Valerie Therese Bart News

It’s no secret that many of the standard repertoire’s most famous operas had troubled premieres but Beethoven’s FIDELIO had more than its share. Thanks to the efforts of Heartbeat Opera, which performed its revised version at New York’s Met Museum this past weekend (before a short tour), we can see the forest for the trees, with many of the work’s problems dealt with in a surprisingly effective way and the story brought up to date without destroying its integrity.

Actors Theatre of Louisville presents A Doll's House, Part 2, onstage through November 4, presented as part of the Brown-Forman Series. Obie Award-winning playwright and Humana Festival alumnus Lucas Hnath's work takes the stage in Louisville once again with A Doll's House, Part 2, imagining protagonist Nora's return 15 years after the final, iconic moments of Henrik Ibsen's seminal masterpiece A Doll's House.

There's lots going on in the world of opera in New York City, as shown by the gamut of offerings under the umbrella of the ongoing New York OperaFest, co-organized by the New York Opera Alliance and Opera America. In the last week, the New Opera NYC gave us a cockeyed look at Rimsky-Korsakov's LE COQ D'OR (THE GOLDEN COCKEREL), while Heartbeat Opera took an ax to Puccini, and gave us a 'Madama'-less BUTTERFLY.

Previews begin this Sunday, November 6, at 7:30pm at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place, for Theatre for a New Audience's production of The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni adapted by Constance Congdon from a translation by Christina Sibul and featuring Steven Epp. Directed by Christopher Bayes, The Servant of Two Masters opens Wednesday, November 16, and is scheduled to run through Sunday, December 4. BroadwayWorld has a fresh sneak peek at the company in rehearsal below!

Oh what a circus, oh what a show...THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS extended to July 8 by popular demand.