Reviews, appreciation and analysis of all things opera
Since the year 2006, I have reviewed each of the opera productions mounted by the San Francisco Opera in the War Memorial Opera House, providing each with a letter grade. As a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemics, all of the War Memorial Opera House performances scheduled in 2020 and in the first seven months of … Read more
Opera San Jose filmed this performance of “Three Decembers’ on December 3, 2020. It subsequently made it available to the streaming service of the Houston Grand Opera in December 2021. This review was based on a December 2021 stream from HGO Digital, where it may be accessed through January 9, 2022. In the decade between … Read more
What if you were to take an Caldecott Medal-winning children’s book – one beloved for the past six decades, with the distinction of being the book title that has been checked out of the New York Public Library more than any other in the library’s history – and transform it into an opera? The book, … Read more
Note from William: This post continues my series of observances of historic performances that I attended at San Francisco Opera during the general directorship of Kurt Herbert Adler. This is the fourteenth of fourteen such observances of performances from the company’s 1966 Fall season. As a teenager who became interested in (and then obsessed by) grand … Read more
Operawarhorses.com recommends the Los Angeles Opera’s 2021 production of Rossini’s “Cenerentola” for both the veteran opera goer and the person new to opera!