BWW Review: BOULDER OPERA THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO at Home Computer Screens
by Maria Nockin - March 08, 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 prov...
BWW Review: DAS RHEINGOLD at Home Computer Screens
by Maria Nockin - March 08, 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, an...
BWW Review: Ups and Downs Mark Yoncheva's Daredevil Concert in Germany for Met Series
by Richard Sasanow - March 05, 2021
If you need any convincing that a “simple” recital, with lots of breaks, isn’t easier for the performer than being in a full-fledged opera, you have only to look as far as Bulgarian soprano’ Sonya Yoncheva's concert--shown live from Germany on February 27 but still available on-demand from the Met’s...
BWW Review: LA Opera's DIGITAL SHORT DEATH Now Streaming
by Maria Nockin - 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....
BWW Review: SOME ENCHANTED EVENING from Pittsburgh Festival Opera
by Maria Nockin - February 15, 2021
On February 14, 2021, Valentine’s Day, Pittsburgh Festival Opera presented seven singers in a romantic concert entitled Some Enchanted Evening. James Lesniak and Robert Frankenberg provided thoughtful and supportive piano accompaniment and Festival Opera Board members added charming love stories....
BWW Review: Met Concert Shows Netrebko's Got the Technique to Do Anything She Pleases
by Richard Sasanow - February 07, 2021
I couldn’t help but admire Anna Netrebko’s taking on many of the pieces that comprised her concert from Vienna’s historic Spanish Riding School on February 6, which was part of the Met Stars Live in Concert. They may not have fit her voice to a tee but she almost made you think they did. ...
BWW Review: P R I S M at Los Angeles Opera
by Maria Nockin - January 29, 2021
On January 28, 2021, Los Angeles Opera streamed a newly filmed version of Roxie Perkins and Ellen Reid’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera p r i s m. An operatic tapestry, p r i s m tells of the psychological dreams, desires and struggles of Bibi, a sexual assault survivor....
BWW Review: Radvanovsky Gets Better and Better, Beczala Shows Off His Slavic Roots in Latest “Met Stars Live” Concert
by Richard Sasanow - January 25, 2021
In the latest in the Met’s live, pay-per-view concert series from varied fascinating locales around the world, Radvanovsky boldly chose Verdi’s “Pace, pace” from LA FORZA DEL DESTINO as her “warm up”--a whopper of a piece under any circumstances--while Beczala went for the composer’s “Quando le sere...
BWW Review: SOLDIER SONGS, THE MOVIE at Home Computer Screens
by Maria Nockin - January 25, 2021
Soldier Songs is a filmed opera that tells about the life and memories of a returning soldier. Composer and librettist David T. Little says Johnathan McCullough approached him about a production in an Airstream....
BWW Review: SOLDIER SONGS, THE MOVIE
by Maria Nockin - February 01, 2021
Soldier Songs is a filmed opera that tells about the life and memories of a returning soldier. Composer and librettist David T. Little says this concept took shape when Johnathan McCullough approached Little with an idea for a production of the opera involving an Airstream. When the pandemic happene...
BWW Review: David T. Little's Chilling Opera SOLDIER SONGS Is Reinvented for Opera Philadelphia Film
by Richard Sasanow - January 24, 2021
When I interviewed David T. Little several years ago, he told me he told me that he “didn't even realize [SOLDIER SONGS] was an opera until [opera entrepreneur] Beth Morrison clued him in.” He probably didn’t realize it was a film either, until Singer-Director Johnathan McCullough brought him the id...
BWW Review: Jamie Barton Stars as the French Chef in BON APPETIT! A SWEET SOIREE
by Maria Nockin - January 09, 2021
On January 8, 2021, Opera Philadelphia presented BON APPETIT! A SWEET SOIREE. Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton portrayed Julia Child and Jonathan Easter accompanied her with Lee Hoiby’s sparkling, decorative piano score. Keep the Music Going Directors Ryan and Tonya McKinny provided the superb audio and v...
BWW Review: Happy New Year, Dear Metropolitan, Happy New Year to You
by Richard Sasanow - January 08, 2021
Looks can be deceiving, as the New Year’s Eve edition of the Met’s “Live in Concert” series proved in abundance. But could even the talent of four wonderful singers--sopranos, Angel Blue and Pretty Yende and a matching pair of tenors, Javier Camarena and Matthew Polenzani-- breathe new life in a pro...
BWW Review: Arizona Opera Presents STUDIO SPOTLIGHT CONCERT
by Maria Nockin - December 21, 2020
On Saturday evening, December 19, 2020, Arizona Opera premiered its third Studio Spotlight Series Concert online at no charge. The first part of the program featured tenor Bille Bruley, soprano Kaitlyn Johnson, and bass-baritone Brandon Morales singing opera arias. The second part was a performanc...
BWW Interview: THE ELIXIR OF LOVE at McCaw Hall
by Erica Miner - November 02, 2020
Available to season ticket holders from November 13–December 4, 2020 , Recorded on the McCaw Hall stage...
BWW Review: SAN DIEGO OPERA'S LA BOHEME at Pechanga Arena Parking Lot
by Ron Bierman - October 28, 2020
A connoisseur's bravos replaced by honkin' horns and flashin' headlights? Puccini's La bohème staged in a parking lot? Such is opera performance in an age of COVID-19. A sold-out fleet of 450 cars contained opera-starved San Diegans who showed their appreciation of the performance in ways never imag...
BWW Review: Damrau Goes for Broke, Calleja Plays It Safer in 'Met Stars Live in Concert' from Italy
by Richard Sasanow - October 27, 2020
In the latest installment of the Met Stars in Concert Series, soprano Diana Damrau and tenor Joseph Calleja took center stage in the Royal Palace of Caserta, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Italy, with the grand assistance of pianist Roberto Moresco. The performing space—the palace’s spectacular Pal...
BWW Review: A TRIBUTE TO LEON FLEISHER
by Barbara Trainin Blank - September 29, 2020
The word legendary can be used loosely, but as Brian Ganz demonstrates in a tribute concert to his long-time teacher and world-famous pianist Leon Fleisher, in this case not only is the description deserving but can be applied in many different spheres....
BWW Review: LUCAS AND IRINA MEACHEM RECITAL
by Maria Nockin - September 28, 2020
Baritone Lucas Meachem and his wife, pianist Irina Meachem, sang an aria-filled recital on to open the Merola Opera Program Recital Series September 27, 2020. The Meachems opened the recital with the aria a?oeBella siccome un angeloa?? (a?oeBeautiful as an Angela??) from Donizettia??s Don Pasquale. ...
BWW Review: Like Fine Wine, DiDonato Keeps Getting Better, as her Unusual 'Met Stars Live in Concert' from Germany Shows Aplenty
by Richard Sasanow - September 20, 2020
Mezzo Joyce DiDonato set a new standard for the Met’s Live concert series (hosted by Christine Goerke) with a gorgeous recital from the Jahrhunderthalle in Germany that was broadcast live on September 12 and will be available on demand through the Met’s website, now extended through October 23....
BWW Review: Star Light, Star Bright – Here Comes Norway's LISE DAVIDSEN, One of the MET STARS IN CONCERT
by Richard Sasanow - August 31, 2020
By the time Lise Davidsen appeared in the Met’s December revival of Tchaikovsky’s QUEEN OF SPADES, the company had already scheduled the soprano for five other major roles in seasons to come. One opera they didn’t schedule was TANNHAUSER, with its spectacular aria for Elisabeth--“Dich teure Halle”--...
BWW Review: Today's Biggest Stars plus Pavarotti, Price, Sutherland, Battle and Others Make MET ON DEMAND Indispensable
by Richard Sasanow - August 26, 2020
It's hardly a secret that during the Met's shutdown, the company has been treating audiences with nightly telecasts of everything from the company's current 'Live In HD' series to some scratchy videos that still had decent sound. All of them, however, can also be found on the Met's online subscripti...
BWW Review: RUSSELL THOMAS LIVING ROOM RECITAL
by Maria Nockin - August 13, 2020
On Monday, August 10, 2020, I listened to tenor Russell Thomas and collaborative pianist Kyung-mi Kima??s a?oeLiving Room Recitala?? for Los Angeles Opera. He opened with Franz Schuberta??s a??An die Musik' ('To Musica??) Thomas and Kim gloried in the songa??s sweeping melody as the pianoa??s stron...
BWW Review: Fleming Continues to Surprise in Met Stars Live in Concert at Washington's Dumbarton Oaks, August 1
by Richard Sasanow - August 02, 2020
Even though soprano Renee Fleming had a big farewell to her role as the Marschallin in DER ROSENKAVALIER in the Met’s recent production premiere, she seems far from the end of her career, not only continuing to concertize but even in opera. So, it was no surprise that she showed up on the roster of ...
BWW Review: The Met's Back, with a Live Concert Series Kicked Off by Jonas Kaufmann
by Richard Sasanow - July 19, 2020
When was the last time you heard a concert at the Met for $20? It could have been Saturday afternoon--with Jonas Kaufmann kicking off an online, live concert series, MET STARS LIVE IN CONCERT. It helped to remind us what we're missing without live opera and stars worth going out of the way for....
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