Opera Warhorses

An extraordinary performance of Aida by soprano Latonia Moore and a strong showing as Amneris by American mezzo-soprano Jill Grove were among the highlights of a warmly received San Diego Opera performance of Verdi’s “Aida”. The Houston Grand Opera’s sets were used.  Designed by San Diego’s local celebrity artist Zandra Rhodes, her zany, color-drenched artwork … Read more

The San Diego Opera chose Easter weekend to produce Ildebrando Pizzetti’s “Murder in the Cathedral”, its much anticipated vehicle for Italian dramatic basso Ferruccio Furlanetto. An extraordinary work, dating from 1958, Pizzetti reverentially sets to music T. S. Eliot’s 1936 verse-play that found prewar 20th century significance in the  moral choices of a 12th century king’s … Read more

My colleague Tom Rubbert had reviewed the first Los Angeles performance of this production earlier in the month [Wagner’s “Flying Dutchman” Sails into Los Angeles, Making a Terrific Splash – Los Angeles Opera, March 9, 2013] while I was reviewing operas on the opposite coast. I had seen the production nine years ago at the … Read more

Last December, I reported on a performance of the Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production of Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” in Paris, and the confluence of this influential production (which appeared in its first permutation at the San Francisco Opera in 1969) with a revival of interest in Rossini’s great body of operatic work. [See Ponnelle’s Historic “Cenerentola” at the … Read more

A fully dressed Mariachi stand-up orchestra in silver-studded black traditional Mariachi costumes with huge straw Sombrero hats in an Opera House performing an Opera, you ask in disbelief? [Below: the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitan amidst representations of monarch butterflies; edited image, based an Edward Wilensky photograph, courtesy of the San Diego Opera.] Surely you jest, you say, but no … Read more

Soprano Angela Meade’s role debut as Norma in Bellini’s opera of that name occurred in a Washington National Opera performance at the Kennedy Center. [Below: Angela Meade as Norma; edited image, based on a Scott Suchman photograph, courtesy of the Washington National Opera.] Buttressed by the indulgent but effective conducting of Daniele Rustioni in his … Read more

Commemorating stellar super-composer Richard Wagner’s 200th Birth Date on May 22, 2013, Los Angeles Opera joins many other opera companies, worldwide, by presenting one of his most entrancing-dramatic works, Der Fliegende Holländer — The Flying Dutchman. The cast features Tomas Thomasson as The Dutchman, making his Los Angeles Opera debut. Tomasson’s Dutchman brought down the house. He scored a home run at Los Angeles Opera as did this entire … Read more

John Pascoe’s intelligently conceived 2004 production of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” returned nine years later to the Washington National Opera for its first revival at the Kennedy Center. Strongly cast in both its major and minor roles, it provided the role debut for Puccini specialist Patricia Racette and introduced Bulgarian tenor Kamen Chanev to new audiences … Read more

The San Diego Opera, whose early years were noted for such adventurous excursions into 19th century French opera as Thomas’ “Hamlet”, Saint-Saens’ “Henry VIII” and Chabrier’s “Gwendoline”, has emerged as one of America’s current champions of the French opera repertoire. In the past seven seasons the San Diego Opera has created new productions of Bizet’s … Read more

The Florida Grand Opera presented a revival of Bellini’s “La Sonnambula”, respectfully staged – as it was in 2007 – by Renata Scotto, herself one of the greatest protagonists of the title role in the 1960s and 1970s. The revival provided the opportunity to hear two young American artists, Georgia’s Rachele Gilmore as Amina and … Read more

The San Diego Opera opened their four opera 2013 season by mounting Emilio Sagi’s immensely amusing production of Donizetti’s melody-filled “La Fille du Regiment”, time-shifted to the era of World War II. Premiering in Paris in 1840 (composed a generation before Gounod’s “Faust”), “La Fille” is the oldest 19th century French opera that can be said to have … Read more

On a bitterly cold January evening, chilled Salt Lake City residents were invited to escape to a fantasy tropical river cruise, as Utah Opera presented Catan’s “Florencia en El Amazonas”. The work is a contemporary opera meant to be accessible to audiences, with lush orchestration and melodic themes, and an absorbing, ultimately surreal storyline. Inspired … Read more