Rigoletto is the ideal first opera: a taut tale, comprehensible characters, terrific tunes, and not an ounce of fat anywhere.
Category: Reviews
Angels in Frankfurt
Was Tony Kushner’s monumental play Angels in America in need of being musicalized?
Domingo sings Wagner
This two-CD budget series collection brings together two Placido Domingo Wagner recitals, the first from 2000, with Deborah Voigt receiving co-billing, and the second from 2002.
Humperdinck: H‰nsel und Gretel
Originally directed by Brooks Riley for German television, this updated staging of Engelbert Humperdinck’s familiar opera H‰nsel und Gretel is based on a production created by Johannes Felsenstein, the son of the well-known director of the Komische Oper Berlin, Walter Felsenstein.
Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci at the MET
The current revival of Cav and Pag at the Met went off like clockwork, with all the comfort and reliability that implies for a repertory house and all the success these tried and true verismo stalwarts merit.
Benjamin Britten: Owen Wingrave
In the parlance of a Hollywood film pitch, Britten’s penultimate opera might be described as “War Requiem” meets “Turn of the Screw.”
Nadja Michael as Salome and Tosca
Like Violetta Urmana, Nadja Michael had a substantial career as a mezzo before deciding to venture into soprano territory.
Return of Ulysses in San Francisco
William Kentridge is a South African artist who works in charcoal and eraser (smudges) on paper, in small animated film and video segments (black and white), in theater, and now in opera. Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses was his first operatic project that took place in 1998 in collaboration with South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Theater.
Reasons to be Cheerful
London: Sue Loder reviews Alessandro and the Handel Singing Final