William Burnett

I have been attending opera performances since my early teenage years. In 2005, I created operawarhorses.com, and have traveled throughout North America, and to Europe and Asia to report on opera performances and to interview opera performers, conductors and administrators.

Review: Ailyn Pérez , Michael Fabiano, Alfred Walker, Soloman Howard Excel in a Memorable “Tosca” (with a Post-Finale Surprise) – San Francisco Opera, September 5, 2021

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San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, home to the San Francisco Opera, is a superb setting for performances of Puccini’s “Tosca” – an opera intertwined with the War Memorial’s history. The opera house opened with “Tosca” 89 years ago in 1932. After the company spent a season out of the opera house when it closed … Read more

Review: A Clockwork “Marriage of Figaro” Delights – Santa Fe Opera, July 23, 2021

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After cancellation of the Santa Fe Opera’s 2020 season due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a four-opera 2021 session opened with Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro)”. I attended the third of its ten scheduled performances. Although the Santa Fe Opera season began on schedule, the impact of Covid-19 on its 2021 season … Read more

Review: Santa Fe Opera’s “Eugene Onegin”, Musically Appealing, Visually Striking – July 24, 2021

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After an absence of 19 seasons, Tchaikovsky’s richly melodic, intensely dramatic 1879 opera “Eugene Onegin” returned to the Santa Fe Opera in a new production by Italian director Alessandro Talevi. “Onegin” is an opera in which the relationships between four major characters – Onegin, Tatyana, Lensky and Olga – can be presented in different ways. … Read more

Review: Anthony Roth Costanzo, Jarrett Ott and Kathryn Henry Lead Strong Cast for Corigliano’s New “Lord of Cries” – Santa Fe Opera, July 21, 2021

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Santa Fe Opera, in its second week of resuming performances after cancellation of its 2020 season, assayed the world premiere of John Corigliano’s and Mark Adamo’s opera “Lord of Cries”. The opera combines select characters of Euripides’ “The Bacchae” and Stoker’s “Dracula” and loosely weaves together bits of plot from each work. I attended the … Read more

In Quest of Summer 2021 Live Opera Performances in Santa Fe and San Francisco

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Note from William: My most recent review of an operatic performance was that of the Sarasota Opera’s production of Catalani’s “La Wally” on March 7, 2020. Although I was scheduled to review subsequent operatic performances in Chicago, San Francisco, the Glimmerglass Festival, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston, every one of these performances was canceled as … Read more