the emphasis is on the judges...

BWW Reviews: FRANCESCA DA RIMINI at the Met
by Scott Frost - March 08, 2013

We all sat waiting anxiously for the curtain to rise on Riccardo Zandonai's 'Francesca da Rimini' after almost a 27 year hiatus on the Met stage; but with each passing act, one could sense the audience waiting for the closing curtain just as intently. Not to say that the performances or design were...

BWW Reviews: SF Opera's SECRET GARDEN Could Use Some More Work
by Harmony Wheeler - March 04, 2013

San Francisco Opera's new commission, a modern opera take on the classic children's story, "The Secret Garden," has trouble fully blooming. Littered with beautiful lilies and roses of moments, the opera waits until its second act to really let its music breathe....

BWW Reviews: All Hail the Conquering RADAMISTO by the English Concert at Carnegie Hall
by Richard Sasanow - February 26, 2013

The English Concert's spectacular performance of RADAMISTO had me from its first notes and swept me away to its unlikely but happy ending. Three-and-a-half hours never moved faster than it did at Carnegie Hall on Sunday. It's easy to think of Carnegie as simply the premiere venue for symphony orc...

BWW Reviews: TURN OF THE SCREW as Told Through a Horror Movie Lens
by Scott Frost - February 26, 2013

New York City Opera's production of Britten's chamber opera 'The Turn of the Screw' opened Sunday afternoon to a full house at Brooklyn Academy of Music's Howard Gilman Opera House as the Prologue, played by Dominic Armstrong, fills us in on the back story as it is played out onstage. The stark sett...