May 2023

Lohengrin at The Metropolitan Opera

"The Met’s new production of Lohengrin offered top-notch principals and the full glory of the chorus and orchestra."

The Rake's Progress at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz

"Adam Cooper's new staging of Rake for Munich's Gärtnerplatz Theater updated the work to the 1980s, the London of the director's youth. Tom Rakewell was a rock star, costumed to look like a vision from the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. We were in the Margaret Thatcher era—a time of confrontation and contrast between social rebellion and the conservative values of the wealthy or would-be wealthy. All of this fits perfectly well into a work whose essence is timeless."

Werther at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz

"The Gärtnerplatz Theater ensemble is so well-balanced that the company was able to indulge in the luxury of double-casting the major roles and most of the minor roles for its new production of Massenet's Werther, which dealt with the work in an appropriately moving manner and featured passionate conducting by Anthony Bramall and incredible, world-class singing from the principals."

The Factotum at Lyric Opera of Chicago

"Lyric Opera of Chicago scored a success with the world premiere of The Factotum, by Will Liverman and DJ King Rico, at the Harris Theater. This unique new work had been promoted to the rafters, and happily the reality more than matched the hype. The Factotum is terrific. Some tweaks and trims may be in order, but it’s really good—often mic-drop-fabulous good."

Le Nozze di Figaro at LA Opera

"LA Opera's new Nozze di Figaro was director James Gray’s first venture in opera, and he took to the new medium with seeming ease, delivering a perceptive, judicious staging that allowed the complex plot of Nozze to unfold with clarity."

Das Rheingold at Dallas Opera

"In a night of extraordinary singing from a large, talented cast, the standouts were the refined soprano Amanda Echalaz, who acted with exquisite poise as Fricka, and bass-baritone Nicholas Brownlee, who sounded robust and assured in his first performance as Wotan. Brownlee’s rich, woody tone and regal bearing were imposing, and he and Echalaz were convincing as a supreme couple."

La Fille du Régiment at Minnesota Opera

"While the show was no visual extravaganza, most of what John de los Santos presided over in his new production for Minnesota Opera was genuinely funny and at times tender. This Fille staging had the whimsical feeling of early Gilbert and Sullivan. The cast also included the winner of the fourth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, Monét X Change, in the role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp."

Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi at San Diego Opera

"The success of San Diego Opera’s production of two-thirds of Puccini’s Trittico stemmed from the versatility of soprano Marina Costa-Jackson and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe."

Simon Boccanegra at Deutsche Oper Berlin

"Deutsche Oper Berlin ushered in 2023 with its first new production of Simon Boccanegra in almost two decades. Vasily Barkhatov’s staging was a grim, conceptually muddled presentation of Verdi's opera that struggled to establish a consistent tone. Were the Italian newspaper headlines projected onscreen and read out loud in amplified voice-overs between scenes simply meant to fill in the confusing backstory? Was the humor intentional? Or was Barkhatov trying to turn Boccanegra into a thriller?"

Eugene Onegin at La Monnaie/De Munt

"Singing the title role of Tchaikovsky's opera for the first time, Stéphane Degout made an exceptional debut as Onegin, horribly cold and blasé in the first acts before falling desperately in love with the ennobled Tatiana. His body language perfectly conveyed the change from stiff indifference to adolescent ardor. The role was an ideal fit for his blossoming baritone."

Rusalka at the Royal Opera

"The Royal Opera's new staging staging of Rusalka marked the company’s first production created using sustainable practices, with sets and costumes drawing on previously used materials rather than being created afresh. While the efforts were praiseworthy, such an approach does not necessarily place aesthetic values front and center. Visually the result was often drab—and certainly lacking in the magical or supernatural qualities crucial to the piece as envisaged by its late-Romantic creators."

Gianni Schicchi and Buoso's Ghost at Florida Grand Opera

Credo/Carmina Burana at Opera Philadelphia

Jennifer Johnson Cano & Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall

Fellow Travelers at Virginia Opera

"Conductor Adam Turner was clearly attuned to this work’s distinctive fusion of minimalist pulses as to stylistic flurries that hark back to older times. And his careful pacing ensured maximum payoff for those lump-in-the-throat moments when the music underlines the fondest hope or deepest pain of those caught in a tangle of closets, causes and compromises."

Siegfried at the Isarphilharmonie

Ariadne auf Naxos at Opera North

Simon Boccanegra at the Deutsche Oper Berlin

"Deutsche Oper Berlin's first new staging of Simon Boccanegra in nearly two decades was directed by Vasily Barkhatov, who delivered a grim, and conceptually muddled production that struggled to establish a consistent tone. Were the Italian newspaper headlines projected onscreen and read out loud in amplified voice-overs between scenes simply meant to fill in the confusing backstory? Was the humor intentional? Or was Barkhatov trying to turn Boccanegra into a thriller?"

Ryan Speedo Green & The Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

"Ryan Speedo Green’s dark, rich toned bass-baritone was a perfect match for the somber but glorious Songs and Dances of Death. He was a powerful presence on the stage, tender in the opening 'Lullaby,' increasingly menacing in 'Serenade' (and downright frightening at its conclusion), cunning, sarcastic and imposing in 'Trepak,' and contemptuously commanding and triumphant in the concluding 'Field Marshal.'"

King Arthur at Juilliard

"February 11's concert King Arthur at Alice Tully Hall marked an invigorating collaboration among Juilliard415 (the Juilliard School’s ever-improving early music initiative) and gifted students from both the Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts and Juilliard Drama."

Caroline Shaw & Sō Percussion at the 92nd Street Y

"Shaw and the four virtuoso members of the innovative quartet share the same cheerful approach to musical boundary smashing, and they are natural artistic partners."

The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage at Guerilla Opera

"Elena Ruehr’s opera, based on the popular graphic novel by Sydney Padua, was wonderfully singable, not always a given in a narrative driven opera. She even incorporates the chunky sound of a Babbage's Difference Engine, a calculating machine that prefigured modern computers. Her work was organically danceable, simple on the surface and layered richly in the interaction between singers, dancers and instrumentalists."

Tannhäuser, Performed by Andris Nelsons & Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall

Norma at the Metropolitan Opera

In the Met's current revival of Norma, Michael Spyres's Pollione is easily the best of the central trio vocally and, especially, stylistically. A baritenor in a baritenor role, Spyres was in excellent voice and is a skillful, detailed actor, able convincingly to show the straying husband's eventual realization of Norma's worth.

Proving Up at Juilliard Opera

"Missy Mazzoli has devised a language for musical storytelling that both plants us right in the mid-nineteenth century and keeps us right up to the minute with contemporary opera. She also ensures that we feel largely unsettled throughout."

Will Liverman & Paul Sánchez at Alice Tully Hall

"Amor" presented by New York Festival of Song

Suor Angelica at Opera Omaha

Don Pasquale at Academy of Vocal Arts

Gloria at the Teatro Lirico

The Rhinegold at English National Opera

Kelli O’Hara at the 92nd Street Y

Masaaki Suzuki & Bach Collegium Japan at the 92nd Street Y

"The excellence of this ensemble under Suzuki's direction became world-renowned, and Roderick Williams’s lyric voice made him a compelling soloist."

Fidelio at Deutsche Oper Berlin

Daphne at Staatsoper Unter den Linden

Tom Sawyer at Komische Oper Berlin

Die Rache der Fledermaus at Komische Oper Berlin

La Voix Humaine at Opéra du Rhin

Awakenings at Odyssey Opera

"Tobias Picker's opera Awakenings—inspired by Dr. Oliver Sacks’s 1973 memoir—has its own way of illuminating Sacks’s familiar story. Those looking for a re-telling of Sacks’s amazing breakthroughs and the devastating relapses of the 'sleepy-sickness' patients will find it here, but only in part."

ORDWAY: The Outer Edge of Youth

GROSLOT: I Will Come Back

VERDI: La Traviata

Javier Camarena: Signor Gaetano

SCHNABEL: Complete Vocal Works

Brian Mulligan: Alburnum

Alexandra Nowakowski: Kraina

“A gripping survey of Polish art song. Clearly a labor of love, treated with delicacy and care.”

TAFRESHIPOUR: The Doll Behind the Curtain

“A disturbing but frustratingly dull adaptation of the Pygmalion myth.”

Thomas Quasthoff in Verbier

“His bass-baritone is in top form, until it’s not.”

Music for Lady Louise

“A delightful new recital from Ensemble Leviathan inspired by Louise de Kéroualle’s English court.”

NEBRA: Donde Hay Violencia, No Hay Culpa

“The music of this Baroque zarzuela is opulent, tuneful, bright and full of spirit.”

DE LA GUERRE: Judith/Sémélé

“A very strong recording of two cantatas by the first woman to have an opera performed at the Paris Opéra.”

LEISNER: Letter to the World

“A well made, very rewarding recording of four song cycles.”

SOMMER: Orchestral Songs

“The German composer had no success in his lifetime, but now he’s getting another chance.”

FLURY: Der Schlimm-Heilige Vitalis

“The composer’s orchestrations perform wonders given his modest means.”

BROWN: The Gift of the Maji

“It’s hard to know what the composer intended to bring to this classic tale.”