Reviews

An operawarhorses.com review of an admirable San Francisco Opera performance of Robert Carsen’s “world treasure” production of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”..
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John Adams’ latest opera, whose plot is derived from the Shakesperean tragedy Antony and Cleopatra, received its world premiere at the San Francisco Opera. A run of six additional performances was scheduled to follow the world premiere. This review is of the third of the seven total performances. There is much to admire in San … Read more

The Santa Fe Opera revived Rossini’s most popular opera, “The Barber of Seville”, after its 17-year absence from the company, in a brilliant new production by Australian-born British director Stephen Barlow. First performed in 2016 at Britain’s Grange Festival in Hampshire (near Winchester), the production mixes 18th century fashions with abundant references to studiously anachronisitic … Read more

In the first 64 years of its 65-year history, the Santa Fe Opera had never presented any of the three-act operas of German composer Richard Wagner. (These three-act operas comprise eight of the ten Wagner operas in opera’s standard repertory, excepting only “The Flying Dutchman”, last performed 34 years ago, and “Das Rheingold”, never performed … Read more

A highlight of the Santa Fe Opera’s 2022 season is Sir David McVicar’s extraordinary production of Verdi’s final masterpiece, “Falstaff”, starring Hawaiian baritone Quinn Kelsey in the title role. Quinn Kelsey’s Sir John Falstaff [Photo: Falstaff (Quinn Kelsey) is angry that he suffered the indignity of having to hide in a smelly laundry basket, and … Read more

I am reporting on the second of five scheduled performances in the world premiere run of composer Huang Ruo’s and librettist David Henry Hwang’s opera “M. Butterfly”, based on Hwang’s 1988 Tony-award winning play of the same name. Both play and opera were inspired by the notoriety surroundng the sexual relationship of a man working … Read more

The Santa Fe Opera’s first August performance of the new Mariame Clément production of Bizet’s “Carmen”, which opened the 2022 season a month prior, introduced a cast change as Don Jose. Joining a cast that included Isabel Leonard as Carmen, Sylvia d’Eramo as Micaela and Michael Sumuel as Escamillo, New Jersey tenor Michael Fabiano took … Read more

This is the second part of a series of conversations with German director Grischa Asagaroff [See An Opera Director’s Historical Perspective: A Conversation with Grischa Asagaroff, Part 1]. It continues with a discussion of his work at the San Francisco Opera between the company’s 1980 and 1983 seasons and his close association with the productions … Read more

In my world premiere review [World Premiere Review: “The Dream of the Red Chamber” Transforms into a Fascinating Opera – San Francisco Opera, September 10, 2016], I expressed my assessment of this opera and the extrordinary accomplishement of composer Bright Sheng and his co-librettist David Henry Hwang in extracting an opera out of the first … Read more

I attended a Sunday matinee performance of the third permutation of Michael Cavanagh’s interrelated productions of Mozart’s three da Ponte operas. My reviews of the Cavanagh conceptualizations of “The Marriage of Figaro” [Review: Strong Cast, Arresting New Production for “Marriage of Figaro” – San Francisco Opera, October 13, 2019] and “Cosi fan Tutte” [Review: “Cosi … Read more

Opera San Jose filmed this performance of “Three Decembers’ on December 3, 2020. It subsequently made it available to the streaming service of the Houston Grand Opera in December 2021. This review was based on a December 2021 stream from HGO Digital, where it may be accessed through January 9, 2022. In the decade between … Read more

What if you were to take an Caldecott Medal-winning children’s book – one beloved for the past six decades, with the distinction of being the book title that has been checked out of the New York Public Library more than any other in the library’s history – and transform it into an opera? The book, … Read more

Operawarhorses.com recommends the Los Angeles Opera’s 2021 production of Rossini’s “Cenerentola” for both the veteran opera goer and the person new to opera!

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

This is the second of two discussions of DVDs of productions of classic American musicals performed by the San Francisco Opera, following DVD Review: Francesca Zambello, the American Musical and the San Francisco Opera, Part I: “Show Boat”. Each DVD is of a production conceived and staged by director Francesca Zambello.\ David Gockley, San Francisco Opera’s … Read more

Sarasota Opera’s 2020 winter season opened in February with a production of Puccini’s “La Boheme”, the quintessential Italian opera. I reviewed the ninth of 13 scheduled performances. Sarasota Opera’s “Boheme” was well-sung and admirably staged. Regrettably, one week after the performance, the fast-moving spread of the Covid-19 virus led the Sarasota Opera to cancel the … Read more