Opera Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 8

Review: Splendid Singing, Erratic Direction Mark the Met's New DON GIOVANNI from Van Hove
by Richard Sasanow - May 11, 2023

While I’ve always been bothered by the cruelties and misogyny of the main character, Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI has (musically) been my favorite of the composer’s operas, though either casting or design has been a regular issue in bringing off the work at its best. Happily, the Met’s new production by Be...

Review: Opera Philadelphia's Mimi and Rodolfo Walk Off into the Sunset in Yuval Sharon's LA BOHEME
by Richard Sasanow - May 10, 2023

In an opera filled with gorgeous music, it’s hard to beat the end of LA BOHEME’s Act One, with the trifecta of arias about young love. If only tragedy and sadness weren’t going to catch up with the central pair, Mimi and Rodolfo, and their friends, in the succeeding three “tales from the Bohemian li...

Review: MasterVoices Shows that There's Still Life in Gilbert & Sullivan's IOLANTHE in the 21st Century
by Richard Sasanow - May 05, 2023

Maybe the Met should stop thinking about THE MERRY WIDOW and DIE FLEDERMAUS when it takes a turn at operetta—let alone the bevy of comic operas by Rossini and Donizetti that are given more than their due on a regular basis—and let Gilbert & Sullivan (G&S) have a turn at bat....

Review: Thar's Gold – DAS RHEINGOLD – at Atlanta Opera in Tomer Zvulun's Entry into 'The Ring'
by Richard Sasanow - May 01, 2023

There are no supernatural women arriving on horseback to escort slain warriors to the afterlife--just a trio of mermaids, a couple of giants and a loveless dwarf, along with a bunch of gods, demi-gods and grotesque humans in Richard Wagner’s DAS RHEINGOLD, the first part of the composer’s Ring cycle...

Review: The Met Welcomes the Next Generation at Its Laffont Competition
by Richard Sasanow - April 25, 2023

While there’s always a great deal of talk about where the next generation of operagoers is coming from, there’s much less hand-wringing about the sources of the new generation of singers. After hearing the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition’s Grand Finals Concert at the Met on Sunday afternoon, ...

Review: BLUE, London Coliseum
by Alexander Cohen - April 24, 2023

A confident production of a conceptually flawed opera....

Review: San Diego Opera's Production of GHOSTS at Balboa Theatre
by Ron Bierman - April 21, 2023

Nicolas Reveles was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer shortly after completing Ghosts, and it is tragic that he died just weeks before its world premiere in a San Diego Opera production. A sincerely religious man, his spirit lives on in the minds of the many grieving friends and admirers w...

Review: ARMINIO, Royal Opera House
by Michael Higgs - April 21, 2023

Emphasising monochromatic melancholy with singers who do their best despite swimming in an ocean of drab uniforms....

Review: INNOCENCE, Royal Opera House
by Alexander Cohen - April 18, 2023

Here it is, opera's answer to A Little Life: Kaija Saariaho's Innocence follows the aftermath of a school shooting and the emotional destruction felt by those connect to the event. An elegant but devastating meditation on the nature of violence and collective guilt....

Review: In This Corner – Terence Blanchard's CHAMPION Arrives at the Met with Ryan Speedo Green
by Richard Sasanow - April 13, 2023

In search of new audiences, the Met has followed Terence Blanchard’s FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES with the jazz musician/composer’s first opera, CHAMPION, the story of closeted boxer Emile Griffith’s rise and fall from grace. Honestly, never have I heard people whose usual venues are Madison Square Gard...

Review: Once More with Heart – A Celebration of Women CON ALMA
by Richard Sasanow - April 09, 2023

If we needed any further proof about how opera continues to evolve--as in “what’s an operatic experience?”--a concert at New York’s United Nations Headquarters featuring a live-and-in-person version of Paola Prestini‘s and Magos Herrera’s CON ALMA album celebrated International Women’s Day. The albu...

Review: Wonderful Music, Marvelous Performances in Met's Season Debut of ROSENKAVALIER
by Richard Sasanow - April 01, 2023

It took Richard Strauss only about 100 minutes apiece (with no breaks) to tell the lurid tale of SALOME and the tragedy of ELEKTRA. So why on earth did he and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal need almost five hours (including two intermissions) to tell the personal stories of an “aging” (she was rea...

Album Review: An Opera Star Gonna Star & Rene Fleming Is A Star On Her GREATEST MOMENTS AT THE MET
by Bobby Patrick - March 31, 2023

What did our critic think of RENE FLEMING GREATEST MOMENTS AT THE MET at A?...

Review: SAN DIEGO OPERA'S TOSCA at San Diego Civic Center Theatre
by Ron Bierman - March 29, 2023

WhaThe San Diego Opera has outdone itself with its most recent production of Puccini’s Tosca. The three major roles are sung by appealing voices with exceptional power; the company’s chorus and the city’s children’s choir combined for thrilling moments, especially in the riveting Act I finale; San D...

Review: Botstein and ASO Bring Strauss's Seldom-Heard DAPHNE to Carnegie Hall
by Richard Sasanow - March 25, 2023

It’s hard to compete with yourself — especially the ‘you’ that was at the height of your powers. I think that’s part of the problem with the place that Richard Strauss’s DAPHNE holds in the composer’s canon. Often referred to as a second- (or even third-) tier work, it has much to offer and enjoy, a...

Review: Shakespeare's Merry Wives Get the Best of a Grand Michael Volle in Verdi's FALSTAFF
by Richard Sasanow - March 20, 2023

Combine a supreme farceur with a stentorian voice that thrills and you get baritone Michael Volle’s portrayal of the title role in Verdi’s FALSTAFF, which breezed into town late last week for a limited run at the Met. While we’ve had dramatic singers in the role before, they were mostly from Italian...

Interview: SAN DIEGO OPERA'S TOSCA at San Diego Civic Center Theatre
by Ron Bierman - March 20, 2023

Puccini is one of Michelle Bradley’s favorite composers, and she’s in San Diego to sing his Tosca for the San Diego Opera company. We were originally scheduled to talk in person, but a rehearsal change meant Zoom was going to work better for an hour discussion. “I'm happy to be back, and I know tha...

Review: TURANDOT, Royal Opera House
by Gary Naylor - March 13, 2023

Come for Nessun Dorma; stay for love's triumph over death...

Review: BLUE at Eisenhower Theater
by Mary Lincer - March 12, 2023

What did our critic think of BLUE at Eisenhower Theater?...

Review: Are Met Audiences Blue? Yes, Because TRAVIATA Has an Angel
by Richard Sasanow - March 10, 2023

Soprano Angel Blue’s Violetta didn’t seem as tragic as we’re used to seeing in Verdi’s masterwork and maybe that's right. She’s lived life on her own terms and if she’s dying of tuberculosis, well, c’est la vie. (After all, the source of the piece is French: the Alexandre Dumas fils “La Dame aux Cam...

Review: THE SONG POET at Minnesota Opera
by Jared Fessler - March 10, 2023

What did our critic think of THE SONG POET at Minnesota Opera? The first Hmong story adapted for the operatic stage, St. Paul writer Kao Kalia Yang's memoir The Song Poet comes to life in this world premiere. It tells the story of Yang's family and her song poet father as war drives them from the mo...

Review: New Jersey Symphony Performs MAHLER 3RD at NJPAC
by Peter Danish - March 08, 2023

What did our critic think of NJ SYMPHONY MAHLER 3RD at NJPAC? NJ Symphony musical director, Xian Zhang has stated often that the Mahler 3rd is her favorite work of all time. This was evident from the instant she bounded up onto the platform until the time she stepped down some 99 minutes later. Duri...

Interview Part 2: NICOLAS REVELES OF SAN DIEGO OPERA'S PRODUCTION OF GHOSTS at The Balboa Theatre
by Ron Bierman - March 06, 2023

GHOSTS, an opera Nicolas Reveles completed shortly before his recent death, premieres on Friday, April 14. He was visibly ill when I interviewed him in January, but excited and enthusiastic about the coming production. Part 1 of my interview described how the new opera came to be written. This concl...

Review: Oh Goddess, Bellini's NORMA Returns to the Met
by Richard Sasanow - March 10, 2023

You’ve got to admit that the Met had a lot of guts to dedicate this season’s performances of Vincenzo Bellini’s NORMA (libretto by Felice Romani) to the memory of Maria Callas on the 100th anniversary of her birth. Hers was simply one of the most legendary portrayals of the role, by a fabled singer....

Review: Met's New LOHENGRIN Is Thrillingly Sung but Close Your Eyes and Listen
by Richard Sasanow - February 27, 2023

The Met’s new production of Richard Wagner’s LOHENGRIN showcases startlingly good singing from tenor Piotr Beczala in the title role, supported ably and nobly by soprano Tamara Wilson’s Elsa, bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin’s Telramund and bass Gunther Groissbock’s King Heinrich. And soprano Christine ...