Soar, losers
Chopping up the action and dutifully showing each plot point may work in a film but in an opera, where every piece of marginal dialogue must be set to music, it feels like a chore.
Morris Robinson
36 pieces since 2008 — in 21 roles, at 12 companies, most often at LA Opera.
36
pieces
21
roles
12
companies
19
years
By role
Role Commander
Role Fasolt
Wine coolers are the first thing, morals follow on
Skirting the leafy, patrician Berkshires of Western Mass, and flush with wine coolers and white people, pastoral Tanglewood doesn’t much resemble the dark Nibelung settings of Norse myth.
In the River Rhine. In it.
It is always a pleasure to hear a great orchestra take on a major score that might sound half-muffled emerging from the pit of an opera house.
Role Ferrando
Basque in the glory
For the opening night of Il Trovatore, Houston Grand Opera’s new production aimed high, bringing together a star-studded cast and a fresh, contemporary take on Verdi’s intense drama.
Uncloistered
Let’s all cast our minds back to March of 2020. Or, better, let’s not.
Tales of the unexpected
Saturday matinee’s prima Trovatore brought an exciting and compelling show to the Met’s stage in the revival of David McVicar’s dark, Goya-esque production.
Role First Nazarene
salome (met) 9/23/2008
I was there in the house and it was a good night. I still think that Mattila and the production were fresher in 2004 with a wider range of colors and dynamics. However, she didn’t sound frayed or at the end of her rope. Some of the louder high notes can get a blanched quality […]
Role Grand Inquisitor
A cross to bear
A uniformly strong cast triumphs over a dull production of Don Carlo at the Dallas Opera.
Married to their jobs
Ahead of their opening in Don Carlo in Dallas tonight, Christopher Corwin chats with Nicole Car and Étienne Dupuis — and offers a special edition of Chris’s Cache!
Marquis name
For opening night of the new LA Opera season Placido Domingo decided to return to one of his best Verdi showcases, Don Carlo, only this time as the baritone, Rodrigo the Marquis di Posa, instead of the title character.
Role Hermann
Do you believe in magic?
Remember that time you went to the opera and the whole evening was like magic? Saturday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion probably ranks among my greatest nights in the theater and I’m finding the superlatives in my thesaurus inadequate to the task.
Role Inquisitor
opera queen in queen city
[La Cieca is happy to present a guest review by Our Own Lindoro Almaviva.] Cincinnati Opera makes a good case for the 4 act version of Don Carlo. I think it is a great idea that they used projected titles to give us the background of the opera (since we lose the Fontainebleau scene). This […]
Role Joe
Rolling along
You might be surprised, though, when that title turns out to be Show Boat.
Role King
Can you dig it?
I had been hopeful that 2024 would end, if not on a high note, then one that was at least in tune.
Role King Marke
Meticulously shaped, beautifully tinted
Stefan Vinke brings to Tristan an indefatigable heldentenor of sturdy, muscular brilliance and a physical intensity that allowed him to fearlessly traverse this complex character’s broad emotional compass.
Role Lodovico
Candid theatricality
Out of sheer morbid curiosity last evening I pulled up the “orders” page of my Amazon account and searched Otello to discover that over the past 11 years. I’ve ordered 15 items with that title (one as recently as last night!)
Role Oracle of Neptune
Seria processing
You probably won’t leave Idomeneo ready to burst out in song, but what the opera lacks in melodic immediacy it makes up for in sheer virtuosity.
Role Oroveso
The rite stuff
Remember that time you went to the opera and the entire evening was perfection?
Role Osmin
Comedy on the Calais Coach
Friday night Music Director James Conlon sold Die Entfürhung aus dem Serial to a tony crowd of Angelenos.
Role Parsi Rustomji
Truth, force
I hardly know where to heap my praise first.
Role Ramfis
Tag team
The women were the highlights of Washington National Opera’s militaristic Aïda
“By boycotting us, you are killing art”
Brendan Latimer sits down with Francesca Zambello and members of the cast of Washington National Opera’s production of Aïda to discuss the complicated legacy of one of Verdi’s most beloved works and the tricky business of “inventing the truth.”
Ritorna vincitrice
Elina Garanca is back at the Met for the first time since 2020 — her Amneris is, in a word, sensational.
Aïda, harder not smarter
With Boston Lyric Opera’s largest opera production of the season already well behind us, the one-off semi-staged gala performance of Aïda held on Sunday at Emerson College’s Colonial Theatre to support the company’s vast education and community engagement apparatus, was a particularly enticing entry on the Boston cultural calendar.
Role Sarastro
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
Heretofore I’d avoided the Met’s abridged, English-language holiday presentations.
Role Sparafucile
Meeting Rigoletto
I have a confession to make. I have been taking Rigoletto for granted.
Role Timur
Geopolitics Italian style
How Verdi’s opera might address this particular nightmare was unclear.
Role Tiresias
Crossroads
When LA Opera finally decided to put a toe in the water and mount its first production since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was Igor Stravinsky‘s opera/oratorio Oedipus Rex.
Role Zaccaria
Babylon revisited
What if you could time travel back to the first run of Giuseppe Verdi’s first great success Nabucco?
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).
