Reviews

And her mother too And her mother too

After a flurry of coverage over the past weeks, Opera Lafayette, in partnership with New Orleans’s OperaCréole, finally premiered Edmond Dédé’s Morgiane, ou Le Sultan d’Ispahan in DC last night.

on February 05, 2025 at 9:00 AM
She has come, she has come She has come, she has come

I’ve been waiting (nearly) 20 years for another encounter with Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti’s Vanessa.

on February 04, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Aged in oak Aged in oak

When the birthdays start to pile up in the double digits in big round numbers, you start to examine your past and review what you have done with your life.

on February 03, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Playing midwives to an egg Playing midwives to an egg

Nigel Wilkinson reports on Teodor Curentzis and Peter Sellars‘s new production of Rameau‘s Castor et Pollux in Paris.

on January 31, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Ode to Ode to Joy Ode to Ode to Joy

Are Beethoven’s symphonies overplayed? Yes, but for a reason. While this justification may sound cliché, Beethoven’s humanist universalism is a sentiment that feels urgent in an era of widespread polarization and pessimism.

on January 29, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Meninas and meninos Meninas and meninos

Despite the practically unmitigated fiasco of the last Verdi concert opera performance seen in Boston, I approached Sunday’s Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras performance of Don Carlo at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre with much more optimism.

on January 28, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Act III at last Act III at last

John Yohalem reports from the New York Dramatic Voices performance of Act III of Die Walküre

on January 24, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Roadkill, twice over Roadkill, twice over

Though I’ve sometimes complained that the Paris Opera, while supposedly short of cash, changes its productions nearly as often as the rest of us change our socks, André Engel’s Cunning Little Vixen first appeared there 17 years ago. At the time it was billed as ‘new’, though it actually dates back further still, to 2000 at the Lyon Opera. I saw it when it arrived at the Bastille and wrote it up at the time.

on January 24, 2025 at 9:00 AM
I was on your side, Bill, when you were losin’ I was on your side, Bill, when you were losin’

Target Margin Theater proudly boasts that Show/Boat: A River, its small-scale and bare-bones staging of Show Boat (at the Skirball Center on Washington Square through the 26th), is a “bold reimagining” of the classic Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein show, a “new adaptation that explores America’s transformation from the Jim Crow 1880s to the Chicago of the Great Migration to the challenges of today,” but I don’t see it.

on January 23, 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
Shocker and awe Shocker and awe

In 2011, Sondra Radvanovsky‘s Tosca proved promising; fourteen years later, it was absolutely magnificent, a completely satisfying musical and dramatic embodiment of a challenging role by an artist at the peak of her powers.

on January 20, 2025 at 9:00 AM
In limbo In limbo

In the “tormented writers’” room, two actors in goth makeup and bride-of-Frankenstein wigs are clacking on typewriters and throwing crumpled papers on the floor.

on January 17, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Pirate lives Pirate lives

The New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players are celebrating their 50th Anniversary Season presenting Ruddigore (last month), The Pirates of Penzance (first two weekends in January), and Iolanthe (on its way in April).

on January 17, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Conductors for the ages Conductors for the ages

In Munich, performances by 97-year-old Herbert Blomstedt and 32-year-old Thomas Guggeis show the city’s orchestral ensembles at their best

on January 16, 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
Some old and then some new tricks Some old and then some new tricks

David Fox and Cameron Kelsall take on a new revival of Gypsy: Is there any gayer or more impassioned theater topic?

on January 10, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Countering expectations Countering expectations

Apologies in advance to Key’mon Murrah, whose rather extraordinary Marian Anderson award recital with pianist Brian Zeger at the Kennedy Center on December 17 demands some general musing.

on January 09, 2025 at 9:00 AM
The government shall be upon his shoulders The government shall be upon his shoulders

Despite not being very happy with the state of the world (and the union) and not looking forward to the New Year, this past December I took in many festive holiday offerings including a pair of oratorios.

on January 08, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Can you dig it? Can you dig it?

I had been hopeful that 2024 would end, if not on a high note, then one that was at least in tune.

on January 02, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Quand sur la plage Quand sur la plage

What can you say, other than that everything was fab?

on December 24, 2024 at 9:00 AM
Singing from our chains Singing from our chains

There are two problems to address – problems of the sort the arts thrive on addressing.

on December 23, 2024 at 9:00 AM
Birds, bears, and based boyfriends Birds, bears, and based boyfriends

While the Met’s Mozart-lite holiday production of The Magic Flute kept the eyes entertained with spectacular sets and costumes, the scattershot casting and lack of musical seriousness dragged down this opera for beginners.

on December 20, 2024 at 10:00 AM
New kids from the bloc New kids from the bloc

If song recitals by opera stars Piotr Beczala and Asmik Grigorian sometimes came up short, Semyon Bychkov’s powerful rendition of the Glagolitic Mass instantly became one of the year’s highlights.

on December 20, 2024 at 9:00 AM
Let’s get metaphysical Let’s get metaphysical

Last Thursday evening, pure virtuosity was on display at the Veterans’ Room of the Park Avenue Armory, courtesy of soprano Barbara Hannigan and pianist Bertrand Chamayou.

on December 18, 2024 at 9:00 AM