Opera’s Brigadoon — OTSL’s 2010 Season of the Sublime

At the beginning of every summer, an oasis of music and theater appears like
magic in the suburbs of St. Louis.

Meistersinger at the Proms

The BBC Proms brought the Welsh National Opera’s hit Die Meistersinger von N¸rnberg to the Royal Albert Hall and to the world, via international broadcast.

Mahler’s 8th at Royal Albert Hall

A performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony could only ever be relatively underwhelming; even a car crash of a performance would impress in some sense, indeed most likely in quite a few.

Darkness Visible: Dowland and beyond

This was a recital of concentrated intensity — a remarkable dialogue between texts, timbres and idioms, across ages and among performers.

Stars Sizzle, Productions Fizzle in Paris

So when did you last shout “bravissima”?

Star Power in Z¸rich’s Rosenkavalier

The annual Z¸rcher Festspiel banked on a heavy hitter to generate excitement for its revival of Der Rosenkavalier.

Don Giovanni, Alceste, Le Rossignol at the Aix Festival

The Aix Festival was known not so very long ago for pretentious productions. Perhaps now it will become known for good productions.

Handel’s Serse (Xerxes) at Iford Manor

Something rather extraordinary happened to opera seria in 1738. The
acknowledged master of that time, London’s George Frideric Handel,
presented two new operas at the King’s Theatre: Faramondo and
Serse.

Three Decembers at Central City

CENTRAL CITY — The story is banal: a single mother, an aging actress,
is alienated from her grown-up children.

A Magnificent Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne

Don Giovanni isn’t new and most of the cast at Glyndebourne (led by Gerald Finley) are familiar.