Verdi’s Falstaff is a brilliantly written opera: funny, with a complex ability to operate across minutely shifting registers of farce and lyricism. It needs, ideally, a production and cast capable of executing both comedy and drama, irony and sincerity—often concurrently. In its current Met revival, happily, Falstaff has everything it needs.
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Robert Carsen‘s legendary production of Eugene Onegin finally arrives in San Francisco.
With the phenomenal cast that stacked Paris Opera’s production of I Capuleti e i Montecchi , it was easy to overlook the quirks of Bellini’s opera and get lost in the pleasures of glorious bel canto singing.
My impression was of a very fine singer performing a role that was slightly too large for him.
On the first viewing of this Idomeneo, with a cast clad mostly in military khaki green set against a green sky, the eye starts to tire from the dullness of the surroundings.
By Patrick Mack
It may have taken 28 years to see Robert Carsen’s production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the U. S., but it was worth waiting for.
By David Fox
At last the future plans of America’s Most Beloved Semi-Retired People’s Diva have been revealed!
By La Cieca
Our selected Rosenkavalier video overview closes out the 20th-century selections, crosses the millennial mark, and includes the first of our performances to depart from the opera’s prescribed 18th-century setting.
By Porgy Amor
“Time is a strange thing,” the lady observes, to a young man who cannot begin to understand what she is talking about.
By Porgy Amor
While some once-popular Met operas have fallen into neglect in the past quarter century, Rusalka has returned regularly since its 1993 premiere.
By Porgy Amor
After five flops in a row, Mr. McVicar continues to win new assignments from the Met.
By La Cieca
Certain operas are better in theory than practice.
By Poison Ivy
“Oubliez le XVIIIè siècle. A l’Opéra Comique, Platée s’installe sur les podiums d’une fashion week parisienne!”
By La Cieca
“German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld is a household name; 18th-century French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau isn’t.”
By La Cieca
How, then, to explain the perplexing performance last Friday night of Falstaff, Mr. Levine’s first new production since his return?
By La Cieca
What better way to spend a lazy Friday afternoon in midsummer than watching a webcast of Rigoletto?
By La Cieca
La Cieca is just back from the HD of Don Giovanni from La Scala: excellent singing through the whole cast, strong conducting (if tending to the slow side) by Daniel Barenboim, and a smart, chic production from Robert Carsen that frankly makes Michael Grandage look like an utter bumpkin. The presentation will repeat here in…
By La Cieca
