Upon its premiere at Chicagoís Lyric Opera in 1997 Anthony Davisí Amistad found little critical favor. Its undisciplined excesses led one writer to compare it to a high-school pageant.
Category: Reviews
Merry Widow at ENO
In these days of ‘concept’ productions, it is rare that the curtain goes up on the first act of an opera and it looks exactly as one might reasonably expect it to.
Masterpiece Masterfully Rendered in Toronto
I can still remember my first ever ìPelleas et Melisandeî in my first ever outing at San Francisco Opera during my first ever visit to that beautiful town.
A Berlin Sampler
A recent visit to Berlin’s three opera houses yielded decidedly, nay wildly varying outcomes.
HINDEMITH: Cardillac
Premiered in 1926, Paul Hindemithís opera Cardillac is a three-act work based on E. T. A. Hoffmannís short story Das Fr‰ulein von Scuderi.
WAGNER: Tristan und Isolde
In the 1983 production designed, staged, and directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, this recording of Richard Wagnerís Tristan und Isolde is a solid and well-thought performance that has much to offer.
STRAUSS: Opernszenen | Scenes of Operas.
Recorded between 1938 and 1942, the excerpts from performances of Der Rosenkavalier, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Arabella, and Daphne at the Dresden Staatsoper are all conducted by Karl Bˆhm.
Gotham Chamber Opera: Ariadne Unhinged
The Gotham Chamber Opera has been delighting opera fans on the Lower East Side for seven years now, one small audience at a time.
Les Troyens in Boston
Thirty-six years after Sarah Caldwell and the Opera Company of Boston presented the first complete staged performances in the United States, Hector Berliozí Les Troyens returned to Boston in triumph in a series of concert performances presented by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of James Levine to close the BSOís 2007-2008 season.
Books ‘n Things
Two excellent books on opera have come to hand, providing many hours of entertaining reading. I combine notice of them with a few thoughts about composer Paul Moravecís CDs, and his forthcoming opera premiere at Santa Fe Opera in 2009.