Lead balloon Lead balloon

At Wolf Trap Opera, a season-closing Tosca is weighed down by an incoherent setting during Italy’s Anni di piombo.

Leontyne Price sings Christmas songs Leontyne Price sings Christmas songs

Leontyne Price in her early prime is soaring and radiant in traditional Christmas songs.

Nosedive Nosedive

It’s not so much that I hated the Met Opera’s Grounded. I’m just not convinced that it should have been an opera.

Shining ‘Hours’ Shining ‘Hours’

Dramaturgically, The Hours is a mixed bag: I wouldn’t discard it, but I would want to fix it. But simply as an evening of gorgeous music and singing, it’s cordon bleu. 

Christmas past imperfect Christmas past imperfect

Give the creators credit for producing an emotional response.

All right on the western front All right on the western front

Silent Night is in a sense a giant middle finger raised against the conventional wisdom that musical sophistication requires inscrutability.

Commie dearest Commie dearest

The Manchurian Candidate is indeed operatic: outsized characters, a doomed love story and a narrative fraught with suspense.