Big American opera companies in America today resemble Broadway companies. They strive to fill gargantuan theaters by serving up a mix of warhorses and crossover repertoire, staged by celebrity directors,…
Category: Reviews
Berlin Staatsoper’s poignant re-interpretation of Strauss’s comedy Die schweigsame Frau
Die schweigsame Frau (1935) was Strauss’s only collaboration with Stefan Zweig – a writer as prominent and satisfactory for the composer to work with as Hugo von Hofmannsthal had been…
Glyndebourne brings Falstaff to Metroland
In Richard Jones’s production of Verdi’s last opera, first seen in 2009, big, bold sets evoke mid-1940s Windsor, just after the end of the War. The mock Tudor facades of…
A new Meistersinger in Bayreuth
Following the one with the gigantic blow-up of Beckmesser as a caricatured evil Jew. Zeitgeist has now made Beckmesser a populist rockstar, (lead photo, Michael Nagy as Beckmesser). The problem…
Washington National Opera Coach Ken Weiss Holds Masterclass With Canto Virginia
In addition to its core faculty of opera industry professionals, Canto Vocal Programs makes it a point to provide its students with instruction and feedback from industry professionals from outside…
West Green Opera’s Macbeth Proves that Less is More
In the capable hands of director and designer Richard Studer and conductor Jonathan Lyness, this production more than suggests that Verdi’s Macbeth can be performed with a reduced orchestra and…
Something A Little Different Indeed: Yeomen of the Guard at Young Victorian Theatre Company
When one thinks of Gilbert and Sullivan, one thinks: Comedy. Wordplay. Happy ending. Although there is plenty of the first two in Yeomen of the Guard, alas, as the only…
Pénélope at Bavarian State Opera
Fauré’s only opera Pénélope was premiered at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo in March 1913, moving to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées only two months later. It has fared incommensurably less well…
Face-Melting Dialogues of the Carmelites at Wolf Trap Opera
What a delight to see the stage at The Barns so completely transformed from the set of Marriage of Figaro! It’s the first thing I noticed upon entering the venue.…
An Evening With Loudoun Lyric Opera Brings Art Song to Loudoun County
As part of their Midsummer Opera Dream festival this year, Canto Vocal Programs collaborated for the first time in its ten-year history with Loudoun Lyric Opera on an art song…