Pretty poison
The wicked poisoner showed herself in fine form, full of purple passion and lusty music-making that would gladden the heart of any bel canto enthusiast or opera lover in general.
LoftOpera
A dream deferred
In an era when the Metropolitan Opera cannot cast an Aida, Trovatore or Forza consistently, New Amsterdam Opera managed to cast large, attractive and fully technically capable voices in all the cruelly demanding principal roles in I Vespri Siciliani!
Too cloistered for comfort
New Amsterdam Opera’s concert version of Donizetti’s elaborate score La favorita, offered energy, panache and several top-notch young soloists.
Simultaneous transformation
For those who thought opera to be a rare enough commodity that there shouldn’t be duels, Saturday night in the Berkshires offered the odd rebuttal.
Dramatic ARC
Wednesday brought Christopher Alden’s grimly dark and violent take on Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo at National Sawdust.
For a few dolors more
LoftOpera’s accurately but unpromisingly named Pergolesi & Vivaldi stumbled rather than soared.
Tragedy in song
LoftOpera’s Saturday night performance of Rossini’s Otello successfully appealed to the essential kinetic energy of the operatic art form.
Daggers are a thane’s best friend
How often do you hear Macbeth with four really good singers in its four big roles?
Guilt and pleasure
Ambivalent is how I feel about Cosí fan tutte.
Home brew
An extraordinarily rich variety of opera happens locally, under the umbrella of New York Opera Fest.
Think pink
LoftOpera offered an unusually satisfying, immensely entertaining production of Rossini’s scintillating portrait of an inveterate seducer.
Community service
Regina Opera almost completely fulfilled its mission Saturday afternoon with their production of Manon Lescaut.
Women past the verge
An astute double-feature exposes all the complexities of female suffering embedded within two canonical works.
Tears of blood
After two previous productions of Tosca in New York City this season (the Met’s revival of the controversial Luc Bondy version and NYCO Renaissance’s depressingly retrograde take), New Yorkers finally got a pleasing, if rough-edged, performance of the Puccini classic from LoftOpera.
To harness song to human tragedy
LoftOpera gives performances of exceptional musical and theatrical polish in offbeat corners of Brooklyn.
Bushwick leagues
LoftOpera is just one, though perhaps the liveliest, of many homegrown opera troupes in Brooklyn.
Summer of love
In just two years, Brooklyn’s LoftOpera has rapidly established itself as a bracing, essential addition to New York City’s musical life.
Pretty poison
It could get loud. It often does, especially when the soprano is mere inches from your ears, pleading with the duke for the life of the poor boy (parentage unknown) who insulted her notorious dynasty.
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).