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.
By Patrick Mack
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I still remember, and some of it quite vividly, what it was like to experience Achim Freyer‘s intense and groundbreaking Ring production all these years later.
By Patrick Mack
For those of you keeping track at home that’s four substitutions for three roles and the curtain hasn’t even gone up yet.
By Patrick Mack
A special program note for Saturday night’s performance of Matthew Aucoin’s new opera Eurydice pointed to a rare convergence of three MacArthur Grant fellows in its creation and staging.
By Patrick Mack
We’ve had a mini-fest of director Barrie Kosky’s work this year at LA Opera.
By Patrick Mack
An opera company presenting a Broadway musical that centers around a woman of a certain age travelling to Italy with her young daughter might seem more a vehicle for a great diva of a certain age.
By Patrick Mack
I’m certain I wasn’t the only one thrilled to bits to see LA Opera’s production of La Bohème finally retired after 26 years and seven mountings.
By Patrick Mack
La Traviata offered a cast of fresh debutantes and an uncommonly strong musical performance that could hardly be bettered.
By Patrick Mack
As you can imagine, oaths are sworn, curses are flung with avidity, and a mysterious shepherd sings a tune of foreboding from a distant mountain gorge just when you’d expect it.
By Patrick Mack
Russell Thomas’s opening aria, “Del piu sublime soglio” displayed an intense attention to the text and some surprisingly beautiful piano phrasing that I’ve never heard risked before and it brought wonder and gooseflesh.
By Patrick Mack
Only in Los Angeles, City of La La, could this season have happened.
By La Cieca
Saturday night I navigated the Music Center concourse, or what’s left of it with it’s seemingly eternal construction to the main plaza, wending my way to the Dorothy Chandler for the opening night of LA Opera’s Hansel and Gretel.
By Patrick Mack
I hardly know where to heap my praise first.
By Patrick Mack
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.
By Patrick Mack
I have a confession to make. I have been taking Rigoletto for granted.
By Patrick Mack
Neumeier adapted the story close to home, making Orpheus a choreographer and his wife a star ballerina.
By Patrick Mack
Los Angeles Opera is the latest company to jump in on that cr-razy trend that sweeping the nation: boring the public to death.
By La Cieca
What if you could time travel back to the first run of Giuseppe Verdi’s first great success Nabucco?
By Patrick Mack
Georges Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles has been knocking steadily at the door of the standard repertoire now in this country for quite some time.
By Patrick Mack
When you attend a performance of Georges Bizet’s Carmen you can never be quite certain which one you’re in for.
By Patrick Mack
W.C. Fields used to have a funny trope about in show business you should never work with children or animals. To that list should perhaps be added the soprano Anna Netrebko.
By Patrick Mack
Not a few eyebrows arched on social media when L.A. Opera appropriated the hashtag “Fight like a girl” on street level poster adverts all over town for the revival of their 2013 production of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca.
By Patrick Mack
Saturday night the Los Angeles Opera threw itself a party.
By Patrick Mack
