Reviews

The New Orleans Opera, performing in the spacious Mahalia Jackson Theater, presented Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera”, utilizing G. Alan Ruznak’s sets that place the opera in mid-19th century New Orleans. The performance (the first of two) was a vehicle for native son Paul Groves’ role debut in the lead tenor part of Riccardo. Thoughts on … Read more

In 1868, the hottest ticket in Europe was the premiere of Charles Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette”, at Paris’ Theatre Lyrique on the Seine’s East Bank (just a few hundred feet West from where the present Theatre du Chatelet is located). It was one of the most successful opening nights of any opera in history, with … Read more

Five years ago, Bizet’s “Carmen” was presented by San Francisco Opera, in the classic Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production (See my review at Halevy Triumphs in Ponnelle “Carmen” – S. F. December 3, 2006). Mezzo-soprano Kendall Gladen, then an Adler Fellow, the highest level of the San Francisco Opera Young Artists’ programs, was the Mercedes, the comprimario mezzo … Read more

Since I am on record as proposing that Sir Nicholas Hytner’s physical production of Handel’s “Xerxes” for London’s English National Opera be included on a list of “world treasures”, no one should be surprised at my high regard for San Francisco Opera’s  presentation of Hytner’s conceptualization. I had reported last year on the production’s revival for … Read more

Teams of artists from Italy and the United States collaborated in creating the San Francisco Opera’s imaginative new production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”. Team Italy consisted of Conductor Nicola Luisotti, Soprano Serena Farnocchia singing Donna Elvira (her San Francisco Opera debut season), and four artists for whom this production was their American debut – Basso … Read more

As the world moves closer to the bicentennial year of the birth of opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, performances of his great 1875 “Requiem” memorializing Italian poet and patriot Alessandro Manzoni, will be part of the Verdi observances of the world’s great centers of European culture. Manzoni’s most famous work I Promessi Sposi strongly influenced the … Read more

This is my third review of a performance of the John Pascoe production of Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia” (see The Donizetti Revival, Second Stage: Radvanovsky, Grigolo in Pascoe’s WNO “Lucrezia Borgia” – November 17, 2008 and Fleming, Fabiano, Frizza Fuel San Francisco Opera’s Flaming, Fulfilling First “Lucrezia Borgia” – September 23, 2011) and the second one  during the … Read more

Already this year, I have posted two previous reviews of performances of the esteemed David Hockney production of Puccini’s “Turandot”. The production incorporates the Hockney’s set designs with the wondrous costumes designed by his one-time collaborator, Ian Falconer. The production provided the opening night festivities for the opening nights of  both the San Diego Opera’s … Read more

As the vehicle for her return to the San Francisco Opera after a decade’s absence, Renee Fleming introduced California audiences to an opera and production that she has championed, the John Pascoe production of Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia”. The Fleming-Pascoe collaboration on Donizetti’s influential masterpiece – a milestone in Italian opera – is clearly a labor … Read more

Mozart’s “Cosi fan Tutte”, not performed by the Los Angeles Opera in a decade and a half, has been mounted in an elegant production, created for the 2006 Glyndebourne Festival by Nicholas Hytner (since knighted as Sir Nicholas),  to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. [Below: Sir Nicholas Hytner, who conceived the production of “Cosi … Read more

For the opening night of Los Angeles Opera’s 25th season, the company chose a work it has never performed before – Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”.  The production used was the 2006 production that the late British stage director Steven Pimlott had devised for London’s Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Helsinki’s Finnish National Opera. The Pimlott … Read more

The world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’ new opera “Heart of a Soldier”, took place at the War Memorial Opera House, itself dedicated to the heroes of World War I, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City. The opera, the third San Francisco Opera … Read more

A few physical opera productions should properly be considered works of museum-quality art. David Hockney’s production of Puccini’s “Turandot”, one of San Francisco Opera’s most spectacular productions, unquestionably belongs in such a category. (The production was co-produced with Lyric Opera of Chicago, where it premiered in 1992. The first performance in San Francisco in 1993 is … Read more

This is the eighth post that I’ve made from a visit to the 2011 Glimmerglass Festival, of events that occurred in a period of 52 hours duration – five operas, an interview with Glimmerglass Festival Artistic & General Manager Francesca Zambello, and a concert of American songs by lyric baritone Nathan Gunn, accompanied by his … Read more

Natha

In 37 seasons, the Glimmerglass Opera Festival has produced a respectable number of 17th and 18th operatic works, with Mozart (represented in 9 season). Handel (7 seasons) and Monteverdi (3 seasons) the best represented composers.  (Cavalli and Purcell also represent the “other” 17th century composers, Gluck, Haydn and Cimarosa, those of the 18th century.) For … Read more

Jenine Tesori is a familiar name on Broadway, as composer of such successful theatrical ventures as “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Shrek, the Musical”. Tesori, in collaboration with other artists with Broadway successes, librettist Tony Kushner, and Stage Director Francesca Zambello, created a one act opera, based on a few hours in the life of playwright … Read more

The 2011 Glimmerglass Opera festival presented a double bill of 21st century one act operas, designed to illuminate the lives or art of early 20th century artists. The first half of the double bill was a 75 minute opera entitled “Later the Same Evening”. [Below: Sheldon Segal (Neal Ferreira) and Rose Segal (Andrea Carroll); edited … Read more

Bizet’s “Carmen”, the most often performed of all French operas, is one whose inherent drama presages success in a variety of settings. A strong cast of actor-singers, conducted by Festival Music Director David Angus, and intelligent stage direction by Anne Bogart assured that audiences at the Glimmerglass Opera Festival’s 914 seat Alice Busch Hall would … Read more

Discussions of Francesca Zambello’s insightful mountings of the masterpieces of opera as diverse as Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungs” and Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” have often appeared on this website. For the past quarter century, her ideas have impacted American opera performance. Her influence is now even greater as she assays her first season as … Read more

In the Europe of days of old, comic and serious opera had their own theaters. The tradition in the United States has been to employ both the masks of comedy and tragedy in any opera company’s repertory. But the comic genre itself has two masks – the standards such as Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore” and Johann … Read more

Concept director Peter Sellars is noted for his often brilliant, and almost always controversial, staging of classical and baroque operas, reworked to make some point about contemporary society. For Santa Fe Opera, he was commissioned to mount a production of Vivaldi’s 1735 opera “Griselda”, whose plot is derived from one of Boccaccio’s tales from his … Read more

Santa Fe Opera presented the first revival of its 2001 production of Berg’s “Wozzeck”, conceived by Daniel Slater with sets by Robert Innes Hopkins, although with a completely new cast. The lead role of Wozzeck proved to be an effective vehicle for showing off the vocal and histrionic talents of American baritone Richard Paul Fink. … Read more

Sufficient time has elapsed to permit a longer view of the operatic creations of the first half of the 20th century. George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” is one such work – one that at its premiere seemed to be among the most problematical and, perhaps, least operatic of the operatic fare of the 1930s. Much … Read more

Perhaps there are other long-time opera goers besides myself that have a special opera, for which every performance they have ever attended has been a world class, memorable event with a cast that within a few years becomes to be thought of as legendary. Mine is Puccini’s “La Boheme”. I have never seen the opera … Read more