Category: Performances

ìTea: Mirror of the Soulî with book by Xu Ying and music by Tan Dun, revised from an earlier version first produced in Japan in 2002, was to have been the novelty of the present Santa Fe Opera season. Instead, it was dead on arrival.

On a cold winterís day in Vienna, just before Christmas 1790, Mr. Haydn dined with Mr. Mozart for the last time.

The legend of Orpheus and Eurydice has come down through the centuries to us, on the way inspiring some sixty-four other known operas.

The first masterpiece in the history of opera. Thatís a tall order to live up to for any company and for any band of singers, especially those at the beginning of their careers.

W. A. Mozartís CosÏ fan tutte, heard on a stormy night July 11, proved a sorry exercise in deconstruction, something I never expected to endure at Santa Fe Opera.

Staatsoper Stuttgart presented its new production of The Girl of the Golden West, directed by Calixto Bieito. And, well, it began with an added dialogue scene to establish the “concept.”

In 2003, at Cagliís Accademia del Teatro, Elisabetta Courir directed a compelling CosÏ fan tutte, minimalist, sophisticated and low-budget; quite unlike Daniele Abbado, whose Lohengrin for Bolognaís Teatro Comunale integrated ìhardî scenery, video projections and historically informed costumes into a dream-like pageant.

Just whose opera is “Der Rosenkavalier” anyway? The title — to begin with the obvious — says it’s youthful Octavian, pinpointing his role as the bearer of the rose that is to seal the marriage contract of Ochs and child-like Sophie.

There’s not much point in presenting Lully’s Psyché (in its North American premiere no less) unless you’re going to give it something vaguely like the grandeur Louis XIV could command in 1678.

An increasing lack of substance and imagination behind ENO’s season scheduling means that a revival of a theatrically impressive recent production of a repertoire piece is to be welcomed, especially when that production comes with a cast of superior calibre.