Reviews

The Opéra de Lyon became the third opera house to mount a double bill of operas – Tchaikovsky’s “Iolanta” and Stravinsky’s “Perséphone” – conceptualized by director Peter Sellars. Although “Iolanta” has been the first opera performed in this double bill, the idea of pairing the two operas did not emerge until after plans for “Perséphone” were underway. For that … Read more

The Opéra National du Rhin mounted the 22-year old Richard Wagner’s komische oper, “Das Lieberverbot” [the Ban on Love]” in a new production conceived by director Mariame Clément. The opera is roughly based on the Shakespeare play Measure for Measure, although only a few of Measure’s characters – Isabella, her brother Claudio, Mariana and Lucio are retained … Read more

The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden (Germany) produced a lively new production of Boito’s “Mefistofele” conceived by Director Philipp Himmelmann and conducted by Stefan Soltesz, utilizing an ingenious setting by Johanne Leiacker, and imaginative costumes by Gesine Vollm. Erwin Schrott’s Mefistofele The title role was sung by Uruguayan basso Erwin Schrott. Although I had previously enjoyed his performance as Figaro [Fine … Read more

Russian mezzo-soprano Elena Maximova and Montana spinto tenor Brandon Jovanovich led a cast of international stature in a revival of the Lina Wertmüller production of Bizet’s “Carmen”. Elena Maximova’s Carmen Elena Maximova made a strong impression as Carmen, with a dusky voice, vibrant at its top, and secure in its lower range. [Below: Elena Maximova as Carmen, … Read more

I attended the second performance of the current revival of Luc Bondy’s production of Puccini’s “Tosca” at the Bayerische Staatsoper, which was a vehicle for Illinois soprano Sondra Radvanovsky. Sondra Radvanovsky’s Tosca The title role of “Tosca” is one of Sondra Radvanovsky’s signature roles. It is a role to which her dramatic instincts and her … Read more

South African baritone Jacques Imbrailo and Maryland soprano Corinne Winters assayed the lead roles of “Pelléas et Mélisande” in a radical reinterpretation of the Debussy’s 1902 opera by Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov. Iowa bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen was Golaud. The vocal performances and acting of all three principals was stunning, and the trio was well-supported by a … Read more

Zurich Opera invited Dutch director Jetske Mijnssen to create a new production of Haydn’s comic opera “Orlando Paladino”, derived from 16th century fantasist Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso. Perhaps no opera composer is more unjustifiably ignored that Mozart’s friend and mentor, Joseph Haydn. Zurich Opera has taken a step toward rectifying that injustice. [Below: Composer Joseph Haydn; … Read more

Claus Guth’s revelatory “Rigoletto” production opened last month at the Opéra National de Paris, with Hawaiian baritone Quinn Kelsey scheduled for ten performances in the title role. Illness required Kelsey to withdraw from his scheduled seventh and eighth performances on May 7 and 9th. [Below: Director Claus Guth, left works with baritone Quinn Kelsey on Rigoletto’s gestures; edited image, … Read more

The Fort Worth Opera chose to celebrate the opening of its 70th season by commissioning a new opera, with music composed by David T. Little to a libretto by his frequent collaborator Royce Vavrek. The opera’s commission was intended to commemorate President John F. Kennedy’s early morning hotel stay and campaign breakfast in Fort Worth in the hours before his … Read more

The Houston Grand Opera mounted Broadway director Rob Ashford’s production of Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s dark classic “Carousel” with an appealing cast of opera singers, led by Australian baritone Duncan Rock and American soprano Angela Carroll. [Below: Julie Jordan (Angela Carroll, left) stands by her man, Billy Bigelow (Duncan Rock, right) on a Maine coastal sea wall; … Read more

The Houston Grand Opera (HGO) assembled a strong cast for “Siegfried”, its third entry in its mounting (over four seasons) of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungs” in an imaginative, often visually dizzying production from Spain’s Fura dels Baus. Jay Hunter Morris’ Siegfried Siegfried is a role that dominates all three acts of the opera, requiring power and … Read more

A theatrically effective, beautifully sung performance by Puerto Rico soprano Ana Maria Martinez, a newly revised production by British director Lee Blakeley tailored for the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion stage, and a dramatic reading of Puccini’s lush score by Maestro James Conlon were among the highlights of the Los Angeles Opera’s production of Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly”. [Photo: Ana Maria Martinez … Read more

Composer Carlisle Floyd, who turns 90 this summer, created the lyrics and music for yet another master work for the Houston Grand Opera, the company in which so much of the Floyd Legacy is invested. The opera, “Prince of Players”, is based considerably on the 2004 movie Stage Beauty. In Floyd’s deft hands and incorporating the inspired direction of … Read more

Sir David McVicar’s theatrically effective production of Massenet’s “Manon” returns to The Dallas Opera, starring Illinois soprano Ailyn Pérez in the title role and Pennsylvania tenor Stephen Costello as the Chevalier des Grieux. [Below: The Chevalier des Grieux (Stephen Costello, top) affectionately tickles Manon (Ailyn Pérez) in their Parisian apartment on the Rue Vivienne; edited image, based on … Read more

The Seattle Opera had divided its seven performances of Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda [Mary Stuart]” between two casts, the first scheduled for five performances, the second for two. Lyric soprano Joyce El-Khoury was assigned two performances – a Sunday matinee after the opening Saturday night performance and, a week later, a Saturday night performance. However, the artist who … Read more

The Seattle Opera presented its first ever performance of Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda (Mary Stuart)”, an opera that requires the casting of two vocally impressive and dramatically effective sopranos as the rival queens, Elizabeth the First of England and Mary, Queen of Scots. Although the Seattle Opera originally intended that two casts would share the lead parts of Mary, … Read more

Barrie Kosky’s and Suzanne Andrade’s production of Mozart’s perennial favorite fantasy opera, last seen in 2013, proved so popular that it was quickly revived for a second showing with a new cast. In our previous review, the concept and origins of the production was described in great detail [Outrageously Inventive, Unceasingly Entertaining – Kosky/Andrade /Barritt’s Silent … Read more

Puccini’s “Tosca” requires large voices capable of soaring above the sound of a full orchestra. It needs a soprano and tenor who can display the lyricism of Puccini’s lush melodies and a baritone with strong dramatic instincts. Utilizing Andrew Horn’s handsome sets (created 15 years ago for the Baltimore Opera) and enlisting a cast led by Greek soprano … Read more

The great British director, Sir Nicholas Hytner, once famously quipped that you could set Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” on the Moon, as long as you located the doors in the right place. His colleague, Michael Grandage, CBE, chose not the Moon, but Andalusian Spain in the late 1960s (in the countryside near Seville) for his 2012 Glyndebourne Festival co-production with … Read more

Houston Grand Opera imported Melly Still’s production of Dvorak’s “Rusalka”, created for England’s 2009 Glyndebourne Festival. The principal singers in HGO’s strong cast are Puerto Rican soprano Ana Maria Martinez, the star of Still’s Glyndebourne production, as the Rusalka, and New York tenor Brian Jagde, in his HGO debut, as the Prince. Ana Maria Martinez’ Rusalka [Photo: Ana … Read more

Claude Debussy’s fragmentary “La Chute de la Maison Usher”, completed by British Debussy scholar Robert Orledge, is the second half of a double bill of operas based on Edgar Allan Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher”. (My comments on the opening opera of the double bill opening opera may be found at Review: Getty’s Ghostly “Usher … Read more

The San Francisco Opera presented the American premiere of Gordon Getty’s “Usher House” as the first offering of a double bill of operas based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short horror story “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Brian Mulligan’s Roderick Usher Baritone Brian Mulligan was cast as the reclusive Roderick Usher, the last living male of … Read more

The Dallas Opera commissioned composer Mark Adamo to develop the music and lyrics to a new opera. The subject chosen by Adamo was the backstory of Santa Claus’ childhood and how he transitions from the privileged Prince Claus of Nifland – deprived of the paternal attention he craves – to the selfless champion of loving attention to … Read more

The San Francisco Opera revived its 2013 Emilio Sagi production of Rossini’s joyous comic opera, “The Barber of Seville”. [Below: Festivities take place at the hastily called Almaviva wedding; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera.] Lucas Meachem’s Figaro North Carolina lyric baritone Lucas Meachem has become strongly associated with the … Read more

Jake Heggie’s 2010 opera “Moby Dick”, the most successful 21st century American opera to date, has added the Los Angeles Opera to the list of companies that have launched this tale of doomed men at sea. [Below: in a scene from “Moby Dick’s” second act, the whaling ship Rachel implores captain and crew of the Pequod for assistance in … Read more