David Fox
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Donizetti’s La Favorite remains a relative rarity in the repertoire, especially in the original French version.
By David Fox
Pretty is its own reward.
By David Fox
I’ve heard starrier performances, but none that made a more powerful case for this masterwork.
By David Fox
Joyce DiDonato’s take on Winterreise is a conceptual misstep that, song after song, frustratingly dilutes and distracts from an often rewarding musical performance.
By David Fox
Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin, always with a gift for gab, is ever more loquacious in concerts, often talking directly to the audience.
By David Fox
The Berta (mezzo-soprano Emily Damasco) runs away with the show.
By David Fox
Love in Hate Nation is a little musical that could and can… and I sure as hell hope it does!
By David Fox
Since 1934, Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts has been preparing emerging artists for operatic careers.
By David Fox
As we also saw last year, Festival O19 ended on a sweetly quiet note, movingly connecting Opera Philadelphia with the larger city and our musical future.
By David Fox
For the academics who may be reading this: Let Me Die exists in a confounding but intriguing interpretive liminal space.
By David Fox
Employing the most slimly elegant resources, Festival O’s Denis & Katya is a monumental, dramatically shattering event.
By David Fox
Opera Philadelphia’s Love of Three Oranges is never less than extravagantly entertaining theater.
By David Fox
What is the best metaphor for this year’s Bard Music Festival?
By David Fox
“Die Zauberflöte is an opera!” “No, it’s the first musical comedy!”
By David Fox
The second summer session of the Russian Opera Workshop concludes this week with concert performances of Tchaikovsky’s Maid of Orleans.
By David Fox
Within minutes, something wonderful happened. None of my reservations mattered.
By David Fox
Under any circumstances, the Russian Opera Workshop’s radiant concert performance of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta would have been an event to celebrate.
By David Fox
The Princeton Festival has long been a “Little Engine that Could,” but the current operatic offering, John Adams’ Nixon in China, is a good deal more than that.
By David Fox
With the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Candide, they saved the best (of all possible worlds) for last.
By David Fox
Brigitte Fassbaender‘s sound is piquant and, I’d hazard to guess, instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with her work.
By David Fox
For more than 40 years, the magnificent opening image from Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites has served as an icon for the Met.
By David Fox
Even the hit songs in this early Jule Styne musical would recede in a better show.
By David Fox
Two atmospheric but bleak works provide a musical illustration of the notion that misery loves company.
By David Fox
