Sick and tired
Before this weekend, I never thought I would want to leave an opera by Act I. The recent production of Puccini’s La bohème at the Lyric Opera of Chicago taught me that there’s a first time for everything.
Peixin Chen
12 pieces since 2017 — in 9 roles, at 8 companies, most often at Metropolitan Opera.
12
pieces
9
roles
8
companies
10
years
By role
Role Colline
Pigment of the imagination
It’s a wonderful idea to cast Bohème with young singers, and these delivered astonishingly assured, confident, mature performances.
Role Commendatore
They’re projecting
I love it, truly, just not that much.
Role Emperor Altoum
Decadent genealogies
Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder and Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot are, in their different ways, the final decadent flowering of a musical tradition at its twilight.
Role Monk
Three dimensions
Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Don Carlos was a real feast of good singing and orchestral grandeur.
Role Patriarch
Catch a falling tsar
You’d think by now I’d know better than to make snap judgments about an opera or a singer—but apparently not.
Role Sarastro
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.
Role Sparafucile
A game of hoarse
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s concert Rigoletto hits some vocal turbulence
All about her father
Adela Zaharia and Amartuvshin Enkhbat shine brightly in San Francisco Opera’s opening night Rigoletto.
Role Supreme Sage Laojun
Monkey business
The Monkey King at San Francisco Opera combines spectacle and sentiment.
Role Timur
The red attachment of women
Washington National Opera’s final production of the season, seen May 22, is also its high point: a new Turandot directed by Francesca Zambello, updated to the 20th century and featuring the world premiere of a completion of Puccini’s score by composer Christopher Tin and playwright and screenwriter Susan Soon He Stanton.
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).
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!
