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Maria Nockin

Maria Nockin worked at the Metropolitan Opera in New York while attending  Fordham University across the street from Lincoln Center. At the same time, she studied voice, piano, and violin privately. For many years she taught English as a Second Language as well as courses in Art and Theater at New York City and Hauppauge Long Island schools. She has also served as soprano soloist at Long Island's Cathedral of St. Agnes. She spent summers working at the Salzburg Festival where some iof her reviews were translated and read on Austrian Radio. Upon retirement from teaching, she moved to the warmer climate of the Southwest United States where, in winter, she writes about opera and classical music in the major cities of Arizona and California. In summer she covers operas and concerts in Santa Fe New Mexico. In summer 2014, Maria taught Music Theory at the Institute for Large Dramatic Voices. One of her students was Jonah Hoskins, a 2020 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions. 






BWW Review: LOVE AND SECRETS, A DOMESTIC TRILOGY Now Streaming to Computers Everywhere
BWW Review: LOVE AND SECRETS, A DOMESTIC TRILOGY Now Streaming to Computers Everywhere
April 17, 2021

On April 15, 2021, Opera San Jose premiered its digital stream of Love and Secrets: A Domestic Trilogy: Il Segreto di Susanna (The Secret of Susanna), Four Dialogues, and The Husbands. Wolf-Ferrari’s buffa comedy presents a wife with an addiction that she tries to keep secret. Thus, her husband suspects she has a lover and is most pleasantly surprised when he finds out she merely smokes cigarettes. Baritone Efraín Solís sings increasingly dramatic lines as his suspicions grow. A fine singing actor, he creates a most believable character.

BWW Feature: Opera Streaming Online This Week 4/14/21
BWW Feature: Opera Streaming Online This Week 4/14/21
April 13, 2021

On the Los Angeles Opera website, tenor Russell Thomas and collaborative pianist Kyung-Mi Kim present a program of song that includes Schumann's song cycle, Dichterliebe (Poet's Love),  Handel's aria “Total Eclipse” from Samson, and love songs by Adolphus Hailstork and Robert Owens that was filmed recently at Spivey Hall in Atlanta, Georgia. 

BWW Review: Opera Santa Barbara Presents DON PASQUALE at Ventura County Fairgrounds
BWW Review: Opera Santa Barbara Presents DON PASQUALE at Ventura County Fairgrounds
April 11, 2021

On Saturday evening, April 10, 2021, Opera Santa Barbara presented Gaetano Donizetti’s comedy Don Pasquale, the season opener for the Concerts in Your Car series at California’s Ventura County Fairgrounds. Following the State’s guidelines, attendees were able to enjoy a live stage performance from the safety and comfort of their vehicles or from their own chairs next to their vehicles, while wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing.

BWW Feature: ONLINE VIRTUAL OPERA TOUR N0. 51 at Home Computer Screens
BWW Feature: ONLINE VIRTUAL OPERA TOUR N0. 51 at Home Computer Screens
April 3, 2021

Have you watched Los Angeles Opera’s digital short Brown Sounds yet? Brown Sounds celebrates Black history by beginning with the Garden of Eden. Conceived by Raehann Bryce-Davis, a rising star in the LA firmament, it's a stunning vocal piece. Composer Ayanna Witter-Johnson set poet Henry Dumas's evocative verses to music with Bryce-Davis’s ravishing mezzo-soprano in mind.

BWW Review: San Francisco Opera's Stream of GÖTTERDÄMERUNG
BWW Review: San Francisco Opera's Stream of GÖTTERDÄMERUNG
March 28, 2021

On March 27, 2021, San Francisco Opera presented an online stream of its 2017-2018 production of Götterdämerung, the fourth opera of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. Stage Director Francesca Zambello has shown us a rapidly deteriorating world in Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, and Siegfried, so the opening projections of clouds and smoke stacks are no surprise.

BWW Feature: ONLINE VIRTUAL OPERA TOUR No. 50 Playing on Home Computer Screens
BWW Feature: ONLINE VIRTUAL OPERA TOUR No. 50 Playing on Home Computer Screens
March 26, 2021

Watch the digital debut of Missy Mazzoli’s impassioned opera Breaking the Waves. The opera is based on Lars von Trier’s film of the same name. The story begins when a near-fatal accident leaves the heroine’s new husband paralyzed. In his anguish, he implores her to take other lovers. She follows her faith to a tragic end.

BWW Review: Merola Opera Program: ANYTHING FOR LOVE AND HONOR
BWW Review: Merola Opera Program: ANYTHING FOR LOVE AND HONOR
March 24, 2021

On Sunday, March 21, 2021, tenor Issachah Savage and collaborative pianist Laurie Rogers gave a half-hour recital called Anything for Love and Honor for the Merola Opera Program. Savage, a former member of Merola, won three prizes at Seattle’s International Wagner Competition in 2014: First Prize, the Audience Prize, and the Orchestra Fave' Award.

BWW Review: San Francisco Opera Streams SIEGFRIED
BWW Review: San Francisco Opera Streams SIEGFRIED
March 22, 2021

On March 20, 2021, San Francisco Opera presented a free stream of Richard Wagner’s opera Siegfried as part of Francesca Zambello’s 2017-2018 American Ring. Forest projections set the mood for Runnicles and Zambello’s nature-friendly, quasi-impressionistic rendering of the opera. Lighting Designer Mark McCullough illuminated the opening scene as though it was  a dream.

BWW Review: ARIZONA ARIAS EPISODE 1 at Home Computer Screens
BWW Review: ARIZONA ARIAS EPISODE 1 at Home Computer Screens
March 20, 2021

Artists in the AZ Arias concert were internationally known  Brazilian baritone Paulo Szot, members of the Arizona Opera Orchestra led by Maestro Cal Stewart Kellogg, Head of Music, Christopher Cano, as well as studio members: sopranos Cheyanne Coss and Caitlin Gotimer, mezzo-soprano Mack Wolz, tenor Terrence Chin-Loy, and baritone Rob McGinness.

BWW Feature: Opera Streaming Online No. 49 For The Week of 3/19
BWW Feature: Opera Streaming Online No. 49 For The Week of 3/19
March 19, 2021

Wagner’s Siegfried is online from San Francisco Opera on March 20 and 21, 2021. Siegfried, a warrior without fear comes of age and prepares for battle in the third opera of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Tenor Daniel Brenna stars as the Siegfried, the son of Siegmund and Sieglinde who was born to retrieve the almighty ring of power from the dragon.

BWW Interview: Emily Fons of San Diego Opera's THE BARBER OF SEVILLE at Pechanga Arena Drive-in.
BWW Interview: Emily Fons of San Diego Opera's THE BARBER OF SEVILLE at Pechanga Arena Drive-in.
March 19, 2021

Emily Fons received a Grammy nomination for her work on the recording of Jennifer Higdon’s opera Cold Mountain. Fons has been lauded for her virtuosic abilities in the Baroque and Bel Canto repertoires and for the dramatic commitment and musicality she brings to modern works. She has performed with Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, and many others.

BWW Review: San Francisco Opera Presents Virtual DIE WALKUERE
BWW Review: San Francisco Opera Presents Virtual DIE WALKUERE
March 14, 2021

On the weekend of  March 13 and 14, San Francisco Opera streamed its 2018 production of Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre to opera lovers around the world. Director Francesca Zambello moved the story to a modern time in which Wotan was a captain of industry and Hunding was a hunter with a house full of trophies, one of which was his fair-tressed wife.

BWW Review: Houston Opera's Jack Swanson Recital
BWW Review: Houston Opera's Jack Swanson Recital
March 15, 2021

On Friday evening March 12, 2021, Houston Grand Opera presented Live from The Cullen: Jack Swanson and Richard Bado in a wide-ranging recital of music by Robert Schumann, Leonard Bernstein, Roger Quilter, Kurt Weill, Franz Liszt, and Gioachino Rossini. Swanson can hold his audience spellbound with the magic coming from his voice and his eyes.

BWW Review: Santa Fe Opera Online Benefit Concert
BWW Review: Santa Fe Opera Online Benefit Concert
March 12, 2021

On March 11, 2021, Santa Fe Opera presented an online benefit concert for its renowned apprentice programs. Singing the concert were former apprentices mezzo-soprano Emily Fons, tenor Jack Swanson, and baritone Will Liverman. Fons sings an aria from The Haunted Manor, Liverman sings an aria from Pagliacci and Swanson sings 'What a Wonderful World.'

BWW Feature: Virtual Opera Streaming This Week 3/9
BWW Feature: Virtual Opera Streaming This Week 3/9
March 9, 2021

Mar 13 and 14, San Francisco Opera presents Wagner’s Die Walküre. Chief god Wotan fathers the hero Siegmund to regain control of the ring. But, when confronted with the futility of his dream, Wotan is forced to forsake not only his son but also his beloved daughter, the warrior-maiden Brünnhilde. Wagner’s opera has English supertitles. 

BWW Review: BOULDER OPERA THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO at Home Computer Screens
BWW Review: BOULDER OPERA THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO at Home Computer Screens
March 8, 2021

On Sunday afternoon March 7, 2021, The Boulder Opera Company of Colorado presented Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro to audiences in the theater and online. Stage Director Michael Travis Risner set the time in the present. He provided the necessities required by the story and allowed the cast to provide considerable amusement. 

BWW Review: DAS RHEINGOLD at Home Computer Screens
BWW Review: DAS RHEINGOLD at Home Computer Screens
March 8, 2021

On Saturday, March 6, 2021, San Francisco Opera did a wonderful thing. The company put the opening opera of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungen online, free to  the world of opera lovers and the universe of the curious. Anyone with access to the Internet can see the entire Ring on weekends in March, and I, for one, am extremely grateful. 

BWW Review: Seattle Opera Streams DON GIOVANNI
BWW Review: Seattle Opera Streams DON GIOVANNI
March 6, 2021

On March 5, 2021, Seattle Opera presented Mozart’s Don Giovanni to its worldwide online audience. Stage director Brenna Corner notes that the 1964 Hamlet on Broadway directed by Richard Burton inspired her to do this black-and-white film production and use it to communicate the opera’s basic premise. Corner says she intended to emphasize the drama.

BWW Feature: ONLINE VIRTUAL OPERA TOUR No. 47 at Home Computer Screens
BWW Feature: ONLINE VIRTUAL OPERA TOUR No. 47 at Home Computer Screens
February 26, 2021

Angelinos, join soprano and Shakespeare super-fan Katherine Powers on a romp through the Bard’s stories told in music. In each of her episodes, Powers calls an expert on her 'Shakespeare Hotline' and performs songs from his timeless works.

BWW Review: LA Opera's DIGITAL SHORT DEATH Now Streaming
BWW Review: LA Opera's DIGITAL SHORT DEATH Now Streaming
February 23, 2021

Los Angeles Opera’s digital short film, Death, is Nadia Hallgren’s nine-minute creative take on Paul Laurence Dunbar’s turn-of-the 20th century poem, entitled Death. Two crows in seemingly choreographed flight introduce scenes with myriad black birds circling the edge of a leafless forest.



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