Opera Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 23

BWW Review: HANSEL AND GRETEL, Royal Opera House
by Sophia Lambton - December 14, 2018

The spectacle is a hunger-inducing delight for the eyes....

BWW Review: It's All GREEK for Me, from Scottish Opera at BAM's Next Wave Festival
by Richard Sasanow - December 13, 2018

I hope somebody from New York City Opera was at BAM last weekend, because Mark-Anthony Turnage's GREEK--a modern retelling of the Oedipus myth from Scottish Opera/Opera Ventures, presented by BAM's Next Wave Festival--is just what the doctor ordered for that company. A great story, a small cast, a s...

BWW Review: Live from New York, It's On Site Opera's AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS
by Richard Sasanow - December 09, 2018

The touching, moving, brilliantly site-specific version of Gian Carlo Menotti's AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS, performed this week by New York's vibrant On Site Opera (OSO), had the audience at the Church of the Holy Apostles Church alternately in tears and cheering....

BWW Review: Damrau's a Top Violetta with the Met's New Maestro Nezet-Seguin in LA TRAVIATA from Mayer
by Richard Sasanow - December 06, 2018

I interviewed Diana Damrau when she had just done her first Violetta, her role debut in the Met's old Willy Decker production. It was a part she lusted over from the time she saw the 1982 Zeffirelli film, but was careful about taking on--waiting for the right time in her vocal development. That was ...

BWW Review: THE MERRY WIDOW at Adelaide Festival Theatre
by Barry Lenny - December 01, 2018

Antoinette Halloran and Alexander Lewis captivate the audience....

BWW Review: CARMEN, Royal Opera House
by Sophia Lambton - December 01, 2018

Barrie Kosky's unmusical revival loses more steam on its second outing....

BWW Review: GLASS or HANDEL, Costanzo Can Handle Whatever's Thrown at Him
by Richard Sasanow - November 29, 2018

No one can accuse countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo of sitting around and waiting for projects to fall into his lap. GLASS HANDEL was first produced by the singer with Visionaire and Cath Brittan at Opera Philadelphia's (OP) O18 Operafest in September and presented in NY by OP and National Sawdust ...

BWW Review: Juilliard Makes Handel's AMINTA E FILLIDE the Opera of the Year
by Richard Sasanow - November 26, 2018

Handel's AMINTA E FILLIDE doesn't have much of a libretto--'nymph meets swain and complications arise,' says the program, and that's about it--and there were just a handful of musicians from Juilliard's early music program on stage at the Morgan Library's tiny Gilder Lehrman Hall. for a work that la...

BWW Review: Saariaho's SOUND, Directed by Sellars, Says Yes to Noh at White Light Festival
by Richard Sasanow - November 21, 2018

With a formidable cast of three, and a brilliant ensemble of voices and instrumental musicians, Kaija Saariaho's ONLY THE SOUND REMAINS swept through town last weekend, created with director Peter Sellars. Once again, she left us in awe of how she can fill an impossibly large theatre with what seems...

BWW Review: Washington Concert Opera Serves Up a Seductive SAPHO
by Sam Abney - November 21, 2018

If you have ever attended an opera and thought 'all of these sets and costumes are so incredibly distracting' then Washington Concert Opera would be right up your alley. Stripping away the grandiose of an opera production, WCO presents their works in their most raw form: with just an orchestra, a ch...

BWW Review: Nothing Fishy about Replacement Baritone Elliott in PECHEURS at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - November 19, 2018

We thought things were exciting last week, when Christian Van Horn brought his Mefistofele to the Met last week, getting all his exercise for the month in the athletic staging and nailing his first big role in the house. However, that was “business as usual” compared to the mid-performance debut, ju...

BWW Review: A Devilishly Good Van Horn Steals MEFISTOFELE at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - November 12, 2018

The Met is offering Robert Carsen's 1999 production of Arrigo Boito's MEFISTOFELE to show us what bass-baritone Christian Van Horn--winner of this year's Richard Tucker Award--could do in his first starring role at the house and the answer was: plenty....

BWW Review: A Diverse Week at BAM's Next Wave Fest, Balancing Glass's SATYAGRAHA and a SAVAGE WINTER (REISE) without the Schubert
by Richard Sasanow - November 09, 2018

To say that this was an unusual week for opera-goers venturing into BAM's Next Wave Festival would be an understatement—but then the unexpected is what makes it is an indispensable component of the New York arts scene, with Philip Glass's SATYAGRAHA and Douglas J. Cuomo's SAVAGE WINTER....

BWW Review: THE MAGIC FLUTE at Opera Grand Rapids, Makes For a Magical Journey!
by Brian Hilbrand - October 31, 2018

A little over a week ago I attended my first opera, Opera Grand Rapids' production of The Magic Flute, a fairy tale with the traditional fairytale themes of love and of good versus evil. The show starts with Prince Tamino, played by Dennis Shuman, alone in the woods fleeing a deadly serpent. He fain...

BWW Review: LA TRAVIATA at Thorne Hall Occidental College
by Maria Nockin - October 29, 2018

On Sunday October 28, 2018, Pacific Opera Project (POP) presented Giuseppe Verdi's well-loved opera, LA TRAVIATA to a full house at Occidental College's Thorne Hall in Pasadena. Director and Designer Josh Shaw presented a traditional production with a unit set that spoke of flowers and the beauty of...

BWW Review: TOSCA at The Metropolitan Opera
by Peter Danish - October 28, 2018

BWW Review: TOSCA at Metropolitan Opera...

BWW Review: SAN DIEGO OPERA: THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO at the Civic Center Theater
by Ron Bierman - October 27, 2018

The San Diego Opera's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro featured expressive singing, clever attractive sets, beautiful costumes, and strong comedic and dramatic acting. The work is generally called a comic opera, but as director Stephen Lawless pointed out during my interview with him, '...

BWW Review: LA CENERENTOLA, Bristol Hippodrome
by Leah Tozer - October 28, 2018

The music is magical, with all its coloratura, patter, and character from the principals, male chorus, and orchestra magnificently managed by Tomaš Hanus, but there's still some magic amiss in this staging from Welsh National Opera....

BWW Review: LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, London Coliseum
by Gary Naylor - October 26, 2018

Tragedy raw in tooth and claw in this revival of the ENO's 2008 production of Lucia di Lammermoor....

BWW Review: OPERA GRAND AVIGNON Presents LE NOZZE DI FIGARO
by Wesley Doucette - October 25, 2018

Avignon's Opéra Confluence is a challenging space, located some kilometers outside the town center near the TGV train station. It was recently constructed as a temporary theatre space while the city 19th century opera house undergoes significant restoration. The interior of the space resembles an ex...

BWW Review: Don't Cry for MARIA, Argentina... She's Here in the Big Apple Now!
by Richard Sasanow - October 24, 2018

Site-specific performances are the latest thing for opera companies wanting to venture into works that wouldn't comfortably fit in a 500-, 1000- (or more) seat theatre. New York City Opera has tried this in the past, but never in a venue quite as intimate or louche as Le Poisson Rouge on Bleecker St...

BWW Review: VERDI'S REQUIEM, Royal Opera House
by Sophia Lambton - October 24, 2018

Antonio Pappano's conducting of the work evoked gloom but didn't approach closely enough the more sinister subject of death....

Review: Netrebko and the Notorious RBG, Many Others, Make a Truly Gala Tucker Foundation Tribute to Winner Van Horn
by Richard Sasanow - October 24, 2018

Sometimes, it's nice to remember a time when opera was all about wonderful singing, singing and more singing. Sunday's annual concert of the Richard Tucker Foundation--celebrating the current winner of its top prize, bass-baritone Christian Van Horn--was a great salute to this artist in particular b...

BWW Review: Muhly's MARNIE, in Mayer's Cinematic Production, Is a 'Riddle, Wrapped in a Mystery, Inside an Enigma'
by Richard Sasanow - October 22, 2018

Nico Muhly's MARNIE, aided and abetted by Nicholas Wright's libretto, dramaturg Paul Cremo and the sweeping production of Michael Mayer--which had its US premiere Friday night at the Met--is that fabled “riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” Nothing is quite what it seems or results in ea...

BWW Review: Kaufmann Returns to the Met with a 'Heigh-ho Silver' in Puccini's FANCIULLA DEL WEST
by Richard Sasanow - October 19, 2018

Anyone who was expecting the equivalent of Bette Midler's arrival as Dolly in the Harmonia Gardens when Jonas Kaufmann finally returned to the Met, on October 17, after four years and some high-profile cancellations, must have been wildly disappointed. Oh sure, Kaufmann looked like a glamorous bucka...