William Burnett

This is a review of the first performance of a new production of “Cosi fan Tutte” conceived by Director Michael Cavanagh for the San Francisco Opera. The opera “Cosi fan Tutte”, like the operas “Marriage of Figaro” and “Don Giovanni”, is a collaboration between Composer Wolfgang Mozart and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. Cavanagh conceptualized a trilogy … Read more

The town of Bisbee, which lies in the Mule Mountains of Southeastern Arizona near the Mexican border, was a thriving mining town during the early 20th century. In 1902, the town’s most famous landmark, the Copper Queen Hotel, opened. The hotel over the decades has built a reputation around reports of ghosts haunting specific suites. … Read more

Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” returned to the Los Angeles Opera after a absence of a decade and a half. Many of the elements of British director Ian Judge’s original concept for the opera’s “Paris version” remained – the most significant change between 2007 and 2021 occuring in the Venusberg ballet that opens that Paris version. I reviewed … Read more

Matthew Ozawa’s new production of Beethoven’s “Fidelio”, the second offering of the San Francisco Opera’s 99th season, proved to be a memorable experience. Beethoven’s opera is an indictment of the practice of imprisoning political critics of a sovereignty. Ozawa, assisted by Alexander V. Nichols’ arresting set design, brilliantly achieved the underlying premise of his production … Read more

The Los Angeles Opera opened its 2021-22 season with Mexican director Francisco Negrin’s production of Verdi’s “Il Trovatore”, returning to the Los Angeles Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion after a Covid-19 pandemic cancellation of its 2020-21 season. I reviewed a live Sunday matinee telecast of the fourth in the series of six performances. Limmie Pulliam’s … Read more

Note from William: The following is a review of a filmed performance of “La Voix Humaine”. In 1958, French composer Francois Poulenc set a short play by French poet/dramatist Jean Cocteau to music.  Cocteau’s 1930 play was for a single character, a distressed woman engaged in a telephone call with a lover who has broken … Read more

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

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

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

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