There was a time when the likes of Luc Bondy and Francesca Zambello staged operas for the ChorÈgies d’Orange in its famed ThÈ‚tre Antique.
Author: Michael Milenski
Don Giovanni, Alceste, Le Rossignol at the Aix Festival
The Aix Festival was known not so very long ago for pretentious productions. Perhaps now it will become known for good productions.
Die Walk¸re in San Francisco
Ring fever rages on. San Francisco has just unveiled its Walk¸re the completed cycle to take place next June. Gratefully the price of the SFO effort has not become a topic of conversation, as has the cost of the just completed L.A. Ring
La fanciulla del West in San Francisco
A bizarre rock cliff attributed in the program booklet to one Antonio Nigro was the sole background for San Francisco Opera’s production of Puccini’s version of a play named The Girl of the Golden West by San Francisco born David Belasco (1853-1931).
Der Ring des Nibelungen in Los Angeles
$32,000,000, and it would have been a bargain at $50,000,000. Los Angeles Opera went for broke, and it paid off with a Ring that has raised the worldwide Ring bar to a dizzying height.
Faust in San Francisco
Faust has long since left the French repertory to enter the international repertory, meaning that, like Disneyland, it has been absorbed into diverse cultures where it discovers new resonances.
Tchaikowsky Trilogy in Lyon
In Europe only a few theater stage directors are operatically more famous than Peter Stein (pronounced Pay-tear), to mention Sir Peter Hall, Patrice Chereau and Giorgio Strehler as examples.
Mefistofele in Montpellier
Back in 1989 Ken Russell opened his Genovese Mefistofele with heavenly choirs contemplating the divinity of a praying mantis.
Tristan und Isolde in Genoa
Tristan has been a fairly frequent visitor in Genoa over the past sixty years (post WW II). Tullio Serafin conducted the Isolde of Maria Callas there in 1948.
Baritone Austin Kness on his way
Baritone Austin Kness, an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera recently spoke with Opera Today critic Michael Milenski.