Clear, crackling, comprehensible Clear, crackling, comprehensible

Davóne Tines has sung with Early Music groups and avant-garde ones, and he has a taste for projects that cross artistic boundaries, which suits an innate showmanship.

on November 10, 2022 at 9:00 AM
Spark plug Spark plug

Countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen‘s star is surely on the rise.

on November 09, 2022 at 11:01 AM
Coups de theatre Coups de theatre

This month, both the Paris Opéra and the Opéra-Comique are mounting seminal works about unhinged anti-heroines who meet their downfall after falling head-over-heels for an unavailable, deeply unattainable man – Salome, in the case of the Opéra; and Armide, in the case of the Opéra-Comique.

on November 07, 2022 at 11:04 AM
Disorientation Disorientation

Teatro Nuovo took a big risk in a bad way on Wednesday with its revival of Rossini’s Maometto II.

on November 05, 2022 at 12:00 PM
We’ll always have Paris (or maybe not) We’ll always have Paris (or maybe not)

The revival of Don Carlo(s) which opened on November 3 restored the translated Italian text and the cut 1882 four-act revision not seen at the Met since Rudolf Bing’s last season in 1972.

on November 05, 2022 at 9:00 AM
He plays the violin He plays the violin

The pandemic had different effects on different people. 

on October 31, 2022 at 12:00 PM
“The work by which I stand or fall” “The work by which I stand or fall”

Dame Ethel Smyth’s third opera, The Wreckers, opened at Houston Grand Opera on October 28 and runs through November 11.

on October 31, 2022 at 10:00 AM
On a par with tuberculosis On a par with tuberculosis

Come back, Big Clock! We need you more than ever!

on October 27, 2022 at 10:00 AM
Leaner, meaner and tighter Leaner, meaner and tighter

Why did Ted Sperling and MasterVoices choose to perform an old warhorse like Carmen which has been produced almost continuously over decades just up the street at Lincoln Center?

on October 26, 2022 at 3:03 PM
Dancing with the devil Dancing with the devil

In George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante, the dancers are dancing even before the curtain goes up. 

on October 25, 2022 at 2:30 PM
Mountains of his words Mountains of his words

The audience greeted the opening night of Omar with more genuine enthusiasm than I have ever seen at Los Angeles Opera. 

on October 24, 2022 at 2:03 PM
The prodigal The prodigal

Philippe Jaroussky mentioned introducing his encores that he has not appeared in New York in 12 years.

on October 24, 2022 at 11:58 AM
A study in simplicity and profundity A study in simplicity and profundity

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays” – Soren Kierkegaard

on October 18, 2022 at 9:52 AM
The clue whose meaning we avoid The clue whose meaning we avoid

We watch Peter Grimes being made into a deviant— a process that can take place through the mechanism of the law, but often happens outside of it through social processes.

on October 17, 2022 at 3:23 PM
Meticulously shaped, beautifully tinted 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.

on October 17, 2022 at 12:26 PM
Street scene Street scene

In his attempts to be clever, and to overstuff Leopoldstadt with a dictionary’s worth of marginalia, Tom Stoppard never lingers on a character or storyline long enough to develop it into something worth caring about.

on October 11, 2022 at 9:22 AM
It’s going to cost you It’s going to cost you

Cost of Living, the Pulitzer Prize–winning play by Martyna Majok now on Broadway, overflows with complexity. It begins with the title.

on October 10, 2022 at 1:23 PM
Laugh, laugh, I nearly died Laugh, laugh, I nearly died

Whoever thought Verdi’s Il trovatore needed an injection of humor to make it complete?

on October 10, 2022 at 10:00 AM
Approaching Valhalla Approaching Valhalla

Gianandrea Noseda leads seasoned Wagnerians in Andreas Homoki’s stark production of Die Walküre for Zurich Opera.

on October 08, 2022 at 10:00 AM
Take the long way Rome Take the long way Rome

David McVicar’s 2017 production of Tosca returned to the Met on Tuesday night, with an able and watchable, if not transcendent cast.

on October 06, 2022 at 8:20 PM
Talking about a revolution Talking about a revolution

People turn up at a cancer hospital on the worst day of their lives. In I’m Revolting, a moving and often unsettling world premiere from Atlantic Theatre Company, playwright Gracie Gardner dissects the fears and motivations of patients and their caregivers with surgical precision.

on October 05, 2022 at 9:00 PM
If they could turn back time If they could turn back time

Yuval Sharon at Boston Lyric Opera has brilliantly found an interpretative middle ground for La bohème by presenting the acts in reverse order.

on October 04, 2022 at 1:59 PM
Exotic asphyxiation Exotic asphyxiation

Both the mise-en-scène and the musical direction amplified the absolute worst tendencies of the Opéra Comique’s Lakmé in the most tasteless and baffling ways.

on October 02, 2022 at 10:00 AM
Ocean, thou mighty monster Ocean, thou mighty monster

Michael Spyres’s nobly moving Idomeneo wasn’t just a bravura triumph: singing strongly throughout, he brought more colors to his portrayal of the tortured king than I had experienced from others in the Ponnelle production.

on October 01, 2022 at 9:14 AM