Now sleeps the crimson petal
Gregory Spears’s Sleepers Awake mystifies and delights at Opera Philadelphia.
Corrado Rovaris
32 pieces since 2011 — at 4 companies, most often at Opera Philadelphia.
32
pieces
4
companies
16
years
23 pieces as Opera Philadelphia — stats above show all coverage for Corrado Rovaris.
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Reduce, reuse, recycle
Global warming meets the cool factor in The Seasons.
Museum quality
Opera Philadelphia’s Il viaggio a Reims in a nutshell: Hyperactive, confusing, and distracting from (and sometimes for) the singers? Yes. Imaginative, wildly entertaining, and musically rewarding? Absolutely.
Momentum mori
A fine Don Giovanni at Opera Philadelphia rounds out the company’s inaugural season under Anthony Roth Costanzo
No strings attached
Madama Butterfly is the opera of the moment.
A divided duty
Rodrigo is a ball-breaking role, but Lawrence Brownlee makes the demands sound easy—tossing in additional high notes and audaciously decorating cabalettas as if it were the easiest thing in the world.
I want your Rex
Opera Philadelphia’s return to the stage after two years was greeted by a cheering crowd who clearly would have been happy to stay longer, but as director David Devan acknowledged, this was a step in a continuing trajectory.
Tenors al fresco
Lawrence Brownlee and Michael Spyres are two singers at the top of their game, as this concert showed, virtually peerless in music as punishing as it is pretty.
The ‘Drama’ you’ve been craving
Opera is back, baby, and it’s good to be home!
Sparkle, Lisette, sparkle!
Opera Philadelphia Channel invites viewers to revisit a 2015 production of La Traviata, captured on the Academy of Music stage, that’s notable for Lisette Oropesa’s debut as Violetta Valéry.
One little soldier
Take it as a high compliment to the harrowing, riveting Soldier Songs that I was grateful it lasted only one hour. My nerves couldn’t have handled more.
Brimming with life
I’ve heard starrier performances, but none that made a more powerful case for this masterwork.
Tales of the citrus
Opera Philadelphia’s Love of Three Oranges is never less than extravagantly entertaining theater.
Pigment of the imagination
It’s a wonderful idea to cast Bohème with young singers, and these delivered astonishingly assured, confident, mature performances.
Dream a little ‘Dream’
It may have taken 28 years to see Robert Carsen’s production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the U. S., but it was worth waiting for.
Dark shadows
Those who want a rethought Lucia to allow the heroine more sense of agency will be especially confounded at Laurent Pelly’s reading.
Stop the wedding
Opera Philadelphia ended its season with Le Nozze di Figaro, Friday, and it will play May 3, 5, and 7—a matinee. Figaro is considered by most to be one of the few perfect operas and although it’s perhaps too easily encountered in routine run-throughs, there are usually rewards in seeing it.
Death becomes him
Tancredi, given on February 10th, was a credit to Opera Philadelphia, who offered a well-considered and compelling production.
Geopolitics Italian style
How Verdi’s opera might address this particular nightmare was unclear.
When this cruel war is over
Jarrett Ott is a star. That is the only surprise takeaway from the well-intended snore, Cold Mountain.
Lost soul
Lisette Oropesa sang “The Lost One”—the meaning of “traviata.”
Barber on the verge of a nervous breakdown
It’s a place where the one thing you can expect is the unexpected. The place is… Philadelphia?
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
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).
