Recording Reviews

Let’s do the time warp again

Tobias Kratzer's time-traveling Arabella from the Deutsche Oper Berlin, now available on DVD, turns the opera's problems into its strengths.

G. Schied

Grand Tier Grab Bag

Step-mothers and sons

Rachel Willis-Sørensen and Stephen Costello make their returns to the Met later this month and Grand Tier Grab Bag anticipates their performances by sharing them in the Act II duet from Don Carlo recorded in Munich this spring as well as a taste of Willis-Sørensen's Liebestod

Karen Almond / Met Opera

Feature

“An opportunity to deliver”

Daniele Rustioni, who starts his tenure as Met Principal Guest Conductor with Don Giovanni this week, might just be the opera conductor we’ve all been waiting for -- and he’s betting on a long haul.

Ennevi Photo / Fondazione Arena

Grand Tier Grab Bag

Polar opposites

Grand Tier Grab Bag offers a face off of two Polish divas from Aleksandra Kurzak's debut performances as Aïda in Verona this summer.

A scene from Act I of Mozart's "Don Giovanni." Photo: Marty Sohl / Met Opera

The replacements

Second casts in Don Giovanni and Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera offer mixed blessings.

Virginia Harold

To our glorious dead

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra offered a rending reading of Britten's massive War Requiem with an eclectic trio of soloists.

Lawrence Sumulong

We wear the masque

A brief concert at the Frick Collection teases the multifaceted artistry of Davóne Tines

Scott Suchman

Tag team

The women were the highlights of Washington National Opera's militaristic Aïda

I’m still thinking about Barrie Kosky’s Dialogues des Carmélites

Barrie Kosky's incredible production widened and universalized the ending.

I’m still thinking about John Dexter’s Dialogues of the Carmelites

The opening of John Dexter's production of The Dialogues of the Carmelites (originally produced in English) is one of the most arresting and memorable images I have ever seen.

I’m still thinking about Laurent Pelly’s The Golden Cockerel

In a lifetime of opera going I suppose I have seen many transformative productions, but this recent one seems, in the light of the increasing disaster enfolding this country, uncannily pertinent.

I’m still thinking about Richard Jones’s Hansel und Gretel

I saw this production in HD, and it really shocked me because I was used to the cackling mezzo witch, guardian angels, and gingerbread figures.

I’m still thinking about John Dexter’s I vespri siciliani

My first reaction in 1974 wasn't good. The production was full of stairs, and I was afraid Montserrat Caballé would fall at any moment.