Brussels’ reliably excellent De Munt/La Monnaie Opera served up a Rusalka that was theatrically vivid, musically resplendent, and cheered to the rafters at its premiere.
Category: Reviews
Elektra, Avery Fisher Hall, New York
Elektra begins with an explosion and remains, with a few lyric interludes, on that extreme pitch throughout its two hours.
Glyndebourne on Tour — Theatre Royal, Plymouth
Glyndebourne Touring Opera has long been bringing its wares to the further reaches of the southern United Kingdom and its current package of Hansel und Gretel, Carmen and The Magic Flute has been drawing good crowds from Norwich in the east to Plymouth in the south-west.
Tristan und Isolde at the MET
The bad luck of last season’s Tristans seems to be edging into the present one — but the curse now finds the house better prepared for trouble.
London Philharmonic Orchestra — 75th Anniversary, Vol. 3: 1983-2007.
Released to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the three multi-disc sets of recordings makes available recordings that document the triumphs of the ensemble since its founding in 1932 by Sir Thomas Beecham.
Barcelona: Figaro la, Figaro qua
Like Seville’s peripatetic barber, Gran Teatro del Liceu’s new Marriage of Figaro is rather all over the place.
Porgy through a glass lightly
It was, of course, coincidence. When the Chicago Lyric Opera scheduled George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess for the current season, not even the preludes to the 2008 presidential election had begun.
Munich’s Christmas Treasures: Massenet and Handel
Not all of Munich’s holiday delights are to be found at the just-opened annual Christmas Market filling the Marienplatz and environs.
Carmen at the Washington National Opera
From the director’s point of view, there are two ways to approach staging an opera.
Verdi’s Aida at La Scala
Can this truly be the production of Verdi’s Aida that earned world-wide headlines in December 2007?