Ariadne on Naxos, or you could call it Bacchus · Bordeaux. It was an orgy of art.
Author: Michael Milenski
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.
Parsifal in Brussels
Romeo Castellucci is the cat’s whisker of current avant-garde theater directors. Thus it has simply been a matter of time before he would be invited to the Monnaie to stage an opera.
Der Freisch¸tz, Toulon
Carl Marie von Weber’s magical masterpiece has had a hard time of it in France.
The Makropulos Case in San Francisco
Just now in San Francisco Finnish soprano Karita Mattila kicked ass as Jan·?ek’s 337 year old Elina Makropulos.*
Cyrano de Bergerac in San Francisco
Franco Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac at the San Francisco Opera has little chance of measuring up to a Cyrano standard once set here in Fog City.
Jerry Springer, The Opera in San Francisco
The fall opera season in San Francisco has been dealt a wild card — Jerry Springer, The Opera! Not exactly material for SF’s august opera company . . .
Madama Butterfly in San Francisco
“One of the most beautiful sets I have ever seen,” crows San Francisco Opera general director David Gockley over the airwaves, “directed by Broadway legend Hal Prince.”
Marriage of Figaro in San Francisco (and Los Angeles)
No question that Nicola Luisotti is a conducting genius, and no question that genius runs amuck from time to time. In the case of Mo. Luisotti fairly often.