Hamlet at the Opéra Bastille

Versions of Shakespeare’s famed Hamlet have amused Parisian audiences for  250 years or so, though just now at the Opéra Bastille we were as amused as we were confused. Polish stage…

Tristan et Isolde in Toulouse

Well beyond all Tristan basics the Opéra de Toulouse boasted two ravishing singers and an electrifying conductor in this revival of its excellent 2007 Nicolas Joël production. Austrian tenor Nikolai…

Carmen in Marseille

A proven production of real interest, beautifully conducted with an excellent cast just now at the Opéra de Marseille.  This Jean-Louis Grinda production originated at the Opera de Toulouse in…

Cilea’s Gloria in Sardinia

Beyond its emerald waters, white sands and pecorino cheese, Sardinia is an opera destination! Just now it was Francesco Cilea’s fifth and last opera, Gloria, at the Teatro Lirico di…

Carmen and Le Trouvère in Paris

Among the most performed titles in the repertory, it was the 30th performance of Verdi’s Il trovatore in this 2016 production by Barcelona’s chic theater collective La Fura dels Baus,…

Peter Grimes in Paris

That the Four Sea Interludes and the Passacaglia from Peter Grimes have become orchestral showpieces attests to the opera’s musical might, manifest just now at the Palais Garnier by British…

Tristan et Isolde in Paris

A few weeks ago it was one act per night in Los Angeles, in Paris just now it is all three acts at once, as it had been back in…

La traviata in San Francisco

Wondrous things do still happen at San Francisco Opera. Like the La traviata last night where conductor Eun Sun Kim built a perfect synergy with soprano Pretty Yende and tenor…

Orfeo ed Euridice in San Francisco

One of opera’s most awesome scores came, finally, to the the War Memorial Opera House stage, arriving with flying colors in stage director Matthew Ozawa’s fine new, bigtop-like production. An…

Dialogues des Carmelites in San Francisco

Poulenc’s masterpiece (1957), Camus’ La Chute (The Fall) Nobel Prize for Literature (1957), Bernstein’s West Side Story (1957), Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Saint of Bleecker Street (1954). San Francisco Opera…