William Burnett

Director Stephen Wadsworth, whose production of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungs” at the Seattle Opera I have suggested be internationally recognized as a world treasure [see World Treasure: Seattle Opera’s Gripping and Glorious “Götterdämmerung” – August 9, 2013], has created a new production of Beethoven’s “Fidelio” for the Santa Fe Opera. Currently in repertory at … Read more

Santa Fe Opera’s new production of Huang Ruo’s 2011 opera “Doctor Sun Yat-Sen” demonstrated the depth of the artistic resources that the company commands. The opera’s libretto is written in the Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese dialects. The opera was considerably recomposed with new orchestration designed for the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra that integrated several traditional Chinese instruments. [Pboto: Chinese composer … Read more

Composer Tobias Picker’s 2005 opera based on Theodore Dreiser’s 1925 novel, was presented at the 2014 Glimmerglass Festival in a revised version, directed by Peter Kazaras. [Photo: Director Peter Kazaras, resized image, based on an Alan Alabastro photograph for Seattle Opera.] In its previous form, the opera had been commissioned by the New York Metropolitan Opera in a … Read more

Director Francesca Zambello, whose imagination seems boundless, can always be counted on to provide us with new insights into familiar operas. Her latest new production, created for the Glimmerglass (New York) Festival of which she is the General Director, is a reconceptualization of Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos”. No part of the witty concoction by … Read more

The 2014 Glimmerglass Festival, as part of the company’s multi-year salute to the American musical, mounted Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s 1945 classic, “Carousel”. [Below: Director Charles Newell, edited image, based on a publicity photograph from the Goodman Theater of Chicago.] The creative team behind the production included two experts on Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s masterful work, their second effort … Read more

Francesca Zambello, who has conceptualized and directed many brilliant opera productions brought her well-considered ideas about how to stage Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” to the Glimmerglass Festival stage. I had reported on her innovative production, which originally debuted at Houston Grand Opera in 1999 on the most recent of its three mountings in San Diego [See Racette, Ventre Impress in … Read more

San Francisco Opera celebrated the Fourth of July weekend with a performance of Verdi’s “La Traviata” that introduced the “July cast”, consisting of mostly American singers led by Chicago-born Ailyn Pérez as Violetta, Philadelphia-born Stephen Costello as Alfredo and Honolulu-born Quinn Kelsey as Giorgio Germont.  The performance took place before an audience of over 2600 at San … Read more

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British Stage Director Stephen Lawless’ brilliantly conceived new production of “Carmen” was unveiled at Santa Fe Opera, with notable performances by Argentine mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack as Carmen, Italian tenor Roberto de Biasio as Don Jose, Lebanese soprano Joyce El-Khoury as Micaela, and Greek bass-baritone Kostas Smoriginas as Escamillo. The production’s most remarkable features were the arresting … Read more

There are many elements that go into a successful operatic performance. An array of brilliant elements were present in the imaginative 2006 production of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”, not seen previously in San Francisco, in which cast, conductor, orchestra and chorus, production design and staging all contributed to bringing Puccini’s heartrending tale of delusion and culture clash to … Read more

The John Copley production of Verdi’s “La Traviata” with elegant sets by John Conklin returned to the War Memorial Opera House, after an absence of a decade. [Below: the John Conklin sets for Act I, set in Violetta’s Parisian apartments; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera.] The … Read more

San Francisco became the fourth city – after Chicago, Houston and Washington D.C. – visited by the Francesca Zambello production of Jerome Kern’s 1927 blockbuster musical “Show Boat”. I had previously reported on its opening run at the in Chicago [see Team Zambello Shows off “Show Boat” to Chicago’s Lyric Opera – March 14, 2012]. Even … Read more

Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi created the staging, costumes and mise-en-scéne for a new production of Mozart’s comedy “The Magic Flute”. Mizrahi’s “Flute” opened the 2014 season of the Opera Theater of Saint Louis, incorporating the brilliant dance routines of Alaskan choreographer John Heginbotham. [Below: Fashion designer and “Magic Flute” production designer Isaac Mizrahi; resized image of a … Read more

The Los Angeles Opera mounted André Previn’s 1998 opera based on Tennessee Williams’ dramatic masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire, Presented in Director Brad Dalton’s stunningly effective staging, it starred soprano Renée Fleming as Blanche DuBois in the role she created 16 years earlier at the San Francisco Opera. [Below: Renée Fleming as Blanche DuBois, with the Los Angeles … Read more

Anatole France’s 1890 novel about the life of the historical Saint Thaïs, proved an irresistible subject to French composer Jules Massenet. The novel yielded two vividly drawn operatic characters. The first was Thaïs, a courtesan who lived in fifth century Alexandria, Egypt, but who renounced the sins of the world to seek eternal life. The … Read more

Edoard Lalo’s epic opera on a Breton myth – “Le Roi d”Ys” – has been missing from the core operatic repertory for decades. In America, it is basically unknown. Those opera-goers who think of it at all likely have recordings of Mylio’s enchanting aria Vainement, ma bien-aimée, and perhaps of the massive overture. There has not been … Read more