The fact that La traviata has been historically known in Japan as Tsubaki-hime (The Camellia Princess), involves a misleading conception. The suffix -hime suggests a delicate, well-born maiden rather than…
Category: Staged Operas
Kosky’s Royal Opera House Ring Continues with Incisive Simplicity in Siegfried
Having set up his themes in the previous instalments of the Ring in the Royal Opera’s past two seasons, Barrie Kosky relaxes a little in Siegfried, the cycle’s third part,…
Handel in Shoreditch: a Tamerlano Triumph
Those who attended Irish National Opera’s Bajazet at the Linbury Theatre will be familiar with the story here. Handel accorded titular status to Tamerlano; different librettos, though: Handel’s principally uses…
IN Series Concludes PASSION PLAYS Festival With For Women Serving Time
Their third production in as many weeks, IN Series’ For Women Serving Time is an excellent meditation on women in prison. It belongs in this group of Passion plays because…
Washington National Opera’s The Crucible: An American Classic, Operatized
“Let us not see witches in silly girls.” So says Rebecca Nurse in the first act of Robert Ward’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning operatic adaptation of The Crucible, and for a moment the…
Vivaldi’s Provocative First Opera Given a Sober Interpretation at Venice
Ottone in villa was Vivaldi’s first opera, although premiered not in his native Venice, but at nearby Vicenza in 1713. The title character, Otho, is one of the four Roman…
A Critically Honest Glance of Life in a Venetian Square from Genoa in Wolf-Ferrari’s Il campiello
The ‘little square’ of Wolf-Ferrari’s charming comic opera is one in Venice, as peopled by local characters in a mid-18th century play by Goldoni. It’s as though one of the domestic…
East and West meet at Opéra Bastille with Nixon in China
There can be few, if any, operas which feature a grand gathering of table-tennis players. Bizaare that may be, it’s not so unreasonable if you’re aware of the link between…
Annapolis Opera’s Hansel and Gretel: An Updated Setting That Works
With no curtain hiding it, the audience could enjoy Edward T. Morris’s angular, disjointed, abstract design of the ever-present trees on the set as they sat down in the theater…
IN Series’ Passio Gives Artists the Opportunity to Put Their Passions on Display
Continuing their Passion Plays festival with this second in a series of three works, IN Series this past weekend featured Passio, a work produced by Maribeth Diggle and Lucie de…