William Burnett

Los Angeles Opera Music Director James Conlon is conducting all performances of two-thirds of the operas of Los Angeles Opera’s 2010-2011 season, most recently conducting both of the mid-19th century masterpieces currently in performance rotation – Wagner’s “Lohengrin” and Verdi’s “Rigoletto”. Each of these two works were major influences on the course of opera’s history, … Read more

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Australian Opera and Legitimate Stage Director Neil Armfield was commissioned by Houston Grand Opera to present four productions of Benjamin Britten operas in Houston, including a new production of “Midsummer Night’s Dream” in 2009. Lyric Opera, that co-produced that work, scheduled it for Chicago for the Britten opera’s 50th anniversary – the third production of Lyric … Read more

The Los Angeles Opera unveiled a provocative new production of Wagner’s “Lohengrin”, beautifully sung by a cast led by Canadian Tenor Ben Heppner in his Los Angeles Opera debut in the title role, with (also debuting) Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski as Elsa and American mezzo Dolora Zajick as Ortrud. My comments will speak to the … Read more

In 2008 Dallas Opera began a three season project, enlisting the team of British Stage Director Stephen Lawless and Belgian Set Designer Benoit Dugardyn to create new productions of three operas by Gaetano Donizetti – “Maria Stuarda” (2008), “Robert Devereux” (2009), and “Anna Bolena” (2010). The three operas, at least since the time of the … Read more

In the past two months, I have reported on world class performances of Verdi’s “Aida” at the San Francisco Opera (see Brilliant Cast, Colorful Production, Luisotti’s Masterful Conducting Enliven San Francisco “Aida” – September 19, 2010) and Verdi’s “Rigoletto” at Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London (see 21st Century Verdi: Hvorostovsky, Ciofi, Kim, Aceto in McVicar’s … Read more

“Peter Grimes” is Australian designer Neil Armfield’s fourth production in Houston Grand Opera’s multi-year cycle of Benjamin Britten’s operas. I had reported previously on second and third of the series (see Incandescent Houston “Midsummer Night’s Dream” – January 25, 2009 and Houston’s Haunting, Inscrutable “Turn of the Screw” – January 29, 2010). “Billy Budd” had been presented … Read more

Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” is the 20th century’s most popular opera. San Francisco Opera, for the third time in in the past five calendar years has mounted it. Although the opera company itself owns a fine production, this season it chose to import the famous 1988 production of Chicago’s Lyric Opera, which was conceived by the … Read more

Placido Domingo first performed at San Francisco Opera in 1969 (a single performance as Rodolfo in “La Boheme”) at age 28. Forty-one years later, at age 69, he returned to the War Memorial Opera House after an absence of 16 seasons, for appearances rich with symbolism and strategic purpose. There is much that is remarkable about … Read more

[Note from William: This report on Handel’s “Radamisto” at English National Opera in London, is the last in the series of four reports I have posted on performances I attended in Great Britain and France in early October 2010.] Handel operas are performed because of their music, rather than their dramatic content.  A Handel opera’s … Read more

[Note from William: This is the third in the series of four reports I am posting on performances I attended in Great Britain and France in early October 2010.] Des McAnuff is the Tony award winning director for 1985’s Broadway theatre production, “Big River”, as well as 1993’s “The Who’s Tommy”, also directed “Jersey Boys”, … Read more

[Note from William: This is the second in the series of four reports I am posting on performances I attended in Great Britain and France in early October 2010.] The Opera National de Paris has, since the opening of their new larger opera house at the site of the Bastille, has used the glistening Opera … Read more

[Note from William: This is the first in the series of four reports I am posting on performances I attended in Great Britain and France in early October 2010, that include a smashing new production; the British premiere run of a production that originated in the United States; and two famous productions of the past … Read more

The Copley Experience Of the many delights that must be cited for San Francisco Opera’s current production of “The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro)”, the direction of British opera director John Copley is appropriately listed first. Copley’s staging for four revivals of this production, originally created by Sonja Frisell in 1982 for Hermann … Read more

Mexican-born composer Daniel Catan, who is a resident of Los Angeles and a champion of operas in the Spanish language, has composed a new opera, “Il Postino”, that opened the Los Angeles Opera’s 2010-11 season. The new work advances both Catan’s personal reputation and the cause of Spanish-language opera. The subject suggests several themes – … Read more

San Francisco Opera, whose history has been firmly based in the Italian wing of the opera repertory, continued the project of General Director David Gockley and Music Director Nicola Luisotti to restore the house’s reputation as a first rank company for producing the operatic works of Giuseppe Verdi. San Francisco Opera’s 2010 season opened with … Read more

Kaetchen (Sus

Note from William: The odds against any opera being successful are very long. However, if newly composed operas are not performed, or if once they are first performed, they are never performed again, then there is almost no chance of new works joining the standard operatic repertory. The Santa Fe Opera since its founding in … Read more