Review: Jaho, Aldrich Triumph in San Diego Opera “Maria Stuarda” – February 16, 2008

The San Diego Opera premiere of Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda” will be considered a milestone in the performance history of this relatively unknown masterpiece of Italian opera. It was the California debut of Albanian singer Ermonela Jaho, already familiar to American audiences in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Detroit. She is scheduled to alternate performances of Violetta in … Read more

In Quest of Exotic French Opera – 2008

This website has reviewed performances in the United States of two operas from, respectively,  France’s Second Empire and Third Republic –  Bizet’s “Les Pecheurs de Perles” and Saint-Saens’ “Samson et Dalila”.   Their stories  incorporate exotic and fantastic themes; the music that Bizet and Saint-Saens composed for these operas are as immersed in exoticism as the … Read more