William Burnett

An enduring operatic myth is that Bizet’s “Carmen” was initially a failure. The myth evolved because the clinically depressed, mortally ill Georges Bizet refused to accept the manifest evidence that the opera from its very first performance  had become a wild Parisian hit, its composer preferring to dwell on the admonitions of certain curmudgeonly critics who … Read more

After an engaging first act of Puccini’s Tosca” in which Rumanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu sympathetically and even coquettishly portrayed the jealous diva, San Francisco Opera General Director stepped in front of the curtains to announce that Mme Gheorghiu was suffering from intestinal flu and was leaving for the hospital in an ambulance. [Below: Angela Gheorghiu … Read more

The Houston Grand Opera, which has established an artistic relationship with the Barcelona comic theatrical troupe, El Comediants, mounted  Rossini’s  comic opera “L’Italiana in Algeri [the Italian Girl in Algiers]” in a co-production with Madrid’s Teatro Real of Madrid, Florence’s Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Opera National de Bordeaux. “L’Italiana”, which will celebrate its 200th … Read more

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San Francisco Opera is the third American opera company (after those of Dallas and San Diego) to mount Heggie’s extraordinary opera “Moby Dick”. I first reviewed the world premiere in Dallas [see World Premiere: Heggie’s Theatrically Brilliant, Melodic “Moby Dick” at Dallas Opera – April 30, 2010]. I was also present at the first performances in … Read more

In addition to reviewing the first performance of San Francisco Opera’s 2012 production of Bellini’s “I Capuleti e i Montecchi” [See Joyce DiDonato, Nicole Cabell Sing Beautifully in Bellini’s Bel Canto “Capulets and Montagues” – San Francisco Opera, September 29, 2012], I attended the fourth performance. [Below: Romeo (Joyce Di Donato, left) embraces a concerned Giulietta … Read more

Two weeks prior to this performance, I attended a pre-performance lecture at the Los Angeles Opera, presented by the evening’s conductor, Music Director James Conlon. His thesis is that Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, the opera he was to conduct, is impossible to know completely. Whatever one’s interpretation of the events occurring the last day on earth … Read more

I suspect that readers of this website will not be surprised by a positive review from me of San Francisco Opera’s premiere of a production of Heggie’s now two-year old opera “Moby Dick”. In my comments on the production debuts in Dallas and San Diego  [see World Premiere: Heggie’s Theatrically Brilliant, Melodic “Moby Dick” at … Read more

Washington National Opera imported Stephen Lawless’ production of Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena” from the Dallas Opera. Conceived by Lawless as the first part of the so-called “Tudor Trilogy”, followed by Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda” and “Roberto Devereux”, it was the last of the three productions (with set designs by his frequent collaborator, the Belgian Benoit Dugardyn) to … Read more

There are several reasons to revive Vincenzo Bellini’s opera “I Capuleti e i Montecchi”, anglicized as “The Capulets and the Montagues”. The most compelling reason is  the presence in the opera’s cast of singers capable of doing justice to Bellini’s often complex and always extraordinarily beautiful melodies, so soulful that they inspired Chopin’s piano preludes … Read more

The first month of the 2012-13 season Los Angeles Opera season has been designed to showcase the legendary talents of the opera company’s general director Placido Domingo and music director James Conlon. Conducting six performances of Verdi’s “The Two Foscari [I Due Foscari]” and five of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, Conlon is scheduled to be the … Read more

A sellout Los Angeles Opera audience greeted Placido Domingo with an out-sized ovation for his latest exploration of the less-traveled baritone repertory. Domingo opened the Los Angeles Opera’s 26th season as Francesco Foscari in a provocative new Thaddeus Strassberger production of Verdi’s sixth opera, “I Due Foscari”, with the scenic designs of Kevin Knight and … Read more

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For the fourth season in a row, San Francisco Opera’s music director, Nicola Luisotti, prior to a performance of Verdi’s “Rigoletto”, led the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in a rousing Star-Spangled banner to open the San Francisco Opera’s Fall Season (this the 90th in its history). As in the three previous years, the opera chosen … Read more

Mariusz Kwiecien, the great Polish baritone whose signature is the title role in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” [see Kwiecien Excels in McVicar’s Dark Side “Don Giovanni” – S. F. June 2, 2007]. brought the title role of Polish composer Karol Szymanowski’s “King Roger”, that he previously has sung in Paris and Madrid, to the 2012 Santa Fe Opera … Read more

Santa Fe Opera Festival atmosphere is usually most felicitous, the New Mexico weather almost always well-behaved. Yet, if one attends enough Santa Fe performances, there will be times when the term “atmosphere” has more than metaphorical significance. Distant lightning can supplement the lighting director’s design, as it did two nights earlier at a performance of … Read more

The Santa Fe Opera’s new production of “Arabella” marked the return of Richard Strauss to the Summer Festival repertory after an absence of four seasons –  the first time in Santa Fe Opera history that the Viennese composer’s compositions had been absent for that length of time. Erin Wall’s Arabella The Festival’s last performed Strauss … Read more