Tom’s Review: Mega-opulent “Traviata” a Spectacular Finish to San Diego Opera’s Season, April 23, 2010

We are three years from the worldwide bicentennial celebration of the birth of the great Italian opera composer, Giuseppe Verdi. In the countdown to the bicentennial, San Diego Opera’s 2010 Season presented two of Verdi’s great successes  – an utterly smashing production of the 29 year old Verdi’s first big hit, “Nabucco” (championed and conducted … Read more

Review: Standing Ovations for Achim Freyer, James Conlon, Cast of “Götterdämmerung” – Los Angeles Opera, April 3, 2010

The fourth installment of Achim Freyer’s much discussed conceptualization of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungs” has premiered at the Los Angeles Opera, setting the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion stage for three complete cycles scheduled during May and June, 2010. An enthusiastic Los Angeles Opera audience was treated to an extraordinary and spectacular performance, whose musical leadership … Read more