Reviews

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

No Gounod opera (and a disproportionately low number of French works in general) was performed in the first 54 seasons of the Santa Fe Opera’s acclaimed Summer Festivals. The 2011 festival (the 55th) opened with a new production of “Faust”, which restored virtually all of the cuts made to the world’s second most popular (after Bizet’s … Read more

This is the fourth report on the first complete performance of the tetralogy of operas that comprise Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung”. Although most of concept director Francesca Zambello’s ideas for staging the work have surfaced over the past five years, as the first three of the four operas debuted with Washington National Opera at … Read more

San Francisco Opera’s first complete performances of “Der Ring des Nibelungens” in a dozen years, continued with “Siegfried” in Francesca Zambello’s reconceptualization of Wagner’s tetralogy of operas, based on American images. In reflecting on Zambello’s concept, one of its striking features is portraying  the tetralogy’s major characters as “downwardly mobile” – exemplified in “Das Rheingold” … Read more

This is the fourth time I have reviewed Francesca Zambello’s reconceptualization of Wagner’s “Die Walküre”, the second installment of the four opera “Ring of the Nibelungs”. The Wotan and Brünnhilde for three of the reviewed performances, respectively, were Mark Delavan and Nina Stemme. The Sieglinde for two of the performances was Anja Kampe, and I … Read more

When the ideas for Francesca Zambello’s American Ring, a 21st century relocation of Wagner’s four opera “Der Ring des Nibelungen” to North American shores, was first announced in mid-decade by the Washington National Opera and San Francisco Opera, a number of broad themes were envisioned that incorporated features of American history, environmentalism, and the role of … Read more

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

Arriving at the War Memorial Opera House before this season’s wildly extraordinary “Siegfried”, San Francisco was treated to colorful flags all over the city proclaiming this 2011 Ring Festival, continuing a long tradition in San Francisco of presenting full-scale Ring productions for decades – as in 1935, 1972, 1985, 1990, 1999. But the first full cycle … 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

Concluding the very sensational 2011 San Diego Opera Season is the all time operatic winner in every opera house world-wide – Bizet’s marvelous crowd-pleaser (and revenue-enhancer) “Carmen”, which has graced San Diego’s stage many times, always to huge applause. As expected, the house was sold out and the audience highly enthusiastic about the sun-dappled production with its impressive cast … 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