BWW Review: How Did the Queen of Carthage Die? Juilliard's Version of Purcell's DIDO Isn't Telling
by Richard Sasanow - February 24, 2019
Purcell's DIDO AND AENEAS, written in about 1689 with a libretto by Nahum Tate, doesn't exist in a final version approved by the composer but, well, never mind. In the care of the more-than-budding artists of the Juilliard415 historical music ensemble and singers from Juilliard's Marcus Institute fo...
BWW Review: KING ARTHUR at Elder Hall, University Of Adelaide
by Barry Lenny - February 18, 2019
State Opera is presenting the semi-opera, or dramatick opera, King Arthur,...
BWW Review: Laugh a Little, Cry a Little for Met's Well-Sung RIGOLETTO
by Richard Sasanow - February 18, 2019
No matter what one thinks of the Met's transfiguration of Verdi's RIGOLETTO from Francesco Maria Piave's Mantua to '60s Las Vegas--I personally like much of this “Rat Pack” production from director Michael Mayer--the singing at Saturday's performance [the second of the season] was first rate....
BWW Review: DON GIOVANNI at OPERA WROCLAW - Universal Madness
by Natalia Jarczynska - February 18, 2019
This is a well known story: Don Giovanni - addictive seducer - struggles with live in temptations to meet consequences. Classic Opera from 18th century is still watched all over the world. 'Opera buffa' as Mozart described it himself should be comic but in this version the world „comic' doesn't come...
BWW Review: The Kitchen Finds Room for IMPROVEMENT with Robert Ashley's Modern Classic
by Richard Sasanow - February 15, 2019
You may have your own idea about what “opera” means and is, but I'd bet it's a world away from what composer Robert Ashley--whose 1985 work, IMPROVEMENT (DON LEAVES LINDA), has been running this week at the Kitchen in west Chelsea--had in mind....
BWW Review: TURANDOT at Sarasota Opera
by Carolan Trbovich - February 14, 2019
Sarasota Opera Celebrates 60th Diamond Anniversary Opening With A Brilliant Production of Turandot...
BWW Review: A Yummy FILLE DU REGIMENT Thanks to Yende and Camarena (and Don't Forget Donizetti)
by Richard Sasanow - February 13, 2019
I've already cheered tenor Javier Camarena's Herculean take on “Ah, mes amis!” in the Met's current FILLE DU REGIMENT--with 1 ½ dozen high Cs, including an encore--but there's more than the tenor in Met's current revival of the Donizetti gem to make the season suddenly seem grand. He and soprano Pr...
BWW Review: ORCHESTRA OF THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE IN CONCERT, Royal Opera House
by Sophia Lambton - February 09, 2019
This evening of contrasting sentimental works was far too fiery to resound with echoes of the (Russian) soul....
BWW Review: ANA MARIA MARTINEZ at Crowder Hall, U Of AZ
by Maria Nockin - February 06, 2019
On February 5, 2019, The Tucson Desert Song Festival and the University of Arizona (UA) presented a recital of Spanish language art songs by soprano Ana Maria Martinez and pianist Craig Terry in Crowder Hall. The songs, from Spain, Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico were appropriate to the Puerto Rican s...
BWW Review: SAN DIEGO OPERA'S PRODUCTION OF RIGOLETTO at The San Diego Civic Center
by Ron Bierman - February 06, 2019
The San Diego Opera's opening-night production of Verdi's Rigoletto featured the powerful voice and convincing acting of baritone Stephen Powell in a title role he has sung often. In contrast, it was soprano Alisa Jordheim's debut as Rigoletto's naive ill-fated daughter Gilda. Her fresh innocent app...
BWW Review: Countertenor JAKUB JOZEF ORLINSKI Goes for Baroque at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall Debut
by Richard Sasanow - February 04, 2019
It wasn't so long ago that countertenors were still considered an oddity; today, you can't turn around without tripping over one, or more. Last year, for instance, when the English Concert did Handel's RINALDO at Carnegie Hall there were, indeed, three countertenors. One of them was the young Polish...
BWW Review: Debuts Galore at Met's First DON GIOVANNI of the Season, But Willis-Sorensen's Anna Steals the Show
by Richard Sasanow - February 03, 2019
According to a quote attributed to Andy Warhol, if you want to tell a good painting from a bad one, first look at a thousand paintings; then you'll realize that there are no hard and fast rules. When it comes to performing arts and traditional repertoire, the standards are a little different. Direc...
BWW Review: LA GIOCONDA at LA MONNAIE in Belgium
by Alexander Diaconu - January 31, 2019
Olivier Py's vision of Amilcare Ponchielli's opera La Gioconda is in the purest sense of the term a wonderfully vibrant and dynamic revival....
BWW Review: CHAMPION at Opéra De Montréal
by Maggie Owen - January 30, 2019
Champion is based on a true story, focusing on the life of welterweight prizefighting champion Emile Griffith, a respected and famous boxer whose life rapidly changed after accidentally killing his opponent, Benny Paret, in the ring. Griffith was also bisexual in a time when it was socially unaccep...
BWW Review: THE ITALIAN GIRL IN ALGIERS at Winter Opera
by Steve Callahan - February 01, 2019
There's that initial low, stealthy tip-toeing pizzicato, like a Warner Brothers cat creeping up on a clever mouse. Then an oboe slips in, and other woodwinds, some piccolo. Then (SURPRISE!) a racing, romping foretaste of the musical fun to follow. It's the utterly delicious overture to Giochino Ross...
BWW Review: Love and Laughter Warms MN Opera's Luscious
THE ITALIAN STRAW HAT
by Peggy Sue Dunigan - January 29, 2019
n the midst of a polar vortex this winter, MN Opera sends an early valentine filled with warmth to the Twin Cities in their production The Italian Straw Hat at the Ordway Center's Orchestra Hall. This comic Italian opera set in 1950's Paris plays similar to a French farce while sung in Italian and a...
BWW Review: IOLANTA/BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE at The Metropolitan Opera
by Joanna Barouch - January 28, 2019
Opera stories thrive on the tension of good versus evil, of light versus darkness, and although the outcomes are not always happy, there's always an interesting tale to be told....
BWW Review: PELLEAS ET MELISANDE at Metropolitan Opera
by Peter Danish - January 16, 2019
Pélleas et Mélisande last night was hands down the best thing the Met has done this season. No arias, no duets, no trios, no choruses, just ravishing melodies bathed in some of the most complex web-like, ethereal harmonies....
BWW Review: LA TRAVIATA, Royal Opera House
by Sophia Lambton - January 15, 2019
A quarter of a century after its premiere, the long-running production is still worth a shot....
BWW Review: THE QUEEN OF SPADES, Royal Opera House
by Sophia Lambton - January 14, 2019
The Royal Opera's new production sidelines the opera in favour of meaningless chaos....
BWW Review: AIDA at Metropolitan Opera
by Peter Danish - January 09, 2019
Aida has been called the grandest of grand operas and the production that has graced the Met stage for the last (unbelievably) 30 years still looks absolutely amazing - towering columns, massive sandstone blocks, etc. Oddly, the audience did not applaud the sets (as they have in every other performa...
BWW Review: A PRISM of PROTOTYPE's INFINITE PSYCHOSIS for 2019
by Richard Sasanow - January 09, 2019
Where are our Violettas, our Salomes, our Elektras--even our Lulus--for opera to move forward as an art form for the 21 century? They're all victims of stress and suffering of one sort or another, but still worth meeting up with--not only musically but dramatically--more than once. I began thinkin...
BWW Review: Fireworks from Met's New ADRIANA LECOUVREUR with Netrebko for New Year's Eve
by Richard Sasanow - January 02, 2019
On New Year's Eve, the Metropolitan Opera unveiled a new production of Cilea's ADRIANA LECOUVREUR, with a high-powered, audience-pleasing cast--headed by Anna Netrebko--in a production by Met favorite David McVicar, appealingly designed and costumed, and played elegantly by the Met orchestra under G...
BWW Overview: A Look-Back at Opera's Many-Colored Dream Coat of Performance Highs in 2018
by Richard Sasanow - December 27, 2018
Well, it's that time of the year again--time for a look-back on what was worth making note of during the calendar year that's about to come to an end. It's from a totally personal, subjective point of view, of course, but frankly that's the way opera-lovers always seem to like it, n'est-ce pas? The ...
BWW Review: Dudamel's Baptism by Fire Turns in a Solid, Throbbing OTELLO at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - December 17, 2018
Talk about baptism by fire! That's what Gustavo Dudamel--that wunderkind of the classical conducting world--faced as he reached the podium of the Met for the first time Friday night. Not only was he conducting Verdi's great opera, OTELLO, but he was doing so with a last-minute substitute in the titl...
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