Reviews, appreciation and analysis of all things opera
The Houston Grand Opera’s 2017-18 season opening night opera was a revival of Arin Arbus’ production of Verdi’s “La Traviata”. The performance I attended took place eight days later. In the aftermath of August’s devastating Hurricane Harvey, the Houston Grand Opera, forced to move out of it Wortham Center home for several months, created a … Read more
The Houston Grand Opera revived its 2003 James Robinson production of Handel’s “Julius Caesar”. The production presents Handel’s best known opera – whose story is roughly based on historical events of the first century B.C. – as a company of film actors preparing a 1930s Hollywood cinema spectacular. Robinson’s inventive evocation of 1930s Hollywood is obviously … Read more
The Dallas Opera, whose conducting staff is led by its French-born Music Director Emmanuel Villaume, chose Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Samson et Dalila” from the heart of the Romantic French operatic repertory, as the opera to open its 61st season. [Photo: Dalila (Olga Borodina, right) is determined to seduce Samson (Clifton Forbis, left) as part of an … Read more
I will be reporting on four operas by 19th century Parisian composers Hector Berlioz, Georges Bizet and Jules Masssenet: Manon (Massenet), San Francisco Opera, November 4, 7, 10, 16, 19(m) and 22, 2017. Ellie Dehn is Manon and Michael Fabiano is the Chevalier des Grieux in a Vincent Broussard staging of Massenet’s “Manon”, conducted … Read more
The following conversation took place under the auspices of the Los Angeles Opera, whose facilitation of the conversation is deeply appreciated: [Below: Basso Morris Robinson; edited image of a publicity photograph from morrisrobinson.com.] Wm: You’ve returned to the Los Angeles Opera to perform the role of Zaccaria in Verdi’s “Nabucco” under the baton of Maestro James … Read more
The Los Angeles Opera mounted Peggy Woolcock’s production of Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers” with a cast of international caliber, conducted by Maestro Plácido Domingo. [Below: A pearl fisher dives for pearls in the Los Angeles Opera’s 2017 performances of Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers”; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Los Angeles … Read more
The Los Angeles Opera mounted the imaginative Thaddeus Strassberger production of Verdi’s “Nabucco” . Plácido Domingo’s Nabucco The Nabucco was sung by one of the most important dramatic tenors in operatic history, Plácido Domingo. In his later career, Domingo continues to make his mark on the operatic baritone repertory. I found the 76-year old Domingo’s performance … Read more
The following interview took place under the auspices of the Houston Grand Opera, whose facilitation of this interview is deeply appreciated: [Below: Soprano Albina Shagimuratova; edited image, based on a Pavel Vaan and Leonid Semenyuk photograph, courtesy of the Albina Shagimuratova.] Wm: I begin my interviews with questions about each artist’s early experiences with … Read more