Stop me if you’ve heard this one
Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, and a slew of their members of court are hanging out in the afterlife…
Joshua Guerrero
15 pieces since 2015 — in 11 roles, at 7 companies, most often at Los Angeles Opera.
15
pieces
11
roles
7
companies
12
years
By role
Role Almaviva
Role Arcadio
Stormy weather
Looking at the Houston Grand Opera’s 2018/19 season, I think Hurricane Harvey subconsciously must have had an impact on the choice of operas.
Role Carlos
Three dimensions
Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Don Carlos was a real feast of good singing and orchestral grandeur.
Role Cavaradossi
Tosca, two ways
When our friends at Naxos and C Major announced near-dueling releases of Puccini’s “shabby little shocker,” I was ready with my critic’s pen dipped in bile.
Role Chevalier des Grieux
Other desert settees
Washington Concert Opera returned on November 24th for its first show of the 2024-2025 season with a production of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, another (relative) rarity from the composer following last year’s season-closing presentation of La rondine.
Role Count Almaviva
Drop dead diva
My first experience with John Corigliano’s music was in high school with the ear and mind blowing score he wrote for Ken Russell’s film Altered States.
Role Greenhorn
Consider the subtleness of the sea
Hopefully the assignment of Herman Melville’s endless whaling opus Moby-Dick as compulsory reading for High School students is a thing of the past.
Role Luigi
Three ages of woman
Asmik Grigorian’s scorching turn in Il trittico in Paris has Nigel Wilkinson wondering, ‘what is it that makes Americans so weepy?’
Role Macduff
Lady willpower
Hie thee hither to the Lyric Opera House!
Role Steve Hubbell
The kindness of Previn
Renée Fleming is one of the most polarizing figures to be discussed here on an ongoing basis.
Role tenor soloist
Faith in their hands shall snap in two
Franz Welser-Möst leads a rigorous, if emotionally staid, performance of Verdi‘s Requiem at Carnegie Hall.