The Nine Jewelled Deer in Aix

Or was it ten? One lost count. But that was early in the evening of the telling of this sort of parable with accompanying instrumental improvisation by six earnest musicians. …

La Calisto in Aix

Dutch stage director Jetske Mijnssen transferred Francesco Cavalli’s whimsical 1651 comedy La Calisto from its native Venice to France, one hundred years later — 1751, where the arts of an…

Louise in Aix

Most of us know “Depuis le jour” from Louise, but few of us know Gustave Carpentier’s opera Louise. The Aix Festival has just now reintroduced the opera in a production…

Don Giovanni in Aix

The late, justly mourned Pierre Audi, general director of the Aix Festival for these last seven festivals, matched renowned conductors and stage directors to create monumental stagings of the gamut…

Mozart’s La scuola degli amanti in Lyon

Ossia Cosi fan tutti, as you never could have possibly imagined it. French stage director Marie-Éve Signeyrole flipped the opera’s two titles, setting the second of the Mozart / DaPonte…

Manon in Paris

Les années folles in France [the roaring twenties in the USA] brought dancer Josephine Baker to Paris with her Bal Negre. In more recent times, the 2020 the Covid infection…

Idomeneo in San Francisco

To make a long story short, Ilia loves Idamande but can’t admit it. Elektra loves Idamante and admits it. Idomeneo loves his son Idamante but promised Neptune that he would…

La bohème in San Francisco [2025]

La bohème has played in forty-eight of San Francisco Opera’s 102 seasons. In fact, back in 1923  it was the inaugural piece of this grand old American opera company. Here’s…

Harvey Milk Reimagined at San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle

Recalling a very dark moment in San Francisco’s history, Michael Korie and Stewart Wallace’s Harvey Milk Reimagined [for small operatic forces], arrived, via St. Louis, finally in San Francisco. This…

Madama Butterfly in Williamsburg

Minimalism in the Commonwealth of Virginia — an iconic opera in rarefied format achieved a powerful presence. Maestro Jorge Parodi’s orchestra of single winds, two horns, strings 3,2,1,2,1, piano, timpani…