In Review
Pinned posts
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Treemonisha at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
Treemonisha at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’s forty-eighth festival season included works by Joplin, Floyd, Puccini and Mozart.
In review posts
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Le Rossignol and Erwartung at West Edge Opera
Le Rossignol and Erwartung at West Edge Opera
"West Edge Opera scored a triumph with Igor Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol and Arnold Schoenberg’s Erwartung, in a riveting double bill conducted by Jonathan Khuner, directed by Giselle Ty, and presented in Oakland’s Scottish Rite Center."
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Kiss Me, Kate at Central City Opera
Kiss Me, Kate at Central City Opera
"The company's labor problems made for a stressful summer for Central City Opera, but life onstage in the Opera House showed no evidence of unrest or low morale. Watching the jaw-dropping Act II opener, 'Too Darn Hot,' of CCO’s spirited staging of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate, one would never guess that the brilliant, high-energy dancers, led by Stephen Walley as Paul, had endured a serious labor disagreement just a month earlier. The production, one of three Shakespeare-inspired works in Central City this season, served as a refreshing alternative to the season's other 'serious' offerings, while the principals and supporting cast embraced their roles with conviction, charm and some consistently solid singing."
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La Cenerentola at Opera Maine
La Cenerentola at Opera Maine
"Opera Maine’s Cenerentola delivered an evening of boisterous laughs and thrilling vocalism, and, in the role of Angelina, Hongni Wu met all the coloratura challenges set by Rossini, singing with an elegance and emotive beauty that transformed even simple phrases into meaningful sentiments."
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Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Cincinnati Opera
Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Cincinnati Opera
"The concluding stage picture of Cincinnati Opera’s presentation of Il Barbiere di Siviglia (seen July 8) was emblematic of the production as a whole—an empty stage with a giant portrait of Rossini, artfully askew, being toasted by the assembled soloists and chorus. In the end, the composer’s music was at the center of it all. Leading up to that reminder was a highly energetic performance, at times tipping into the manic."
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Madama Butterfly at Cincinnati Opera
Madama Butterfly at Cincinnati Opera
"Directed by Matthew Ozawa, Cincinnati Opera's powerful thought-provoking new production of Madama Butterfly is an extraordinary re-envisioning of the opera, a subtle critique that does no violence to the work but focuses attention on what is already there. The revelatory production—created jointly with the Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Utah Opera Companies—certainly deserves wide exposure."
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Fidelio at the Opera Company of Middlebury
Fidelio at the Opera Company of Middlebury
"A converted New England town hall was convincingly converted into an appropriate facility for Opera Company of Middlebury to manifest itself for its ongoing twentieth anniversary. Beethoven’s Fidelio was the anniversary season’s ongoing solid anchor. The opera demands theatricality, vocally demanding voices, and a good pit orchestra to be sculpturally solidified. It worked, thanks to the evocative staging by artistic director, Douglas Anderson."
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Henri VIII at Bard SummerScape
Henri VIII at Bard SummerScape
"There are more viscerally exciting historical operas inspired by Tudor dynastic history, but Henri VIII is worth hearing: its ensemble scenes and processions are well constructed and divertingly energetic in the mode of Spontini and Meyerbeer. Leon Botstein—who led a 2012 concert of the opera—fared solidly in the pit and Jean-Romain Vesperini's fully staged production rendered the occasionally melodramatic action comprehensible, and was quite handsome to see."
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The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions at the Aix-en-Provence Festival
The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions at the Aix-en-Provence Festival
"In a year where fresh young voices have been somewhat lacking in the big festival productions, it was good to hear the rich timbre of soprano Mariamielle Lamagat, the beautifully phrasing of mezzo Deepa Johnny and the thrilling tenor power of Katherine Goforth. Music director Yshani Perinpanayagam kept a close eye on ensemble when it was required. The message of the opera went well beyond defending the LGBTQ community: it carried a message of hope for all minorities."
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Picture A Day Like This at the Aix-en-Provence Festival
Picture A Day Like This at the Aix-en-Provence Festival
"George Benjamin's fourth opera, a melancholic fable, is a chamber work that is different in tone from the composer’s more epic psychological dramas. Here deploying twenty musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra to produce a rainbow of orchestral colors, Benjamin’s music has never sounded more meticulously chiseled. The composer loves the human voice and writes singable recitatives that can blossom into more expansive phrases. The infinite care Benjamin and Crimp took in setting the text made for an unforgettable seventy-five minutes."