Category: Performances

This was my first Verdi performance in the theatre for thirteen years or so I must have been the least jaded of critics for the opening night of the revival of Sir Richard Eyre’s La Traviata.

David McVicar’s production of Salome received its first revival at Covent Garden, though McVicar left its revival in the capable hands of Justin Way.

CENTRAL CITY — No matter how much verismo you heap onto Madama
Butterfly, the opera — the favorite of American companies —
remains a threadbare — if tragic — tale of a love that failed.

The Royal Opera’s intriguingly staged Manon had all the trappings of success including a soprano at the top of her game, and a tenor on the brink of his fame.

Richard Wagner’s 200th birthday is just around the corner in 2013 — and the composer was, after all, born in Leipzig.

Mozart was reputedly more attached to this musical drama of hubris and honour set during the Trojan War than to any other of his stage works.

This recital was the last in a series of five put together by Roger Vignoles
to celebrate the lieder of Richard Strauss — a series which, comprising
85 of Strauss’ songs, has highlighted the composer’s role as heir
to the nineteenth-century German lieder masters and reminded us of the
ravishing beauty and varied emotional range of these unjustly neglected
songs.

With Opera Theatre of St. Louis’ stunning A Little Night
Music, at long last we have been treated to a multi-faceted production
that not only equals, but in many ways surpasses the dazzling original.