Reviews

Any opera company in the world certainly would have jumped at the chance to mount Verdi’s “Don Carlo” if the cast that Los Angeles Opera had assembled were available – Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas in the title role, Puerto Rican soprano Ana María Martínez as Elisabetta di Valois, Russian soprano Anna Smirnova as the Princess … Read more

Earlier this month, I reviewed the opening performance of San Francisco Opera’s mounting of the Stephen Lawless production of Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux” [Review: World’s Best Ever “Roberto Devereux” Performance: Radvanovsky, Thomas, Barton, Frizza – San Francisco Opera, September 8, 2018]. In that review, I suggested that the four principals (Illinois soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, Florida tenor Russell … Read more

This is my fourth review posting associated with the San Francisco Opera’s September 2018 mounting of the Jose Cura production of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci”. The operas were presented together as a double bill, as they often are, but were staged in a nontraditional manner. For the previous reviews and their discussion of … Read more

I reviewed San Francisco Opera’s 2018-19 season opening night performance of Jose Cura’s fascinating production of ‘s “Cavalleria Rusticana” on a double bill with Cura’s production of Leoncavallo’s “I Pagliacci” [see Review, Part I: San Francisco Opera Season Opening “Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci”, Nicely Sung, Brilliantly Staged, September 7, 2018.] I discussed the musical performance of the cast, … Read more

The San Francisco Opera mounted Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux” with a cast, conductor and production that would rival any performance of the opera in the 18 decades since its premiere. Sondra Radvanovsky’s Elisabetta (Queen Elizabeth I) [Photo: Sondra Radvanovsky as Queen Elizabeth I; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco … Read more

This is the second part of my review of San Francisco Opera’s presentation of Jose Cura’s production of the operatic double bill of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “I Pagliacci”. This follows Review, Part I: San Francisco Opera Season Opening “Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci”, Nicely Sung, Brilliantly Staged, September 7, 2018. Cura’s production moved the locale of both … Read more

The most durable “double-bill” in opera is the linking of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “I Pagliacci”, each performed separately with an intermission between them. Their similar tales of the lethal consequences of infidelity in small towns encouraged the Argentine singer, conductor, designer, director Jose Cura to create an imaginative production in which characters from … Read more

The Santa Fe Opera commissioned a new production of Adams’ 2005 opera “Doctor Atomic”, securing an impressive cast and conductor and engaging the opera’s librettist Peter Sellars as stage director. The opera, created for another company 13 years prior, was re-purposed for Santa Fe, for Northern New Mexico and for the indigenous populations who inhabit … Read more

For the first time since 2002, the Santa Fe Opera is presenting its popular production “The Italian Girl in Algiers (L’Italiana in Algeri”). The company has enlisted a young and talented cast of artists who display mastery of the florid style of singing associated with the opera’s 19th century Italian composer, Gioacchino Rossini. In its production Isabella … Read more

The 2018 Glimmerglass Festival mainstage offerings include 19th and 20th century works of Rossini, Janacek and Bernstein, and Kevin Puts’ 2011 opera “Silent Night”, with libretto by Mark Campbell. “Silent Night” proved to be a dramatically impactful, emotionally absorbing work, in a powerful production created by Israeli-born director Tomer Zvulun. Glimmerglass became the 14th opera … Read more

The Glimmerglass Festival presented Janacek’s lushly melodic opera “The Cunning Little Vixen” in an brilliantly realized production (shared with with Boston University’s Opera Institute.) Glimmerglass’ resident artist, Pennsylvania bass-baritone Eric Owens, performed the lead male role of the Forester. One or more of each of the opera’s other 35 roles were performed by members of … Read more

An impressive new production of “Ariadne auf Naxos” was unveiled at the Santa Fe Opera. Brilliantly conceived by British director Tim Albery, Amanda Echalaz’ Ariadne [Photo: Ariadne (Amanda Echalaz), abandoned on Naxos, occupies a cave awaiting her fate; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.] South African soprano … Read more

Rossini’s perennial operatic favorite “Barber of Seville” received a witty new production by Francesca Zambello, Glimmerglass Festival’s General and Artistic Director. Joshua Hopkins’ Figaro In Zambello’s production, the title character, Figaro, is charmingly played by Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins. Possessing a rich lyric baritone, command of Rossini’s tongue-twisting patter, and a superb sense of comic … Read more

Francesca Zambello’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s acclaimed 1957 musical “West Side Story” at the 2018 Glimmerglass (New York) Festival is extraordinary. Zambello’s staging immerses us in the performance traditions of one of the great collaborations in the history of the American musical – Bernstein’s music and Jerome Robbins’ choreography set to a Shakespeare-inspired storyline of … Read more

The Santa Fe Opera revived its 2010 production of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”, created by the late Lee Blakeley. A strong cast and insightful direction provided a dramatically exciting evening in the theatre. The performance included a considerable amount of rarely heard music from the earliest versions of the opera, which, although eventually cut by Puccini, … Read more

Santa Fe Opera opened its 2018 season with a lively new production of Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” from French director Laurent Pelly. The centennial of the composer’s birth was observed with this first performance of “Candide” in Santa Fe Opera history. A strong cast was led by stellar performances from Alek Shrader, Brenda Rae, Kevin Burdette, Helene Schneiderman … Read more

The second complete cycle of Wagner’s four opera “Ring of the Nibelung” ended with a superlative performance of “Götterdämmerung”, conducted by Maestro Donald Runnicles and starring Swedish soprano Iréne Theorin as Brünnhilde and Wisconsin heldentenor Daniel Brenna as Siegfried. Iréne Theorin’s Brünnhilde Brünnhilde is among the most challenging roles in the operatic repertory. It weaves through the final … Read more

San Francisco Opera’s revival of Francesca Zambello’s production of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung”, continued with the third opera, “Siegfried”. Six of the opera’s eight characters  (and the artists singing those roles) had been introduced in the preceding “Ring” operas. The evening’s newcomers were the cocky, fearless mortal, Siegfried and his avian friend, the Forest … Read more

The San Francisco Opera’s presentation of Francesca Zambello’s production of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungs” continued with “Die Walküre”, the second of the four-opera cycle. This review will concentrate on this season’s cast, as this is my fifth time reviewing the Zambello “Walküre”. Most of my observations and commentaries on the production contained in the previous … Read more

June 2018 marks the San Francisco Opera revival of Francesca Zambello’s ambitious retelling of Wagner’s four opera “Ring of the Nibelungs”. Last seen in San Francisco in  2011, the “Ring” returns in three cycles, each over six days. I am reporting on the second of this year’s cycles. This is my fourth Zambello “Rheingold” review in … Read more

The Spoleto Festival-USA, which encompasses a wide range of performing arts, scheduled two mainstage operas, neither before seen in the United States. One (Donizetti’s “Pia de’ Tolomei”) was from the early 19th century, the other (Lim’s “Tree of Codes”) premiered in Germany in 2016. Australian composer-librettist Liza Lim’s “Tree of Codes” is inspired by the … Read more

The Spoleto Festival-USA imported Italian director Andrea Cigni’s production of Donizetti’s rarely-performed 181-year old opera, “Pia de’ Tolomei”. Amanda Woodbury’s Pia Lyric coloratura soprano Amanda Woodbury performed the role of Pia, exhibiting vocal control, expressiveness and brilliant technique. [Below: Pia (Amanda Woodbury, right, facing forward) explains who her suspicious visitor was to Ghino (Isaac Frishman, left, … Read more

In the fourth of six scheduled performances of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto”, the Los Angeles Opera introduced new cast members for the opera’s three principal roles that included two impressive company debuts. Michael Fabiano’s Duke of Mantua [Photo: Michael Fabiano as the Duke of Mantua; edited image, based on a Karen Almond photograph, courtesy of the … Read more

The Minnesota Opera presented Italian director Andrea Cigni’s beautifully conceived production of Massenet’s opera “Thaïs”. The event took place at Minnesota Opera’s home in the Saint Paul (Minnesota) Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. Kelly Kaduce’s Thaïs Soprano Kelly Kaduce brought vocal beauty and dramatic intensity to the role of Thaïs, a famous, wealthy courtesan … Read more

In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston, Texas. Severe damage to the Wortham Center, the home of the Houston Grand Opera [HGO], was among the hurricane’s effects. Rather than cancel its 2017-18 opera season, HGO, working with Houston civic authorities, was able to obtain space in the mammoth George R. Brown Convention Center in which … Read more