Reviews

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

The Houston Grand Opera (HGO)’s Resilience Theater, created for HGO opera performances in the aftermath of 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, was the scene of the premiere run of Francesca Zambello’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s 1957 musical “West Side Story”. HGO (the first major American opera company ever to perform “West Side Story”) combined the talents of … Read more

The Dallas Opera mounted Robert Falls’ acclaimed production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”. The Dallas performances were to have enlisted two veterans of the original 2014 production at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Polish baritone Mariusz Kweicien and Iowa bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen, to repeat their roles of Don Giovanni and his servant, Leporello. Kwiecien’s illness caused … Read more

Eugen d’Albert’s “Tiefland” is an extraordinary operatic work, the only German language opera written in the verismo style that has held its own in the European opera repertory, yet one that has only been mounted three times in North America in its 115 year old history. Its luxurious, melodic music frames a Catalonian story that … Read more

For the Sarasota Opera’s 2018 Winter Festival, the company presented its first performances ever of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut”, the composer’s only major repertory work previously missing from the company’s performance repertory. [Below: Manon (here, Sandra Lopez, left) with the Chevalier des Grieux (Matthew Vickers, right) in the second act of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut”; edited image, … Read more

Sarasota Opera presented Bellini’s “Norma”, one of three operas being performed for the first time in company history as part of the 2018 Winter Opera Festival. I attended the sixth of eight performances, in a Saturday matinee performance in a busy weekend that already included a performance the previous night [Review: Sarasota Opera “Carmen” with … Read more

Sarasota Opera’s 2018 Winter Opera Festival is comprised of four operas. Three of the operas  (Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut”, Bellini’s “Norma” and d’Albert’s “Tiefland”) have never been presented by the company before this year. The fourth, Bizet’s “Carmen”, has been revived after a five season absence, using 2012 production sets created by David P. Gordon in … Read more

The Washington National Opera presented Tim Albery’s production of Verdi’s “Don Carlo” with an impressive cast of Verdian singers. Russell Thomas’ Don Carlo In the title role, Florida lyric tenor Russell Thomas gave an impassioned, vocally secure performance of Don Carlo, the anguished heir to the Spanish throne. Throughout the performance and particularly in the … Read more

French tenor Benjamin Bernheim American operatic debut – performing the role of Faust – took place at Lyric Opera on March 3, 2018. Nine days later, in a performance I attended, Bernheim led the admirable cast assembled for Gounod’s best-known opera. Benjamin Bernheim’s Faust In Kevin Newbury’s absorbing new production that was filled with eccentricities, … Read more

I attended the first two performances of the Seattle Opera’s new production of Berlioz’ “Beatrice and Benedict”. Each performance had a different pair of artists in the title roles. My review of the February 24, 2018 performance [Review: “Beatrice and Benedict”, Seattle Opera Reinvents Berlioz’ Opera – February 24, 2018]  discussed the Beatrice and Benedict … Read more

The Seattle Opera chose to participate in a multi-institutional initiative, “Seattle Celebrates Shakespeare”, in which 25 cultural organizations came together to present Shakespeare’s plays or other artistic endeavors based upon his plays. For its part in the Shakespeare festivities, the Seattle Opera selected “Beatrice and Benedict”, which Berlioz loosely adapted from Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About … Read more

The Seattle Opera, reviving Jonathan Miller’s 2006 production of Mozart’s “Cosi fan Tutte”, split the seven performances between two casts. I previously reported on the cast in which Marina and Ginger Costa-Jackson, Tuomas Katajala and Craig Verm respectively performed the roles of Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando and Guglielmo [Review: Seattle Opera’s “Cosi fan Tutte”: Costa-Jackson Sisters … Read more

The Seattle Opera revived its provocative modern dress production of Mozart’s “Cosi fan Tutte” with two distinguished alternative casts. Marina Costa-Jackson’s Fiordiligi and Ginger Costa-Jackson’s Dorabella The opening performance gave an opportunity for two opera singers, who, in real life are sisters, to perform the roles of the operatic sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella. [Below: Fiordiligi … Read more

Chicago’s Lyric Opera mounted its momentous new David Pountney production of “Die Walküre”, the second of the four operas of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungs”. “Die Walküre” requires six principal singers. It enlists an additional eight female voices for the third act scene containing the famous “Ride of the Valkyries”. For its new production, the Lyric … Read more

Chicago’s Lyric Opera mounted Dame Zandra Rhodes’ exotic production of Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers” with a stellar cast led by Matthew Polenzani as Nadir, Marius Kwiecien as Zurga, Marina Rebeka as Leila and Andrea Silvestrelli as Nourabad. Each of the three principal artists (Leila, Nadir and Zurga) who form a triangle of love and friendship have … Read more

[Photo: the opening scene of “The Girls of the Golden West”; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera.] Three decades ago the team of composer John Adams and director Peter Sellars (with librettist Alice Goodman) created “Nixon in China”, one of the most durable operatic works of the … Read more

Previously, I had reviewed the San Francisco Opera’s opening performance of its new production of Massenet’s “Manon” [Review: An Exquisitely Sung “Manon” with Ellie Dehn and Michael Fabiano – San Francisco Opera, November 4, 2017]. I returned to the War Memorial Opera House for the fifth of six “Manon” performances. [Below: Manon (Ellie Dehn, right) and … Read more

The San Francisco Opera resumed its Fall 2017 performances of Puccini’s “Turandot”, for a November-December run of six perfomances, with changes in three of the four principal cast member assignments and a new conductor’s company debut. Previously I reviewed the first and fifth of San Francisco Opera’s September run of Puccini’s “Turandot” [See Review: San Francisco … Read more

For the first time in the 21st century, the San Francisco Opera presented “Manon”, the most popular of the operas of 19th century French composer Jules Massenet. The performance was the occasion of the role debuts of Minnesota soprano Ellie Dehn as Manon Lescaut and New Jersey tenor Michael Fabiano as Manon’s lover, the Chevalier … Read more

The Houston Grand Opera’s 2017-18 season opening night opera was a revival of Arin Arbus’ production of Verdi’s “La Traviata”. The performance I attended took place eight days later. In the aftermath of August’s devastating Hurricane Harvey, the Houston Grand Opera, forced to move out of it Wortham Center home for several months, created a … Read more

The Houston Grand Opera revived its 2003 James Robinson production of Handel’s “Julius Caesar”. The production presents Handel’s best known opera – whose story is roughly based on historical events of the first century B.C. – as a company of film actors preparing a 1930s Hollywood cinema spectacular. Robinson’s inventive evocation of 1930s Hollywood is obviously … Read more

The Dallas Opera, whose conducting staff is led by its French-born Music Director Emmanuel Villaume, chose Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Samson et Dalila” from the heart of the Romantic French operatic repertory, as the opera to open its 61st season. [Photo: Dalila (Olga Borodina, right) is determined to seduce Samson (Clifton Forbis, left) as part of an … Read more

The Los Angeles Opera mounted Peggy Woolcock’s production of Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers” with a cast of international caliber, conducted by Maestro Plácido Domingo. [Below: A pearl fisher dives for pearls in the Los Angeles Opera’s 2017 performances of Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers”; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Los Angeles … Read more

The Los Angeles Opera mounted the imaginative Thaddeus Strassberger production of Verdi’s “Nabucco” . Plácido Domingo’s Nabucco The Nabucco was sung by one of the most important dramatic tenors in operatic history, Plácido Domingo. In his later career, Domingo continues to make his mark on the operatic baritone repertory. I found the 76-year old Domingo’s performance … Read more