Entertainment does not come much more laugh-out-loud than English National Opera’s current run of The Magic Flute, now in its third revival, and notwithstanding recent machinations over the company’s future.…
Year: 2024
The Dutchman returns to Covent Garden
Tim Albery’s production of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer – which presents, as the composer intended, the opera in one unbroken, 140-minute span and concludes with the ‘Dresden’ ending of emphatic…
Musically Ravishing Roméo et Juliette in Idaho
Opera Idaho has gifted their public with a thrillingly sung and played performance of Charles Gounod’s tuneful and compelling take on Shakespeare’s evergreen classic tale of star-crossed love: Romeo and…
Benjamin Britten’s Canticles at the Temple Church
This first vocal recital of the year at the Temple Church featured all five of Britten’s Canticles, works spanning nearly three decades and closely connected to the operas from the…
A Shot of Coffee in New York
Johann Sebastian Bach composed some of the most sublime religious music in the Western canon, yet in everyday life he was an earthy fellow. With his long-time collaborator Christian Henrici,…
La traviata in Marseille
Three fine singers saved Marseille Opéra’s recent 5 performance run of La traviata. Marred by a bizarre pit and weird staging conceits, Verdi’s middle period masterwork emerged, in spite of…
Adriana Lecouvreur in Paris
The one by Francesco Cilea. There are several others by forgotten composers. This one sits uneasily in the verismo category given its hyper contrived plot and its historical setting. Leading…
Giulio Cesare in Paris
This Laurent Pelly production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare is wily indeed, enriching Handel’s estimation of antiquity’s most famous female with supreme wit. Were it pure Baroque opera seria these current…
Beatrice di Tenda in Paris
Bellini’s second to last opera, Beatrice di Tenda, was not a success at its 1833 Venice premiere, though subsequent performances are said to have overcome the opera’s macabre horrors through…
In Memory of Claire Seymour
It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of Claire Seymour. For the past few months, she suffered from an unknown illness, which included her hospitalization for a…