Reviews, appreciation and analysis of all things opera
This feature highlights selected performances of Italian Operas in Texas and California during January and June 2014, each of which I am scheduled to attend and review. This supplements other lists of highlighted performances in these states during early 2014, including Italian Opera masterpieces of Donizetti at San Diego Opera and Los Angeles Opera [See … Read more
The Los Angeles Opera presented the American premiere of an extraordinary production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”. Imported from Berlin’s Komische Oper, the opera is performed live encased in an animated silent film as one of the cleverest hybrids of the visual and performing arts ever to be assayed. [Below: Tamino (Lawrence Brownlee, center) is … Read more
Several months ago, I posted a new title in my Quest and Anticipations series, relating to what I term as “high concept” production designers and stage directors of whose operatic innoavations I have approved. I reported on three new productions by Laurent Pelly, Lee Blakeley and Francesca Zambello, and a important revival of the Robert … Read more
Having attended and reported on the first night of the new Emilio Sagi production of Rossini’s “Barbiere di Siviglia” [see Lucas Meachem, Javier Camarena and Isabel Leonard Romp in Sagi’s Sprightly New “Barber of Seville” – San Francisco Opera, November 13, 2013], I returned to the War Memorial Opera House for the production’s second performance. The … Read more
San Francisco Opera unveiled in a spiffy new production of Rossini’s most famous opera, “Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)” . Co-produced with the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater, it contains the latest thoughts of Spanish production designer Emilio Sagi as to how this most popular of operatic comedies should be staged. … Read more
The Los Angeles Opera, whose tribute to the celebration of the bicentennial of Giuseppe Verdi’s birth included a mounting of his early opera “I Due Foscari”, unveiled a new production of Verdi’s final masterpiece, “Falstaff” in an appealing production, starring Italian baritone Robert Frontali. [Below: Roberto Frontali as Sir John Falstaff; edited image, based on … Read more
In a production that began its life in Opera Australia’s Sydney and Melbourne homes, Johann Strauss’ quintessentially Viennese operetta, “Die Fledermaus” was mounted by Houston Grand Opera with a stellar cast – with some unexpected role assignments. The story, transformed from mid-century Austria to a North American metropolis of the 1930s, was translated from German … Read more
Houston Grand Opera revived its 2007 production of Verdi’s “Aida”, that features Zandra Rhodes’ sets and costumes that portray the comic-book colored Rhodes vision of ancient Egypt. In its six year absence from the Houston’s stage, the Rhodes show traveled to London, San Francisco and San Diego [See, for example, Latonia Moore, Jill Grove Outstanding in the … Read more