As a student in Berlin, Ludwig Feuerbach attended lectures from, among others, GWF Hegel and Friedrich Schleiermacher: far from an unusual combination, but prophetic for his subsequent development as the…
Category: Staged Operas
Suddenly Last Summer at Bard’s SummerScape
First a one-act play by famed playwright Tennessee Williams (1958), then a famous movie (1959), and now, finally, an opera composed by Courtney Bryan — a 2023 MacArthur Fellow. More…
Giacomo Puccini, Turandot from Munich
How curious. I learned what this Turandot had been about only upon consulting the programme post-performance. To be honest, I wish I had not done so. A quotation from La Fura del…
Brett Dean, Of One Blood in Munich
I remember, as a schoolboy, reading in a newspaper about ‘The Hecklers’, a pair of composers with highly reactionary aesthetics, who objected so strongly to Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain that they protested against…
Wolf Trap Opera Presents a Hilarious La Cenerentola to Remember
Wolf Trap Opera opened its summer fully staged opera season with Rossini’s La Cenerentola. Opening night was abuzz with laughter and fun in both the audience and the cast, who…
An Incomparable Tatyana in Grange Festival’s Eugene Onegin
Drawn from Alexander Pushkin’s 1833 novel-in-verse Eugene Onegin, Tchaikovsky’s eponymous opera could have been called after its heroine Tatyana Larin. Judging by this magnificent production and some compelling performances, I suspect Tchaikovsky…
An Inspiring Medea at the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus
The Ancient Theater of Epidaurus is the world’s largest non-amplified performance space, seating 14,000 spectators. Each summer the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, almost exclusively devoted to ancient Greek drama, attracts…
An Impressive Ring Cycle Opener from Grange Park Opera’s Das Rheingold
It takes some nerve to initiate a Ring cycle in a country house setting with relatively modest resources in comparison to the major opera companies. But this is Wasfi Kani…
Streetcar Leaves Nothing to be Desired in Saint Louis
With its riveting production of André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis has dramatically reinforced its stature as one of the nation’s finest summer festivals. First,…
Glyndebourne’s First Orfeo Is Musically Outstanding but Hampered by an Overloaded Staging
Although not the earliest opera, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (1607) is the first masterpiece of the genre, and surprisingly Glyndebourne has never staged it before. It fits in with the festival’s present…