Kathryn the great Kathryn the great

Parterre Box previews Kathryn Lewek‘s upcoming Salome with clips of her as another unhinged lady of antiquity.

Suffering a sea-change Suffering a sea-change

Calixto Bieito‘s production of Idomeneo at La Monnaie is anchored by a committed cast, but gets swept up in pseudo-psychoanalytic imagery — and foot fetishism.

This magic moment This magic moment

Look, for one of the most-staged operas in the repertoire, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte seems awfully difficult to stage.

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.

Crazy extremes Crazy extremes

Simon McBurney’s Die Zauberflöte, the second new production of the Met’s May Mozart Miracle, opened on Friday to rousing near-unanimous cheers.

Down for the comte Down for the comte

Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Le Comte Ory was a lovely cake with waaaay too much frosting.

You better sit down kids You better sit down kids

If Sunday’s performance of Magic Flute at the Met demonstrated one thing, it is that opera targeted at children must be just as good as (if not better than) opera targeted at adults.

Just add magic Just add magic

Heretofore I’d avoided the Met’s abridged, English-language holiday presentations.

You shall know them by their ‘Flutes’ You shall know them by their ‘Flutes’

This year’s Salzburg Festival opens Saturday with a new production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, an opera often performed elsewhere in translation, so “Trove Thursday” offers two for the price (!) of one.

Dark matter Dark matter

In Schikaneder’s patriarchal cosmology, darkness is the province of emotional women—not just the erratic fury of the Queen of the Night, but the pathetic supplications of Pamina as well.