Better off dead
I have a horrible confession. I’ve always judged the quality of an opera largely on the number of dead characters at the finale.
Ryan McKinny
25 pieces since 2009 — in 15 roles, at 10 companies, most often at Washington National Opera.
25
pieces
15
roles
10
companies
18
years
By role
Role Baron Scarpia
Role Bluebeard
Open concept
In Boston Lyric Opera’s production of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, which closed on Sunday after a nearly sold-out run—there are no doors.
Role Clarence
Golden wreck
I really wished to avoid joining the pig pile of derision that has fallen on SF Opera’s premiere of John Adams and Peter Sellars’ Girls of the Golden West.
Role Count Almaviva
Fireworks
As I leaned forward the woman in front of me turned to her seatmate and very quietly, in a voice thick with emotion and not a few tears, said, “it’s so beautiful.”
Role Don Giovanni
Summertime lies
A trip to Mediterranean climes came through musically, as the Boston Symphony Orchestra presented a largely satisfying concert performance of Don Giovanni on July 16.
Group therapy
As long as women have been preyed upon, Don Giovanni has been relevant.
Give me libertine
Ryan McKinny’s Don is subtler, slyer, smoother, with a sharp wit and sense of dark humor that gives added dimension to the role.
Behind closed doors
Mozart appears to find promiscuity a source of humor rather than something that is a fundamental problem.
Role Figaro
A crazier day
Saturday’s performance of Le nozze di Figaro at the Met mined the humor from Mozart’s divine setting of Beaumarchais’s play about a crazy day in the Almaviva household.
Midwinter marriage
Despite having lost its announced Cherubino, conductor and Count (the latter in the midst of rehearsals), the season premiere of Le Nozze di Figaro Saturday afternoon proved to be one of the most enjoyable Met Mozart performances I’ve attended in ages.
Role Gunther
A choice, not an ecosystem
Washington National Opera’s first Ring Cycle came to a bittersweet conclusion this past Sunday, closing the door on an extraordinary three weeks in the opera house and a remarkable musical and theatrical achievement for the company.
Role Jan
Sex power god
Breaking the Waves and Tannhaüser at Houston Grand Opera are a can’t-miss doubleheader of sex and miracles.
Role John Proctor
Which witch?
Washington National Opera offered a searing production of Robert Ward’s opera The Crucible, directed by WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, as the second installment in the company’s next chapter.
Role Joseph de Rocher
Nun of a kind
“None of that sentimental crap, okay?”
“Haven’t we all suffered enough?”
Sunday’s matinee at Lyric Opera of Chicago was my first experience of Heggie and McNally’s 2000 opera Dead Man Walking. It certainly won’t be my last.
Role Joseph DeRocher
Act of contrition
The 25th anniversary revival of Dead Man Walking at San Francisco Opera is most moving in its quietest moments
Role Kurwenal
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 Leone
LA thinks pink
Vocal glamour in abundance highlighted the opening performance of LA Opera’s Il barbiere di Siviglia on November 29 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion, with much buzz attendant on the company debuts of Rossini experts Juan Diego Flórez and Joyce DiDonato. Adding excitement was the Figaro of Nathan Gunn, who played with Errol Flynn panache, and […]
Role Mac
Monuments man
It has been a great season for prolific Bay Area composer Jake Heggie.
Role Stanley Kowalski
The kindness of Previn
Renée Fleming is one of the most polarizing figures to be discussed here on an ongoing basis.
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).
