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May 2023

ERIN MORLEY: SOARING IN STRAUSS, MOZART & HANDEL


English National Opera’s Funding Crisis • Opera’s Troubling Makeup Traditions • Shawna Lucey at Opera San José • Rarely Trusted: Giovanni’s Donna Elvira • The Denyce Graves Foundation Lifts Every Voice • Sound Bites: Murrella Parton

 

May 2023 Cover Featuring Erin Morley

Features

The Sure Bet
Cover Story May 2023

The Sure Bet

Coloratura soprano Erin Morley is conquering the opera world with her stellar musicianship and a unique, idiosyncratic selection of roles.


  • Sound & Fury
    Feature May 2023

    Sound & Fury

    A funding crisis has imperiled the future of English National Opera.

  • Another Look
    Feature May 2023

    Another Look

    Kenneth Overton explores ethnic makeup in opera and how challenging its use has supported race-conscious casting in the industry.

  • Citizen Director
    Spotlight May 2023

    Citizen Director

    Stage director Shawna Lucey is the new general director at Opera San José.

  • Rarely Trusted
    Spotlight May 2023

    Rarely Trusted

    The women in Don Giovanni inspire complex moral questioning. Is Donna Elvira the most complicated?

  • Lift Every Voice
    Spotlight May 2023

    Lift Every Voice

    The Denyce Graves Foundation seeks to create new opportunities for artists of color.

Departments

In Review

  • Lohengrin at The Metropolitan Opera
    North America 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
    International, Online Exclusive May 2023

    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
    International, Online Exclusive May 2023

    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
    North America May 2023

    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
    North America May 2023

    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
    North America May 2023

    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
    North America May 2023

    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
    North America May 2023

    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
    International May 2023

    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
    International May 2023

    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
    International May 2023

    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
    North America, Online Exclusive May 2023

    Gianni Schicchi and Buoso's Ghost at Florida Grand Opera

  • Credo/Carmina Burana at Opera Philadelphia
    Concerts & Recitals, Online Exclusive May 2023

    Credo/Carmina Burana at Opera Philadelphia

  • Jennifer Johnson Cano & Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall
    Concerts & Recitals, Online Exclusive May 2023

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

  • Fellow Travelers at Virginia Opera
    North America, Online Exclusive May 2023

    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
    Concerts & Recitals, Online Exclusive May 2023

    Siegfried at the Isarphilharmonie

  • Ariadne auf Naxos at Opera North
    International, Online Exclusive May 2023

    Ariadne auf Naxos at Opera North

  • Simon Boccanegra at the Deutsche Oper Berlin
    International, Online Exclusive May 2023

    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
    Concerts & Recitals, Online Exclusive May 2023

    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
    Concerts & Recitals, Online Exclusive May 2023

    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
    Concerts & Recitals, Online Exclusive May 2023

    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
    North America, Online Exclusive May 2023

    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
    Concerts & Recitals, Online Exclusive May 2023

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

  • Norma at the Metropolitan Opera
    North America May 2023

    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
    North America, Online Exclusive May 2023

    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
    Concerts & Recitals, Online Exclusive May 2023

    Will Liverman & Paul Sánchez at Alice Tully Hall

  • "Amor" presented by New York Festival of Song
    Concerts & Recitals, Online Exclusive May 2023

    "Amor" presented by New York Festival of Song

  • Suor Angelica at Opera Omaha
    North America, Online Exclusive May 2023

    Suor Angelica at Opera Omaha

  • Don Pasquale at Academy of Vocal Arts
    North America, Online Exclusive May 2023

    Don Pasquale at Academy of Vocal Arts

  • Gloria at the Teatro Lirico
    International, Online Exclusive May 2023

    Gloria at the Teatro Lirico

  • The Rhinegold at English National Opera
    International, Online Exclusive May 2023

    The Rhinegold at English National Opera

  • Kelli O’Hara at the 92nd Street Y
    Concerts & Recitals, Online Exclusive May 2023

    Kelli O’Hara at the 92nd Street Y

  • Masaaki Suzuki & Bach Collegium Japan at the 92nd Street Y
    Concerts & Recitals, Online Exclusive May 2023

    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
    International, Online Exclusive May 2023

    Fidelio at Deutsche Oper Berlin

  • Daphne at Staatsoper Unter den Linden
    International, Online Exclusive May 2023

    Daphne at Staatsoper Unter den Linden

  • Tom Sawyer at Komische Oper Berlin
    International, Online Exclusive May 2023

    Tom Sawyer at Komische Oper Berlin

  • Die Rache der Fledermaus at Komische Oper Berlin
    International, Online Exclusive May 2023

    Die Rache der Fledermaus at Komische Oper Berlin

  • La Voix Humaine at Opéra du Rhin
    International, Online Exclusive May 2023

    La Voix Humaine at Opéra du Rhin

  • Awakenings at Odyssey Opera
    North America, Online Exclusive May 2023

    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."

Recordings

Fuoco Sacro
Documentary May 2023

Fuoco Sacro

A new documentary explores the work of three exemplary sopranos.