It was only a matter of time — first a novella (1917), a pulp magazine series (1919-1954), a few high profile movies (1920, 1940, 1998), a TV series (1957), a…
Author: Michael Milenski
La forza del destino in Lyon
Each early spring the Opéra national de Lyon imagines three operas within a vague thematic framework to comprise its Winter Festival. This year the theme is “Se saisir de l’avenir”…
L’Avenir nous le dira and 7 Minutes in Lyon
The first a premiere, the second of recent vintage. Both constructed on count downs (the first, one hour, the second, two hours) — thus the Opéra de Lyon’s Winter Festival…
Rusalka in Marseille
It was a fairly straight forward Rusalka, even though it took place at an on-stage Olympic style swimming pool, somewhere. Rusalka did kill the prince with a spear fishing gun,…
Das Rheingold in Paris
Any Calixto Bieito production is news, but it is great big news when he takes on the first installment of opera’s notorious four opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen. The…
I Puritani in Paris
Bellini’s tenth and last opera, I Puritani, took Paris by storm in 1835. Judging from the wild applause and standing ovation just now, it has lost none of its appeal…
Castor et Pollux in Paris
Just when you thought DEI (Diversity, Equality, Inclusion) was dead, American stage director Peter Sellers brazenly enlisted 16 highly trained (various cool, pop styles) dancers of color from America, France…
Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco in Parma
The least performed of the Verdi oeuvre, not included in the Verdi canon, Giovanna d’arco (Joan of Arc) was given another chance just now on one of Italy’s famed Verdi…
La Fanciulla del West in Bologna
Banished for the moment from its historic 1763 theater (closed for the renovation of its public areas) the prestigious Teatro Comunale di Bologna finds itself at the Comunale Nouveau [sic],…
The Opéra de Marseille [2013]
Marseille woke up this past January 11 [2013] stunned to find itself number two on the New York Times list of 46 places you should visit in 2013 (Rio was…