Category: Performances

Originating at the Ch‚telet, where the narration was given in French, Robert Carsen’s staging of Bernstein’s unique satire worked rather well in its television broadcast from the Parisian house late in 2006.

The disastrous 1904 La Scala premiere of Giacomo Pucciniís Madame Butterfly is one of those famous annals of opera which tend to leave todayís audiences perplexed about all the uproar.

The concert ì20th-Century Masters,î presented by the Grant Park Music Festival, Chicago on 27 and 28 June 2008 featured several pieces performed for the first time under the auspices of the Festival.

David Gockley heard the cries of many an opera fan that Pamela Rosenberg had denied them their ‘stars,’ so for his summer season, 2008, he brought them Natalie Dessay, Susan Graham, Ruth Ann Swenson, and Stefan Margita.

My visit to two rarely mounted pieces at the Opera Festival of St. Louis brought to mind the little girl with the curl, for when it was good, it was very very good and when it was bad, it was, um. . .er. . .

In the latter part of last year, the casting for Nicholas Hytnerís new production of Don Carlo ó in the five-act Italian version ó looked to be on shaky ground.

No one has ever called Gazzanigaís Don Giovanni an overlooked masterpiece.

Pink flamingos, sheep on wheels, and a queen crowned with giant antlers all inhabit the zany world of Opera Theatre of Saint Louisís Una cosa rara, where the artificial 18th century pastoral commingles with cutesy country colors and 1950s yard art.

On the barren stage: a few chairs, a dark-gold hectoplasm projected on the wood panels of the acoustic chamber – nothing more.

For the belated Spanish premiere of Brittenís Death in Venice, 35 years after its creation in Aldeburgh, Barcelona seems a felicitous choice.