Leslie Travers

What did our critic think of THE ANONYMOUS LOVER at Boston Lyric Opera?

As work ramps up on the trio of innovative productions comprising Opera North’s first sustainable season, the Company has revealed some of the transformations it is making in search of more environmentally responsible ways to bring its operas to the stage. 

Nigerian born writer, Inua Ellams, originally turned down working on Antigone due to feeling “no distant kinship with the protagonist.” Five years of work later, how could Ellams have predicted that his modern adaptation would feel so responsive to the current socio-political climate.

Check out all new production photos  from Antigone at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre which opens on Friday this week.

A groundbreaking new staging of Monteverdi’s opera Orpheus is set to open at Opera North in Leeds this October, before touring northern theatres alongside Verdi’s La traviata, and concerts of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre has announced casting and the full creative team for Antigone. Written by Inua Ellams (Barber Shop Chronicles, Three Sisters), this contemporary retelling of Sophocles's epic story has been commissioned by the theatre in its 90th anniversary year.

The Greek National Opera’s 2022-23 season curated by GNO Artistic Director Giorgos Koumendakis will feature ten new opera and ballet productions, one newly commissioned opera, five revivals of past productions, music concerts, major co-productions with some of the world’s foremost opera houses, collaborations with leading conductors and more.

Opera North today announces a year of cultural encounters and myths retold, in eight productions for its 2022-23 season.

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre have today confirmed their 2022 summer season, the venue's 90th anniversary. The musical Legally Blonde (13 May – 2 July) is directed by Lucy Moss, co-writer and co-director of Six.

On October 22, 2021, Opera Philadelphia began streaming its rendition of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. This staging is a judiciously cut two-hour-and-forty-eight-minute production by Opera Philadelphia, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, San Diego Opera, and Palm Beach Opera. Each company is choosing its own conductor and cast.

APOLLO 11 - The Immersive Live Show announces full casting for its world premiere in Los Angeles this July. Performances begin July 5th. As we approach the 50th anniversary of man's first steps on the Moon, the time has come to tell one of the greatest stories in human history. Los Angeles will be this exciting and new truly immersive live show's first stop of an 18-city tour over the next three years.

The Santa Fe Opera's General Director Robert K. Meya today announced repertory and casting for the company's exciting 64th Season in 2020. On the panel joining Meya for the announcement were the President of the Board of Directors Susan G. Marineau, Andrea Fellows Walters, Director of Community Engagement, and Cori Ellison, the company's first, recently appointed Dramaturg.

The Society of British Theatre designers are delighted to announce the twelve performance designers selected to represent the United Kingdom at the prestigious Prague Quadrennial.

The International Opera Awards today announces the finalists for its 2019 Awards.

Every four years the Society of British Theatre Designers represents the work of performance designers based in the UK at the largest scenography event in the world. This year the process has been redesigned as a digital submission to encourage set, costume, lighting, sound, video and experiential designers across every genre of performance design including theatre, opera, dance, live art, circus, carnival and outdoor festivals to apply.

The San Diego Opera's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro featured expressive singing, clever attractive sets, beautiful costumes, and strong comedic and dramatic acting. The work is generally called a comic opera, but as director Stephen Lawless pointed out during my interview with him, 'There are tears behind the laughter.' The difficult political and social issues hiding behind laughter came from the Beaumarchais play on which the opera was based, and Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte had to make light of them or risk censorship. The play's depiction of royal abuses probably contributed to the start of the French Revolution. Napoleon went so far as to say the it was, 'the Revolution already put into action.'

Cincinnati Opera, today announced the repertoire and casting for Cincinnati Opera's 2019 Summer Festival, which will run from June 13 to July 28. The company's 99th season begins with a charming production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro in Music Hall's Springer Auditorium.

Palm Beach Opera concludes the 2017-2018 mainstage season with a triumphant production of Mozart's poignant masterpiece Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), a new co-production between Palm Beach Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Philadelphia, and San Diego Opera. The popular opera will have three performances March 23-25 at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts at 701 Okeechobee Blvd.