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,…
Author: Michael Milenski
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],…
Verdi’s Messa da Requiem in Marseille
Like the city itself, this Marseille Requiem reveled in expansive personality. It was a performance that can only be described as exuberant. Taking over from the aged Lawrence Foster as…
Carmen in San Francisco
Francesca Zambello’s 2006 Covent Garden Carmen rehashed once again by San Francisco Opera. This time with French mezzo-soprano Eve-Maud Hubeaux in the title role. In 2017 alone Mme. Hubeaux transformed…
Everest by San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle
San Francisco’s alternative opera company has just now revived its 2021 production of Everest, a 2015 Dallas Opera commission about climbers on Mount Everest, here reimagined as a graphic novel…
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…