William Burnett

For the past half decade Francesca Zambello’s vision of  an American Ring – that would present Richard Wagner’s four opera “The Ring of the Nibelung” utilizing images and situations evocative of the history and culture of the United States – has been unfolding. Conceived as a joint project of the Washington National Opera and San Francisco … Read more

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A bravura Samson in the French heroic style sung by German tenor Endrik Wottrich (who replaced an ailing Jose Cura for the remainder of Cura’s scheduled performances); a credible vocal performance by Vesselina Kasarova as Dalila, whose role debut occurred just two weeks earlier; a rousing delivery as the Grand Priest by Laurent Naouri; and … Read more

In 2010, a new production of Offenbach’s operetta “La Périchole” at the Komische Oper’s 1270 seat opera house in Berlin proved controversial, with negative reviews and reports of claque booing. It was revived in 2011. Undaunted by the previous year’s critical scoldings, I decided I would see for myself as to whether the revival of a production … Read more

On a warm Alsatian spring evening, I traveled to one of the Rhineland’s famed “candy box” opera houses, the 1374-seat Theatre Municipal, home of the Opera National du Rhin of Strasbourg, France. The Theatre Municipal’s 190 year history includes its destruction during the Siege of Strasbourg in the 1870 Prussian invasion that ended Napoleon III’s … Read more

Houston Grand Opera’s British general director, Anthony Freud,  introduced Houston audiences last year to Sir Nicholas Hytner’s imaginative production of Handel’s “Xerxes”, starring Susan Graham and Laura Claycomb (see “Xerxes” Unexcelled – Houston Grand Opera, May, 2, 2010). For the weekend of the Royal Wedding, in which American interest in the cultural affairs of London was heightened, … Read more

The San Diego Opera, which last year brought together the husband and wife team of Stephen Costello and Ailyn Pérez in an elegant production of Gounod’s “Romeo et Juliette” (see Costello, Pérez in Passionately Romantic “Romeo et Juliette” – San Diego Opera, March 13, 2010), triumphantly presented their return as Faust and Marguerite in “Faust”, Gounod’s blockbuster hit opera … Read more

New productions of Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” are being mounted in observance of the opera’s centennial of its first performance in several cities on the European Continent. The opera is being feted with a new Willi Decker production in Amsterdam and the revival of the modernistic Herbert Wernicke production at Milan’s La Scala. A revival of … Read more

In 1983,  the Royal Opera House Covent Garden mounted a brilliant production of Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” conceived by the Russian cinema director, Andrei Tarkovsky, with sets by French-born painter Nicolas Dvigubsky and extraordinary innovations in lighting by British lighting designer Robert Bryan. Tarkovsky, devoutly Christian, and deeply disaffected by the Soviet state which discouraged much of … Read more

Over the past few years, I have attended live performances of the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, with particular interest in how those performances compare with those of what some appear to regard as a recent “Golden Age”, in which significant numbers of top rank Verdi singers were available to the world’s opera companies. Fortunately, having … Read more

German tenor Jonas Kaufmann is a sure box office draw in the major opera houses of Europe. Now in his early 40s, with a young family, his activities are centered in the likes of Munich, Berlin, Bayreuth, London, Zurich, Vienna and Paris. In fact, since his foray into Chicago as des Grieux in Massenet’s “Manon” … Read more

In Greek mythology, as told us by Ovid and by Sophocles in his play ‘The Women of Trachis,’ the centaur Nessos raped Hercules’ second wife, Dejanira, and Hercules mortally wounded Nessos in revenge. The dying centaur tricked Dejanira into believing that if she saved his blood, it could be re-used as a kind of love … Read more

Lyric Opera scheduled two runs of Bizet’s “Carmen” for its 2010-2011 season, in October and in March. The March performances paired the Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Nadia Krasteva as Carmen with American tenor Brandon Jovanovich as Don Jose. At this stage of their careers, both assignments are signature roles for the two artists. I have previously remarked … Read more

The Los Angeles Opera is only mounting six mainstage operas for its 2010-11 season, but of these six the company mounted works by three composers whose bicentennial or centennial years will be celebrated in 2013. Wagner and Verdi were represented by popular core works, respectively “Lohengrin” and “Rigoletto”, but to honor Britten, Los Angeles Opera … Read more

There are two principal reasons why an opera company might invest in a new production of an opera never before seen in its community. The first is as a vehicle for displaying the talents of a particular artist. The second is the conviction that the repertory of that company should be expanded to include that … Read more

Los Angeles, a town that knows how to party,  dubbed the third Saturday of February 2011 as the first day of an All-Star Weekend, because the City of the Angels was chosen as the site of the 2011 National Basketball Association All-Star Game. The Big Game was to be played at the Staples Center, just … Read more

San Diego Opera’s 2011 season opened with a production of Puccini’s “Turandot”, utilizing David Hockney’s luxuriously colorful sets and Ian Falconer’s exotic costumes, with a strong cast, each of whom met the vocal demands of their role. These “Turandot” sets and costumes, first seen at Lyric Opera in Chicago, were a co-production between the Chicago … Read more