Los Angeles has been good to Turandot. The gritty 1984 Andre Serban production inaugurated an opera company in Los Angeles where a mere eight years later L.A. Opera bestowed the splendid Luciano Berio ending upon the world in an uber-pompous Gian-Carlo del Monaco production.
Author: Michael Milenski
Heart of a Soldier, San Francisco
The house lights dimmed, SFO General Director David Gockley instructed us to stand and sing the Star Spangled Banner. This crucial moment revealed the intentions and complexities of this fine production at San Francisco Opera.
Mosè in Egitto and Adelaide di Borgogna in Pesaro
It was a no-brainer. The Old Testament Egyptians had to become today’s Palestinians.
La BohËme at Torre del Lago
This is where Puccini composed many of his operas until the lake got so polluted he had to move to nearby Viareggio.
La traviata at the Aix Festival
An appreciation of La traviata plus La clemenza di Tito and Le Nez/The Nose at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
Der Ring des Nibelungen in San Francisco
Some of the experts said it was the best Ring ever, others merely
said it was one of the best (these were lecturers at a Wagner Society
symposium).
Les Noces de Figaro in Paris
This is the one by Giorgio Strehler that opened at Versailles in 1973 and since has endured twenty-three incarnations, first at the Garnier and later at the Bastille.
Akhmatova in Paris
The very name Mantovani strikes musical terror in the hearts of high minded Americans and Brits of a certain age. Now the same surname is evidently terrorizing Parisians.
Ariadne auf Naxos, Bordeaux
Ariadne on Naxos, or you could call it Bacchus · Bordeaux. It was an orgy of art.
Werther in Lyon
Massenet tells us that his Werther is 23 years old, that Charlotte is 20 years old. Albert is 25 and Sophie is but 15. Just now the Lyon Opera assembled just such a cast.