Mark, missed
Thoughtless direction stifled the epic drama.
Review
‘Tis new to thee
Donizetti’s bel canto masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor returned to Chicago Lyric Opera on Saturday evening.
Better call Saul
Director Barrie Kosky’s Glyndebourne 2015 production of Handel’s 1739 oratorio Saul (released on Opus Arte DVD) shows imagination as well as a strong cast and design team.
Future imperfect
This year’s treat was Vittorio Gnecchi’s Cassandra, completed around 1905
Period piece
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s production of L’Italiana in Algeri for the Met remains steadfastly ignorant of postcolonial theory.
A new beginning
Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2016-17 season got off to an exciting start on Saturday night with Wagner’s Das Rheingold.
Geopolitics Italian style
How Verdi’s opera might address this particular nightmare was unclear.
No view from the bridge
Mariusz Trelinski unveiled a rather gloomy, though musically satisfying, Tristan und Isolde.
New waves
Missy Mazzoli, a 36-year-old composer from Brooklyn, has created the most startling and moving new American opera in memory.
Comeback thane
The characters get right down to work immediately with their foul deeds.
The upper depths
The Teatro di San Carlo in Naples is a pearl itself and this presentation proffers some of the best that company has to offer.
Guilt and pleasure
Ambivalent is how I feel about Cosí fan tutte.
One finger exercise
David Lang is, per The New Yorker, a “postminimalist enfant terrible.”
Cuts like a knife
You may wonder what Rachmaninoff’s Aleko and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci have in common.
Bella come un tramonto
With the performance of Dessì we move onto a different plane than the other singers.
Mighty real
Anna Netrebko‘s artistry is both subtle and thrilling.
That’s how they did it
Idomeneo proved enormously moving while a much more complicated Così fan Tutte went for shallow romantic hijinks stripping that work of its darkly ambiguous disturbing view of love.
Can’t buy me love
dell’ arte Opera Ensemble continued its exploration of love and money by mounting Massenet’s Manon
Wer ein solches Weib errungen
Opera at Caramoor rallied Sunday afternoon with an admirable if erratic performance of Fidelio which was especially memorable for South African soprano Elza van den Heever’s thrilling first-ever Leonore.
Going Hollywood
The Hollywood Bowl is truly the preeminent musical venue in Los Angeles.
A very little night music
The unevenly-beating Heart unfortunately proved less than the sum of its deluxe parts.
When the sun comes out
This year as part of Bard’s “Puccini and His World” festival audiences may witness the resurrection of Mascagni’s distinctly odd Iris.
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).
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!
