Ken Howard News

Puccini’s thrilling masterpiece Tosca returns to the Metropolitan Opera for 15 performances, October 4, 2022–April 15, 2023.

While I was watching the Met’s current beautiful yet somehow languid production of the Igor Stravinsky and WH Auden/Chester Kallman opera THE RAKE’S PROGRESS the other night--with only two more performances until it goes back into mothballs for probably many years--I couldn’t help wishing that the opera house was more like Broadway.

On Saturday night, Version 2.0 of the Mason Bates-Mark Campbell opera, THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS, opened brilliantly as a mainstage production of the Atlanta Opera, in its East Coast premiere, under Tomer Zvulun’s taut direction and Michael Christie’s smart baton. To say the audience greeted the work joyfully would be an understatement.

Richard Strauss’s ELEKTRA is simply overwhelming--particularly when you have Nina Stemme and, especially, Lise Davidsen, as the title character and her sister Chrysothemis, ably abetted by Greer Grimsley as their brother, Orest, and an incredible supporting cast top to bottom.

Can you imagine the Met--or any other major opera house--cutting the length of a new opera so commuters could make the last train? That’s what baritone Etienne Dupuis told me about the world premiere in Paris of Verdi’s DON CARLOS (1867). Dupuis is starring as Don Rodrigue, Marquis de Posa, at the Met these days, in the new David McVicar production of the Verdi opera.

Constellations: Fate, Love, and the Power of Theatre. The Lambs hosts a discussion of the play 'Constellations' by Nick Payne, the Tony nominated Broadway romantic comedy. A revival of the show will run from April 6 through April 24 at The Gene Frankel Theatre (24 Bond Street, New York NY 10012).

One of Puccini’s most popular operas, Madama Butterfly, returns to the Met for eleven performances, March 19–May 7. Set in Japan at the turn of the 20th century, the revival of Anthony Minghella’s evocative staging draws inspiration from traditional Japanese theater with brilliant stagecraft, bold colors, and Bunraku puppetry to tell the heartbreaking tale of doomed love.

If Friday night’s performance of Handel’s RODELINDA sometimes seemed like it was never going to end--it was quickly approaching the witching hour by the time the curtain calls were over, having started at 7:30--it certainly wasn’t the fault of the cast but Handel himself and librettist Nicola Haym. With ornamentation galore and da capo arias that strung phrases along one time after another (and a plot to make your head spin), it set challenges for everyone on stage, both musically and dramatically. And they were certainly up to it.

Handel’s Baroque drama Rodelinda returns to the Met for the first time in more than a decade, with five performances March 11–27. Soprano Elza van den Heever makes her Met role debut singing the title character in one of Handel’s most successful operas, based on the life of a seventh-century queen in the northern Italian kingdom of Lombardy.

The 2021-22 season of The Met: Live in HD will continue with Verdi’s DON CARLOS on Saturday, March 26 at 12:00 pm in the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre.

DON CARLOS--Verdi’s original French language version, for the first time at the Met, of the opera better known in these parts as the Italian DON CARLO--was as grim as its setting in the Spanish inquisition in the new David McVicar production introduced last night. And about as long (though for once it ended earlier than expected)--Verdi's longest opera.

Puccini's 'La Boheme,' returned for its second run of the season this week and cast and conductor delivered the goods. There's nothing to say that has not already been said about La Boheme as an opera and the famous Zeffirelli production, so we won't dwell on it.

As only the third American opera company in history to reach this centennial milestone, the Company’s 2022–23 Season will honor San Francisco Opera’s glorious past while inviting the public into an exciting new era of musical excellence under Kim’s music directorship and a renewed commitment to innovation.

The Met rings in the new year with the gala premiere of a bold new take on Verdi's timeless tragedy from Bartlett Sher. The Tony Award­-winning director resets the opera's action in 1920s Europe, with Art Deco sets by Michael Yeargan and elegant costumes by Catherine Zuber, themselves boasting a combined eight Tony Awards. Read all the reviews!

Get a first look at The Met's production of Rigoletto, now on stage through June 11th.

When I saw the George Grosz-ish curtain that introduced us to the new Barlett Sher “Weimar-inspired” production of Verdi’s RIGOLETTO at the Met on New Year’s Eve, I was excited about what lay ahead. Combined with Verdi’s great score, it seemed bound for success. What followed was disappointing, despite some creditable singing and smooth, involved orchestral playing under Daniele Rustioni, with much blame I thought, going to the Sher production.

What is there to say about Puccini’s TOSCA that hasn’t been said in the last hundred-plus years since its premiere in Rome (to echo the locations in the opera)? It is a marvel of brevity, with librettists Illica and Giacosa shaving locations, characters and action from the original play, written by the French dramatist Victorien Sardou for the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt, without sacrificing its impact. It has a gorgeous score, but for a grand opera, it is also quite intimate, with the action mainly revolving around three characters who carry their emotions on their sleeves and interact like their lives depend on it.

The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess will return to the Met for 13 performances, October 31–December 12, 2021. The classic American opera features many artists from the triumphant 2019–20 production’s Grammy Award-winning cast. Eric Owens and Angel Blue star as the title couple, with conductor David Robertson on the podium.

The 2021-22 season of The Met Live in HD continues with the historic Met premiere of Terrence Blanchard’s FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES on Saturday, October 23 at 12:55 pm in the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre.

It’s been a long 18 months since the last opera on the Met’s stage. The Terence Blanchard-Kasi Lemmons FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES roared into Lincoln Center to let the audience know what it has been missing.