Opera Theater Reviews Page 3

Review: Met's First TANNHAUSER of the Season Interrupted by Demonstrators
by Richard Sasanow - December 01, 2023

All that was missing were shouts of “food fight!” to turn last night’s performance of Richard Wagner’s TANNHAUSER—the first of the Met’s season—into a version of National Lampoon’s Night at the Opera, as climate activists interrupted the house debut of the great baritone Christian Gerhaher, and audi...

Review: CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA / PAGLIACCI, Royal Opera House
by Gary Naylor - December 01, 2023

Sensational staging and great music sung with such passion, but are changing mores transforming how we see the sad clown and his wicked revenge?...

Review: SIR BRYN TERFEL at Kennedy Center
by Elliot Lanes - November 21, 2023

Sometimes it doesn't take much to make a reviewer happy and have an excellent musical experience. Welsh Bass-Baritone superstar Sir Bryn Terfel with only two instrumentalists proved that in spades. Add to that the bonus of what seemed like NO, that’s right, ZERO amplification this past Sunday in th...

Review: Magical Realism of Daniel Catan's FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS Spellbinds Audience in Met Debut
by Richard Sasanow - November 18, 2023

Just as the Met’s debut of Mexican composer Daniel Catan’s FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS (FLORENCE IN THE AMAZON) began the other day, a member of the audience yelled out “Viva la ópera en español!” (“Long live opera in Spanish!”). And that was before a single note of the composer’s lyric, highly accessi...

Review: Edward Hopper Paintings Inspire LATER THE SAME EVENING by John Musto and Mark Campbell at Juilliard Opera
by Richard Sasanow - November 15, 2023

It’s amazing how much emotion John Musto and Mark Campbell have been able to cram in the mere 75 minutes of LATER THE SAME EVENING, a one act opera, which has been on view this past week at Juilliard Opera at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, on West 65 Street, down the block from Lincoln Center’s Alice ...

Review: JEPHTHA, Royal Opera House
by Alexander Cohen - November 09, 2023

300 years have passed since Jephtha, Handel’s Greek tragedy-infused oratorio, was heard at Covent Garden. Now a lustrous new production helmed by artistic director Oliver Mears begs the question: is it a lost classic? Or one to consign to the history books?...

Review: Comedy Tonight! MasterVoices Does THE FROGS, Or Why Isn't Sondheim at the Met?
by Richard Sasanow - November 07, 2023

MasterVoices, under Ted Sperling, found THE FROGS irresistible—and the result was a hit, or, as Shakespeare wrote in “Hamlet”: “A hit, a very palpable hit.” With its libretto by Burt Shevelove and Nathan Lane (and Nathan Lane again), it fit the stage of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theatre very nic...

Review: ROMEO AND JULIET at Kennedy Center
by David Friscic - November 07, 2023

The oft-told tale of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet which has been beloved throughout the ages and been interpreted and showcased in so many films, stage productions and even a ballet ---has been mounted by the Washington National Opera in an odd sort of manner. In composer Charles Gounod’s ...

Review: X Marks the Spot at Met Premiere of 'X: Life and Times of Malcolm X'
by Richard Sasanow - November 05, 2023

It’s taken a long time for X: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MALCOLM X—the rediscovered and revised ‘80s work by Anthony Davis, Thulani Davis and Christopher Davis, in Robert O’Hara’s production and conducted by Kazem Abdullah--to cross the plaza from what was the old City Opera at New York State Theatre to ...

Review: 7 DEATHS OF MARIA CALLAS, London Coliseum
by Franco Milazzo - November 04, 2023

​​​​​​​Celebrated performance artist Marina Abramović is very much in town: as well as a huge exhibition of her works at the Royal Academy, this “opera project” in London’s largest West End theatre sees her explore the life, works and final moments of the diva’s diva Maria Callas through music, song...

Review: Plenty of High Notes at Unusually Low-Key Richard Tucker Awards Gala
by Richard Sasanow - November 01, 2023

An historic recording of golden age tenor Richard Tucker singing “Sound an Alarm” from Handel’s JUDAS MACCABEUS” set the tone for the Richard Tucker Music Foundation’s Gala concert at Carnegie Hall. There was wonderful singing ahead of us—but of a certain kind. Like many other classical organizatio...

Review: GRAMMY® GREATS UNITE – LATONIA MOORE AND J'NAI BRIDGES IN CONCERT at Balboa Theatre
by Ron Bierman - November 02, 2023

What did our critic think of GRAMMY® GREATS UNITE – LATONIA MOORE AND J’NAI BRIDGES IN CONCERT at Balboa Theatre?...

Review: GROUNDED at Kennedy Center
by David Friscic - October 30, 2023

The beautiful blue skies that Jess, an F-16 fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, soars through from the mighty heights above soon become mottled with dismal greys ---as she plummets into mental despair and confusion after being Grounded. In the paradigm-changing opera which is a World Premiere by th...

Review: RIP VAN WINKLE, Hoxton Hall
by Franco Milazzo - October 29, 2023

London company Gothic Opera returns to Hoxton Hall for their fifth outing and their take on French composer Robert Planquette's Rip Van Winkle....

Review: LA TRAVIATA at Artscape Is a Visual and Audial Masterpiece
by Jaime Uranovsky - October 28, 2023

LA TRAVIATA needs little introduction. As one of Verdi’s most famous operas, it has moved audiences since the mid-1800s. This production, presented by Cape Town Opera and UCT Opera is no different. Indeed, the show is best described as a sensory overload (in the best way) from start to finish....

Review: LA TRAVIATA, London Coliseum
by Franco Milazzo - October 24, 2023

Much shorter than Richard Eyre’s three-hour plus version for the ROH, Peter Konwitschny’s La Traviata perhaps should be renamed La Trav or L’ Abbreviata. Its breathless sprint over 105 uninterrupted minutes takes more than it gives but there’s an admirable boldness to it all....

Review: Met Revival of BALLO IN MASCHERA Opens in Alden Production
by Richard Sasanow - October 23, 2023

One of the troubles of being a major institution like the Met is that when they produce a new production of a major opera--and Verdi’s UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, which opened in revival the other night, certainly falls into that category--it’s an expensive undertaking. It's true that sometimes a producti...

Review: CARMEN Opens Edmonton Opera's 60th Season
by Sarah Dussome - October 21, 2023

One of the world’s most beloved operas returns to Edmonton’s Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium! Carmen takes the spotlight on October 21 and 24. ...

Review: ALCINA at McCaw Hall
by Erica Miner - October 15, 2023

What did our critic think of ALCINA It’s worth going to see for the glorious music and courageous, proficient singing...

Review: RIGOLETTO, Royal Opera House
by Michael Higgs - October 13, 2023

Mears’s production demonstrates a keen feel for drama and a genuinely brilliant reading of Verdi’s opera; when juxtaposed with a musical interpretation as potent as this, it’s a production not likely to be forgotten....

Review: IOLANTHE, London Coliseum
by Franco Milazzo - October 09, 2023

If a revival is akin to colouring in someone else’s artwork, Cal McCrystal’s Iolanthe for the ENO does so with every shade under the sun....

Review: NABUCCO, Verdi's First Big Hit, Returns to the Met with a Terrifying Monastyrska under Callegari's Baton
by Richard Sasanow - October 02, 2023

The Met’s production of NABUCCO from Elijah Moshinsky may date back to 2001 but its style hearkens back even further--a fancy, old-fashioned unit set that uses the house’s big turntable--and it’s a whale of a show, design-wise, thanks to John Napier’s scenic design....

Review: With a Different Perspective, UNHOLY WARS Shows What's Old is New Again at Opera Philadelphia
by Richard Sasanow - September 28, 2023

According to creator and star tenor Karim Sulayman, UNHOLY WARS, a 70-minute opera pastiche that made its debut on Saturday at Philadelphia Opera’s O23 Festival, “stitches together a collection of baroque music centered around the Middle East and the Crusades, examining the separation of the human r...

Review: PICTURE A DAY LIKE THIS, Royal Opera House
by Alexander Cohen - September 28, 2023

George Benjamin's slick new opera plays at the Royal Opera House after a critically acclaimed run at Festival d'Aix-en-Provence...

Review: Met Audience Entranced by DiDonato and McKinny in Heggie-McNally DEAD MAN in House Debut
by Richard Sasanow - September 27, 2023

It’s rather surprising, really, for the audience to embrace a contemporary piece like DEAD MAN WALKING, no matter how easily it falls upon the ears, considering the subject matter. In this Ivo van Hove production, it starts with a rape and double murder in a rather graphic piece of film, the use of ...