This wine tastes funny
Confused dramaturgy dampens an otherwise sparkling night of singing in Opera Baltimore’s Lucrezia Borgia.
Reviews
The Italian connection
American Bach brings out the operatic side of Bach in a program featuring sparkling vocal talents.
A passing mood
Mascagni‘s Zanetto, a slight, Renaissance scene, gets a new recording from the Berlin Opera Group.
Così così
Despite some fine performances, Così fan tutte at the Livermore Valley Opera doesn’t quite click into place.
They do the sand dance, don’t you know?
Akhnaten has lost none of its power or glitz at the Los Angeles Opera.
More perfect union
Strong performances at Opera Naples can’t overcome the cringey nostalgia of Derrick Wang‘s Scalia/Ginsburg.
Songs and snowbirds
Will Liverman and Kiera Duffy brought an eclectic program to their jovial post-blizzard recital at Rhode Island College.
A cross to bear
A uniformly strong cast triumphs over a dull production of Don Carlo at the Dallas Opera.
I’m likin’ this American boy
Baritone John Brancy smoothly traverses the American songbook at Carnegie Hall.
She’s no basic britch
Samantha Hankey’s Composer is the standout in the Wiener Staatsoper’s episodically sublime Ariadne auf Naxos revival.
Oh, Mary Jane!
Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Grammy-winning Intelligence makes a largely successful East Coast debut at Virginia Opera.
Onegin, off again
The Ralph Fiennes production of Eugene Onegin at the Paris Opera is just…fine.
For my next trick
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under conductor Stéphane Denève plays up the schtick in a concert performance of The Magic Flute – and obscures Mozart’s magic in the process.
Dashed hopes
Joyce DiDonato makes the most of Kevin Puts‘s trite new Emily Dickinson monodrama.
Agent orange
That Trump opera at the Staatsoper Hamburg is lazy activism at its finest, we fear.
Diva down
An excellent Věc Makropulos at Opéra de Lille makes the case for the vitality and necessity of France’s regional companies.
Di qualità, di qualità!
San Diego Opera presents a strongly directed and cast revival of Il barbiere di Siviglia.
Some unholy wars
Caitlin Vincent‘s new book Opera Wars paints a persuasive picture of the problems facing opera today, though her solutions leave something to be desired.
Was keinem in Worten ich künde
In Modena, Teodor Currentzis‘s Ring ohne Worte foregoes words but not gimmickry.
Mother is mothering
Marina Rebeka comes tantalizingly close to triumph in Cherubini’s Médée at Théâtre des Champs Elysées.
Baroque in the Bay Area
Under the baton of Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale proves they have a magic touch in a program of Rameau and Handel.
A shtetl aesthetic
Austin Opera’s moving production of Fiddler on the Roof grounds itself in lived tradition, to great effect.
Americana, reconsidered
Davóne Tines leads a thought-provoking program in San Francisco reconsidering patriotism, dissent, and spirituality as the United States faces down its quarter millennium crisis.
Life of the Mardi
La Monnaie’s flamboyantly busy new production of Benvenuto Cellini reads more burlesque than Berlioz.
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