The juice is on the loose
The bonkers, bewildering Die ägyptische Helena begets a suitably lush musical and creative treatment at Bard SummerScape.
Performance Reviews
Reviews of operatic, vocal, and classical performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, all across America, and around the world.
Because I’m not one of your FANS!
Just in time for this month’s theme of filth or dementia, a review of Terrence McNally‘s Master Class from Central City Opera.
Sealing the deal
The Bayerische Staatsoper’s summer festival wound down with Lotte de Beer’s darkly effective production of Gounod ’sFaust.
To the moon and back
Yuval Sharon‘s production of The Excursions of Mr. Brouček shoots for the moon — and lands somewhat limply on Lake Constance.
Oops, I did it Onegin
Wolf Trap Opera presented a lovely Eugene Onegin with particularly noteworthy performances by Magdalena Kuźma and Daniel O’Hearn.
A barrel of laughs
Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer‘s bubbly The Judgement of Paris brings a distinctly Californian terroir to operatic comedy.
Lili among thorns
Tobias Picker and Aryeh Lev Stollman‘s Lili Elbe receives its first recording ahead of its stateside transition.
Wedding from hell
Les Arts Florissants (lightly) stages two Charpentier rarities as a summer wedding gone wrong.
Turkish delight on a moonlit night
While it may not be top-tier Rossini, Teatro Nuovo’s mounting of Il turco in Italia is still good summer fun.
Hell’s kitchen
Teatro Nuovo pays tribute to a historic New York production of Don Giovanni with a talented ensemble.
Mist opportunity
Lucia di Lammermoor at La Scala, starring Rosa Feola, proves as airless as this summer’s heatwaves.
Aix tremendae, salva me
Festival d’Aix-en-Provence confronts the living and the dead — and its own future — through audacious productions and an intimate world premiere.
Tsar power
Zany gags keep Zar und Zimmermann zipping along at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Tabor-ing under no illusions
A grandly sung revival of The Ballad of Baby Doe at Central City Opera mines poignance from America’s past and present.
His mouth is always scandalous
A Pasolini-inspired Tosca at La Monnaie does not quite find the pleasure in the pain.
Beyond the valley of the gods
The Bayerische Staatsoper’s Ring cycle scores another triumph with Tobias Kratzer’s take on Die Walküre.
Aegean in place
Greek National Opera’s Medea in the ancient theater at Epidaurus is an intermittently rewarding exercise in nostalgia.
Ma queer immortelle
San Francisco Opera hosts an exuberant tribute to queerness past and present.
Queening out
Brett Dean‘s Of One Blood casts a well-trodden Tudor tale in a poignant, new light.
Et O ces voix d’enfants
Brundibár at the Opéra Comique combines whimsy with historicity to sobering effect.
Mahler if ya hear me
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, leading the Met Orchestra, and Joyce DiDonato continue their exploration of Mahler at Carnegie Hall.
Fifty percent illusion
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis does its best to give magic in its summer productions of Roméo et Juliette and A Streetcar Named Desired.
Super rich kids
Wolf Trap Opera triumphs in a fizzy, fun Cenerentola.
A game of hoarse
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s concert Rigoletto hits some vocal turbulence
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).