Reviews

For the second time in seven months, this website is reviewing a performance of the Zambello production of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess”. The production, which generates enthusiasm and sold out performances in every city in which it has shown, was reviewed in its Lyric Opera performances in Chicago last November, less than two weeks after … Read more

This website has described the San Francisco Opera as the “House of Puccini”, both because of its long association with the operas of the Tuscan composer and the recent excellence of its Puccini productions, since David Gockley assumed the general directorship of the company in 2006. The 2006 production of “Manon Lescaut” with Karita Mattila … Read more

Over the past three years, I have reviewed productions of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” – San Francisco Opera’s reconceptualization of Ron Daniels/Michael Yeargan’s production (2006 and 2007), Moffat Oxenbould’s Opera Australia production presented by the Pittsburgh Opera (2007) and the revival of Robert Wilson’s production (based on his original work at Opera National de Paris) for … Read more

This reviewer in recent weeks has expressed a high degree of optimism about the state of contemporary Verdi singing both in the United States and Europe. (The fact that most of the best singers are engaged by the major companies of both Europe and the United States means that if one observes excellent performances in … Read more

San Diego Opera had only presented Benjamin Britten’s ultimate masterpiece “Peter Grimes” in one previous season, 25 years ago. Its revival, again utilizing Carl Toms’ sets, returned for the 2009 Season, hugely enriched with American lyric tenor Anthony Dean Griffey. More than  “starring” as Peter Grimes, Griffey dynamically personalized this gritty role, living it and … Read more

On this Spring’s trip to Northern Germany, I was able to sample the fare at three opera houses. My comments on the  performances attended at Hamburg Staatsoper and Berlin Staatsoper have been posted previously. The third company visitied was the venerable Deutsche Oper Berlin, which I found of particular interest. I attended just one performance … Read more

I am reporting on opera in Berlin, a city celebrating and reflecting on the 20 years since the Wall between East and West Berlin was torn down. The subsequent reunfication of Germany had many consequences, including massive pressures on governments and taxpayers to shoulder the costs of integrating East Germany, that had lagged behind the … Read more

Los Angeles’ super-genius film-maker Alfred Hitchcock released flocks of aggressive birds in his renowned and justly famed film “The Birds” upon startled and unsuspecting film-goers decades ago, but now Los Angeles Opera has released very exotic birds of its own in their new production of German composer Walter Braunfels (1882-1954) opera “The Birds (Die Voegel)” … Read more

Hamburg Staatsoper’s general director Simone Young continues on her cycle of new productions of Benjamin Britten’s works, that has previously included “Billy Budd” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Her third new production is “Death in Venice”,  a co-production with the Volkskoper Vienna, where it will be mounted subsequently. For the opera’s lead, Gustav von Aschenbach, Young had … Read more

At Los Angeles Opera, the buzz was Achim Freyer’s often mysterious staging of “Die Walküre”,  the second of the four operas of Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” (for my review of the first of the “Ring”, see: Achim Freyer’s Fascinating “Rheingold” Begins L. A. “Ring” – March 11, 2009.) But, beyond the buzz about the production, … Read more

Every once-in-a-while some long lost masterpiece-manuscript of a great composer’s music is remarkably re-discovered, usually in some long-forgotten, dusty attic. So it happened in with an epic-opera by the great Antonio Vivaldi (Italian 1678-1741 – think his Four Seasons heard almost daily on every classical music radio station in the world!!!), which is receiving its … Read more

Verdi’s “Rigoletto”, like “Il Trovatore”, the opera that immediately followed it, has had popular approval from its very first performances.  With one of the most familiar arias in all of Italian opera, the lead tenor’s La donna e mobile, and a succession of familiar and infectious musical numbers, its position at the very core of … Read more

The work of German artist Achim Freyer has been seen twice before at Los Angeles Opera, including a new production of Berlioz’ “Damnation of Faust” in 2003, which Los Angeles Opera co-sponsored with the Warsaw Opera. Influenced by surrealist artists and by ideas from the theater and opera of Japan and China, a Freyer production … Read more

Opera Australia’s 2006 co-production of Delibes’ “Lakme” with the Opera de Montreal was imported by the Florida Grand Opera, providing a well-received vehicle for a reigning star of the Florida Grand Opera – coloratura soprano Leah Partridge. The production, seen in Sydney and Melbourne in 2006 and in Montreal in 2007 is comprised of a … Read more

For the third time in a 365 day period, I am reviewing a performance of Delibes’ fascinating opera, “Lakme”, which appears to be building its fan base for an eventual return to the standard opera repertory, much in the way that an opera by Delibes’ close friend, Georges Bizet, “The Pearl Fishers (Les Pecheurs de … Read more

Collaborations on new opera productions between set and costume designer Michael Yeargan and production designer Elijah Moshinsky can result in insightful experiences and are certain to be absorbing. It has been seven years since they collaborated on a new production of Ruggero  Leoncavallo’s “I Pagliacci” for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. That production was revived … Read more

Lyric Opera has revived its 2002 productions for the “double bill” of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “I Pagliacci”. This post reviews the “Cav”. The subsequent post will review the “Pag”. (Some of the photographs shown below are from the Chicago performances, and some are from the same production when it was shown in Houston … Read more

The 1987 David Hockney production of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde”, one of the treasures of the Los Angeles Opera, traveled to the mid-continent for the first time for nine performances at Chicago’s Lyric Opera. Lyric’s headliner was its Isolde, Deborah Voigt. Although 12 days earlier, she had been indisposed for one performance (which proved an … Read more

“Don Quixote (Don Quichotte)”, a work of Jules Massenet’s maturity, had its premiere in 1910, the last year of the 20th century’s first decade. Ninety-nine years later, the San Diego Opera has mounted a new production of this work. [Below: a poster prepared for the Parisian premiere of “Don Quixote (Don Quichotte)”, at the Theatre … Read more

As the first offering of its 2009 season, San Diego Opera mounted Puccini’s “Tosca” in the historic Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production that it came to own. The “Tosca” performances, occurring just a month after the 150th birthday  of the Tuscan composer’s birth, starred French soprano Sylvie Valayre in the title role, with Americans Marcus Haddock as the painter Mario … Read more

Houston Grand Opera, in the second year of a five year cycle honoring 20th century English composer Benjamin Britten, has created a new production of “Midsummer Night’s Dream” in collaboration with the Canadian Opera Company of Toronto and Lyric Opera of Chicago. (The production will appear in Toronto May 5 through 13, 2009, with a different cast, … Read more

The Dallas Opera, in its final season before the opening of the new Winspear Opera House, has mounted a vibrant new production of Gaetano Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux”, with an international cast of the first rank. Those fortunate enough to be present at one of the four scheduled performances will experience a revival of one of … Read more

The Los Angeles Opera continued its month dedicated to Conductor James Conlon’s presentation of Mozart’s masterpiece, “Die Zauberfloete (The Magic Flute”), with an alternate cast of artists in the five principal roles from the previous night’s opening of the opera’s run. (For a review of the opening performance, see: Conlon’s Magical Revival of Mozart’s “Flute” at … Read more

Opera-goers attending either of the performances of the Los Angeles Opera during the second weekend of January 2009 had a world class experience – conductor James Conlon leading the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra in a spirited and extraordinarily well-sung performance of Mozart’s “Magic Flute” in Sir Peter Hall’s production, utilizing the cheerful and imaginative sets … Read more

For the third consecutive year of David Gockley’s San Francisco Opera General Directorship, I am summarizing my year’s performance reviews, having attended and reviewed at least one performance of each work mounted for the San Francisco Opera’s “main stage” at the War Memorial Opera House. Also, I am grading each performance attended, following the grading … Read more