Sue me!
Two experiments in opera — Opera Philadelphia‘s Complications in Sue and Heartbeat Opera‘s MANON! — receive worthy recordings.
Review
Mary, Mary, quite contrary
Thea Musgrave’s Mary, Queen of Scots could learn to lighten up.
Wedding crashers
Louise Alder enchants in the comically-inclined revival of Claus Guth’s production of Semele at the Bayerische Staatsoper.
Man of the masses
Amartuvshin Enkhbat is superb in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra in San Francisco — even if the drama offstage is more persuasive than this new production.
Urbane pastoral
Tenet Vocal Artists‘s first-ever opera production, of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, soars to Platonic ideals.
Così Island
The Metropolitan Opera gets its freak on — or about as close as it can — in a revival of its Coney Island-set production of Così fan tutte.
Joy comes in the morning
Yannick Nézet-Séguin opens Philadelphia’s symphonic season in typically sunny style with programs feautring Beethoven, Brahms, and Bernstein.
Bard from entry
Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo by Haymarket Opera and The Newberry Consort takes its audience to heaven while its title character goes to hell.
Great Scot!
A new Macbeth summons the forces of hell — and the star power of Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen — for a fiery start to the Met’s new season.
All about Eve
Haley Whitney shines as the mother of us all in The Marigny Opera Ballet‘s stirring staging of Scarlatti’s Cain.
Bang to whimper
Opera San José opened its season with a new production of Don Giovanni that embraced the opera’s challenges with youthful abandon, even as it was sometimes felled by them.
In mind and not in morals
The Royal Opera House‘s Don Giovanni comes without an instruction manual — but features a fine lothario in Gordon Bintner.
A melody that begins a symphony
There may be frozen giant erections and psychedelic projections galore — but there’s also a surprising degree of emotion in Kirill Serebrennikov‘s latest theatrical experiment in Berlin.
A real trill
Countertenor Carlo Vistoli shows he’s got the goods across the repertoire at the Park Avenue Armory.
The awkward stage
Opera Philadelphia’s production of Mitridate, re di Ponto proves more puerile than perhaps its 14 year-old composer intended.
Five characters in search of an interpreter
In Lise Davidsen‘s new album Lise Davidsen: Verdi, the singing is thrilling but the interpretations are limp.
Showing yourself out
In eclectic productions of Carmen, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Così fan tutte in Salzburg, A.J. Goldmann finds vindication for Markus Hinterhaüser at the end of the intendant’s final Festival.
All about Donbas
Keri-Lynn Wilson and the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra channeled a want for justice into fine music-making in two appearances at David Geffen Hall.
All-American girl
A new English translation of Puccini’s La fanciulla del West gallops into a high school in Pacifica with as much grit and gumption as its titular frontierswoman.
The kids are alright
Though, really, the young artists of the Merola Opera Program were more than alright in their annual showcase.
Vox populi
In Bayreuth, a confident Magnus Vigilius and luminous Jennifer Holloway attempt to elevate Wagner’s populist Rienzi.
What passion cannot Music raise and quell?
American Bach led a stirring rendition of Handel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, full of big questions and even bigger musical highlights.
An instrument of your peace
Philippe Sly is sublime as Messiaen’s Saint François D’Assise in Salzburg, though Romeo Castellucci‘s production could brush up on its catechism.
Da capo days of summer
San Francisco goes baroque with performances of Handel‘s Alcina, Tolomeo, and Rinaldo.
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).