BWW Review: COUNT ORY, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - August 14, 2019
Opera Alegría plonk Rossini's naughty Count on the Home Front in 1943, with lots of laughs in between the fine singing and beautifully played piano....
BWW Review: PROM 31: BRAHMS, BRUCKNER & STRAUSS, Royal Albert Hall
by Sophia Lambton - August 11, 2019
Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted an evening of music where emotion overrode pristine beauty....
BWW Review: Am I BLUE at Glimmerglass? You Bet. But There Are Also Some Guilty GHOSTS, and, Oh that Notorious RBG!
by Richard Sasanow - August 02, 2019
A summer's trip to Cooperstown, NY, is for two distinct audiences: Those who come for the Baseball Hall of Fame and those, like me, who come for the opera--the Glimmerglass Festival, under General Director Francesca Zambello, where i caught up with the John Corigliano-William Hoffman THE GHOSTS OF V...
BWW Review: DAS RHEINGOLD, Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - August 01, 2019
Grimeborn sees a condensed version version of the early part of Wagner's Ring Cycle that packs a punch in its intense 100 minutes running time....
BWW Review: VIOLETTA, Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - July 30, 2019
Violetta kicks off the Grimeborn Festival with a perfect example of how to pare back a grand opera and make a fine chamber piece that is played and sung beautifully....
BWW Review: LA BOHEME at Union Avenue Opera
by Steve Callahan - July 29, 2019
Union Avenue Opera is on a roll! Two homers in a row! First their sublime Candide, and now an equally fine production of Puccini's La bohème. Union Avenue knocked them both right into the bleachers, and those of us who were lucky enough to catch one of those prize performances now own a true treasur...
BWW Review: JENUFA at Santa Fe Opera
by Maria Nockin - July 25, 2019
On Wednesday, July 24, 2019, Santa Fe Opera presented Leoš Janáček's powerful dramatic opera Jenůfa. Laura Wilde, a former Santa Fe Apprentice who performed the title role at English National Opera in 2016, again sang the lead while Patricia Racette, who has often sung Jenůfa, portrayed her stepmoth...
BWW Review: JETTE PARKER YOUNG ARTISTS SUMMER PERFORMANCE, Royal Opera House
by Sophia Lambton - July 22, 2019
Evolving artists with differing amounts of stage experience formed a variably green, prepared and overworked ensemble in this summer showcase of the Royal Opera's young roster singers....
BWW Review: Mostly Mozart's MAGIC FLUTE versus Teatro Nuovo's STRANIERA, Ingenuity Outdoes Purism
by Richard Sasanow - July 22, 2019
This week's opera performances--Teatro Nuova's LA STRANIERA by Bellini and Mostly Mozart's MAGIC FLUTE--proved that opera can be considered alive and well (and living in New York), as long as those producing it believe in it and give us some voices worth hearing....
BWW Review: Gordon-Artman ACQUANETTA is No Grade-B Horror at Bard, Directed by Tony-winner Fish
by Richard Sasanow - July 15, 2019
ACQUANETTA, which just opened at Bard's SummerScape, was the piece that opened 2018's edition of PROTOTYPE festival in New York. Musically and dramatically, written by Michael Gordon, composer (of 'Bang on a Can' fame), Deborah Artman, librettist (ditto), the piece is very much in a class of its own...
by Richard Sasanow - July 15, 2019
ACQUANETTA, which just opened at Bard's SummerScape, was the piece that opened 2018's edition of PROTOTYPE festival in New York. Musically and dramatically, written by Michael Gordon, composer (of 'Bang on a Can' fame), Deborah Artman, librettist (ditto), the piece is very much in a class of its own...
BWW Review: WOZZECK at Des Moines Metro Opera: A Thought Provoking Work of Art
by DC Felton - July 07, 2019
Every so often, a production comes around that leaves you pondering about the show when it is done. For me, it's usually a jarring show that asks the audience to think about how we see things in the world, and if the way we see things can be adjusted or not. Des Moines Metro Opera's (DMMO) product...
BWW Review: Union Avenue Opera Gives St. Louis a Brilliant CANDIDE
by Steve Callahan - July 08, 2019
Run, don't walk, to see the brilliant CANDIDE at the Union Avenue Opera in St. Louis! This is the opening production of their twenty-fifth festival season, and it is, for my money, the most wonderful of the many lovely shows they've done....
BWW Review: THE PEARL FISHERS at Santa Fe Opera
by Maria Nockin - July 01, 2019
On June 29, Santa Fe Opera presented its second production of the 2019 season, a revival of Georges Bizet's exotic THE PEARL FISHERS. First seen in Lee Blakekely's 2012 version, the production has fared well. Current director Shawna Lucey staged a tasteful, straight forward revival of the work Bizet...
BWW Review: CANDIDE at Des Moines Metro Opera: A Beautiful Kaleidoscope That Makes the Best of all Possible Shows
by DC Felton - July 01, 2019
Some people think everything happens in life for a reason. Others choose to relish all the great parts of life while others drown in the despair of the horrible things that happen in the world. Whatever your philosophy on life is, one thing you would never expect is to see that philosophy come to ...
BWW Review: LA BOHEME Opens Santa Fe Opera's 2019 Season
by Maria Nockin - July 01, 2019
On June 28, 2019, Santa Fe Opera opened its 63rd Season with Giacomo Puccini's tale of poverty-stricken young lovers in nineteenth century Paris. Stage Director Mary Birnbaum told the tale in a straight forward manner but with with an occasional twist that fomented conversation among audience member...
BWW Review: LA BOHEME at Des Moines Metro Opera: A Breathtaking, Beautiful and Tragic Production
by DC Felton - July 01, 2019
In 2002, I was indirectly introduced to La Boheme. My introduction came when I was introduced to a musical that had come out and became a phenomenon on Broadway just 6 years earlier. The show quickly became a favorite musical of mine and showed me the impact that theatre can have on people. Since th...
BWW Review: A DINNER ENGAGEMENT/TROUBLE IN TAHITI, Royal College Of Music
by Sophia Lambton - June 29, 2019
A slick delivery of operatic satires by students of the Royal College of Music challenges contemporary, outmoded conceptions about 'amateur' vs. 'professional'....
BWW Review: MAINLY MOZART at the Balboa Theatre
by Ron Bierman - June 26, 2019
Each year Mainly Mozart brings concertmasters and principal players to San Diego from the major symphony orchestras of Cleveland, Philadelphia, New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, Dallas and elsewhere. They come for a month-long series that includes solo recitals, chamber music performances and orc...
BWW Review: No Stonewalling the Message of the Bell-Campbell STONEWALL at City Opera Premiere
by Richard Sasanow - June 25, 2019
If there's nothing colder than yesterday's news, the Stonewall riots--that cornerstone of the gay rights movement, 50-years-old this month--should be the equivalent of a frozen Margarita. Instead, it's hot as New York in August, in Leonard Foglia's nonstop production of STONEWALL, the opera by Iain ...
BWW Review: CARMEN, Royal Opera House
by Gary Naylor - June 25, 2019
Barrie Kosky's Carmen returns to the Royal Opera House for a second revival and still chalks up as many misses as hits....
BWW Review: BORIS GODUNOV, Royal Opera House
by Gary Naylor - June 20, 2019
Illuminated by a masterful performance from Bryn Terfel, this production is a gruelling but rewarding, often stunning, revisit to the Musorgsky's original 1869 version....
BWW Review: FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES at Opera Theatre St. Louis Captures Your Heart!
by Steve Callahan - June 18, 2019
Fire Shut Up in My Bones has opened at Opera Theatre St. Louis. It is gorgeous! Deeply intimate and honest, the beautifully told story almost overshadows the music by the great jazz trumpeter Terrence Blanchard....
TOSCA, A Political Lighthouse Opens at Opera Queensland
by Virag Dombay - June 13, 2019
Composed by Giacomo Puccini who is heralded as one of the greatest composers of all time, Opera Queensland's Tosca provides a powerful social-commentary on the manipulative nature of power and how love, somehow, though often tragically, manages to win. The work follows the story of Tosca, a famous s...
BWW Review: Reshaping Beethoven's FIDELIO into Lang's PRISONER OF THE STATE at the Philharmonic
by Richard Sasanow - June 12, 2019
The New York Philharmonic finished up its season with a powerful performance of a new version of the FIDELIO story by composer David Lang, which he neatly titled PRISONER OF THE STATE, summing up a key part of the story. Lang's score and the staging by Elkhanah Pulitzer—and the pulsating performance...
BWW Review: THE CORONATION OF POPPEA at Opera Theatre Of St. Louis
by Steve Callahan - June 11, 2019
This baroque masterpiece is gorgeous and disturbing....
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