L’equivoco stravagante (1811) had only three performances before it was pulled by the censors. This is the same year its 19 year old composer was hauled off to prison for…
Category: Reviews
PROM 37: Pappano’s operatic War Requiem resonates with poetry and horror
Composers have long taken the horrors of the Second World War and used it as either a lament for its atrocities or an expression of reconciliation after them. Both Krzysztof…
The Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago springs a surprise in the composer’s final opera with its homage to the premiere’s abrupt conclusion
2024 is the centenary anniversary of Puccini’s death, and so it makes sense that the prominent festival of the composer’s operas at Torre del Lago (the Tuscan lakeside resort where…
The Gambler (Игрокъ) and The Idiot (Идиот) at Salzburg’s Rock Riding School
The Salzburg Festival’s Felsenreitschule is home to most of its productions of twentieth century opera, just now two Russian operas based on novels by Fyodor Dostoevsky — Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s The…
Glimmerglass: Supremely Stylish La Calisto
High style and ample substance were equally on dazzling display in the new production of Francesco Cavalli’s La Calisto at the Alice Busch Opera Theatre. From the gender bending casting…
Glimmerglass: Impassioned Pagliacci Plus A Surprise
Shortly before the curtain rose on a splendid production of the evergreen favorite, Pagliacci, we were informed that Glimmerglass Music Director Joseph Colaneri was indisposed and would not conduct. That…
Glimmerglass: Elizabeth Cree Killer Production
Producing festival quality opera in these challenging times for the arts can be murder, but Glimmerglass is knocking ‘em dead with its thrilling and fulfilling new production of Elizabeth Cree.…
Glimmerglass: Rollicking Pirates Rock the Stage
Gilbert and Sullivan’s enduring favorite, The Pirates of Penzance, handily captured the hearts of the capacity audience at the Glimmerglass Festival and held them hostage in rapt amusement throughout a…
The Turn of the Screw – a triumph for Waterperry Opera Festival
No better choice could have been conceived for Waterperry Opera’s first foray into a full-length Britten opera than The Turn of the Screw. And no better performance space for its…
Tristan und Isolde in Bayreuth
It is a Tristan well worthy of the Wagner shrine (not all Bayreuth productions are). Icelandic theater director Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson imposed a truly hermetic discussion of love onto the…