Dan Johnson

Dan Johnson was born in the desert and learned to play the fiddle. Now he lives in Brooklyn, working as a freelance writer and music communications specialist and helping to throw some of the city's most notorious underground parties.

Sexual orientalization Sexual orientalization

An impressive cast blurs binaries as John Adams‘s ambitious Antony and Cleopatra arrives at the Met

on May 15, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Down for the Count Down for the Count

An uneven new cast can’t dim the glow of Richard Eyre‘s incisive Le nozze di Figaro at the Met

on May 08, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Strawberry blonde forever Strawberry blonde forever

The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble’s Das Lied von der Erde skirts the sublime at Carnegie Hall

on May 06, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Frick in the sheets Frick in the sheets

The Jupiter Ensemble with Lea Desandre and Anthony Roth Costanzo offers sleek and sexy HIP inaugurates the Frick Collection’s new Stephen A. Schwartzman Auditorium

on May 05, 2025 at 10:00 AM
This magic moment This magic moment

Look, for one of the most-staged operas in the repertoire, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte seems awfully difficult to stage.

on March 28, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Perspectives, reflections, obscurity, and illusion Perspectives, reflections, obscurity, and illusion

Christopher Cerrone and Stephanie Fleischmann‘s opera at the Prototype Festival re-sets Rashomon in the Pacific Northwest and binds its characters into a hellish cycle of violence with a dark, hypnotic score

on January 21, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Tick, tick… boomers! Tick, tick… boomers!

Eat the Document, which premiered at the Prototype Festival last week, compresses a decades-long, nonlinear story into a swift 90 minutes while still finding time to pause for reflection.

on January 13, 2025 at 9:00 AM
‘Tis better to be viol ‘Tis better to be viol

Here’s the bottom line: at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall stage on December 3, Iestyn Davies and viol consort Fretwork made the sweetest sounds I’ve heard from human beings all year.

on December 09, 2024 at 9:00 AM
Sisters are doing it for themselves Sisters are doing it for themselves

War! Heroism! Mysterious strangers! Attempted suicide! Steadfast love! Così fan tutte, as staged November 18-21 at Juilliard Opera, had… none of these things.

on November 25, 2024 at 9:00 AM
It’s raining Mennonites It’s raining Mennonites

The music was at every point dramatically compelling, without seeming cheap or manipulative.

on October 07, 2024 at 9:00 AM
Doommates Doommates

The aesthetic vision of M. Lamar’s Funeral Doom Spiritual was undeniable.

on January 15, 2017 at 10:04 AM
That is the explanation of the crime That is the explanation of the crime

anatomy theater, receiving its New York premiere Saturday night at this year’s Prototype Festival, is a conceptual exercise in which nothing, absolutely nothing is left to the imagination.

on January 08, 2017 at 9:46 AM
Sea, no evil Sea, no evil

Breaking the Waves is not only a “real opera,” it is an immensely powerful work of music drama.

on January 07, 2017 at 10:15 AM
Hooterdämmerung Hooterdämmerung

Is there anything more essentially operatic than the suffering of women?

on September 24, 2013 at 12:42 AM
Veil song Veil song

I was led through a small labyrinth of white curtains, sheer like veils, to a row of seven chairs jutting in between the stage risers.

on August 11, 2013 at 9:02 PM
on September 15, 2011 at 7:12 PM
on August 22, 2011 at 5:31 PM
on July 07, 2011 at 2:32 PM
on September 03, 2010 at 10:28 AM
on September 02, 2010 at 10:15 AM
on June 29, 2010 at 8:08 AM
on June 01, 2010 at 1:51 PM