Reviews, appreciation and analysis of all things opera
Note from William: Since 2006, at the end of each calendar year concurrent with the David Gockley administration at the San Francisco Opera, I have given letter grades to each of the productions performed by the company that year. The criteria are simple. An “A” reflects a musical and theatrical performance and production that would … Read more
The following interview took place in the Sir Vernon Ellis conference room of the London Coliseum. The facilitation of this interview by the English National Opera is deeply appreciated. [Below: Mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose; edited image, based on a J. Henry Fair photograph, courtesy of Ruxandra Donose.] Wm: What kind of music first influenced you? … Read more
Bayerische Staatsoper has revived its spectacular production of Puccini’s “Turandot”, first seen in Munich in December 2011, which Spanish Concept Director Carlus Padrissa resets into the year 2046. [Below: Director Carlus Padrissa; edited image, based on a photograph from rtve.es.] In this fifth decade of the 21st century of Padrissa’s imagination, Chinese bond dealers, having taken advantage … Read more
Gluck’s French operatic masterpieces challenge production designers and stage directors, who are seeking to mount the works in ways that can be appreciated by 21st century audiences. In 2009, I had reported on Mexican Director’s Francisco Negrin’s ideas for Gluck’s “Alceste” at the Santa Fe Opera Festival, in which exoticism in costumes and dance styles … Read more
Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” is the longest running smash hit in the standard operatic repertory, as witty, hilariously funny, and beautifully written as any musical composition ever designed for performance. It is a source of wonder that throughout its 226 years of existence up to the present day, opera goers can attend performances multiple … Read more
An enduring operatic myth is that Bizet’s “Carmen” was initially a failure. The myth evolved because the clinically depressed, mortally ill Georges Bizet refused to accept the manifest evidence that the opera from its very first performance had become a wild Parisian hit, its composer preferring to dwell on the admonitions of certain curmudgeonly critics who … Read more
A Review by Tom Rubbert A cold, rainy night did not dampen the spirits of the excited full-house seeing Los Angeles Opera’s opening night performance of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”. The house was treated to a superbly crafted evening of glorious music very aptly conducted by Grant Gershon, whose experience as Los Angeles Opera’s long time chorus … Read more
The following interview was conducted in the administrative offices of the San Francisco Opera, whose facilitation of the interview is gratefully acknowledged. [Below: San Francisco Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti; edited image, based on a Terrence McCarthy photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera.] Wm: You sang in church choirs in your home province of … Read more
After an engaging first act of Puccini’s Tosca” in which Rumanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu sympathetically and even coquettishly portrayed the jealous diva, San Francisco Opera General Director stepped in front of the curtains to announce that Mme Gheorghiu was suffering from intestinal flu and was leaving for the hospital in an ambulance. [Below: Angela Gheorghiu … Read more
The Houston Grand Opera, which has established an artistic relationship with the Barcelona comic theatrical troupe, El Comediants, mounted Rossini’s comic opera “L’Italiana in Algeri [the Italian Girl in Algiers]” in a co-production with Madrid’s Teatro Real of Madrid, Florence’s Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Opera National de Bordeaux. “L’Italiana”, which will celebrate its 200th … Read more
This interview took place at the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco. The facilitation of this interview by the San Francisco Opera is gratefully acknowledged. Wm: You have been quoted that when you were about six years old , at a time when Albania was still a Communist state, the authorities in your home town … Read more
The facilitation of the interview by the Glimmerglass Festival is gratefully acknowledged. See: Rising Stars: An Interview with Sean Panikkar, Part 1. [Below: Tenor Sean Panikkar; edited image, based on a Kristina Sherk photograph, for img_artists.com.] Wm: Your agent is Bill Palant, whose conservative approach to building the careers of young tenors you have noted. Several … Read more
The facilitation of this interview by the Glimmerglass Festival is gratefully acknowledged. [Below: Tenor Sean Panikkar; edited image, based on a Kristina Sherk photograph, from imgartists.com.] Wm: You were born and raised in Bloomsburg, a small city in a rural part of Central Pennsylvania. Nothing in your early experiences would have suggested an operatic … Read more
San Francisco Opera is the third American opera company (after those of Dallas and San Diego) to mount Heggie’s extraordinary opera “Moby Dick”. I first reviewed the world premiere in Dallas [see World Premiere: Heggie’s Theatrically Brilliant, Melodic “Moby Dick” at Dallas Opera – April 30, 2010]. I was also present at the first performances in … Read more
The San Francisco Opera presented Wagner’s “Lohengrin” in Daniel Slater’s Grand Théâtre de Genève production. It was the occasion for the role debut of Brandon Jovanovich as the spellbound knight in the magical service of the Holy Grail. It also marks Music Director’s Nicola Luisotti venture into conducting Wagnerian opera. Both proved worthy champions of … Read more
In addition to reviewing the first performance of San Francisco Opera’s 2012 production of Bellini’s “I Capuleti e i Montecchi” [See Joyce DiDonato, Nicole Cabell Sing Beautifully in Bellini’s Bel Canto “Capulets and Montagues” – San Francisco Opera, September 29, 2012], I attended the fourth performance. [Below: Romeo (Joyce Di Donato, left) embraces a concerned Giulietta … Read more
Two weeks prior to this performance, I attended a pre-performance lecture at the Los Angeles Opera, presented by the evening’s conductor, Music Director James Conlon. His thesis is that Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, the opera he was to conduct, is impossible to know completely. Whatever one’s interpretation of the events occurring the last day on earth … Read more
I suspect that readers of this website will not be surprised by a positive review from me of San Francisco Opera’s premiere of a production of Heggie’s now two-year old opera “Moby Dick”. In my comments on the production debuts in Dallas and San Diego [see World Premiere: Heggie’s Theatrically Brilliant, Melodic “Moby Dick” at … Read more
Washington National Opera imported Stephen Lawless’ production of Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena” from the Dallas Opera. Conceived by Lawless as the first part of the so-called “Tudor Trilogy”, followed by Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda” and “Roberto Devereux”, it was the last of the three productions (with set designs by his frequent collaborator, the Belgian Benoit Dugardyn) to … Read more
There are several reasons to revive Vincenzo Bellini’s opera “I Capuleti e i Montecchi”, anglicized as “The Capulets and the Montagues”. The most compelling reason is the presence in the opera’s cast of singers capable of doing justice to Bellini’s often complex and always extraordinarily beautiful melodies, so soulful that they inspired Chopin’s piano preludes … Read more
The first month of the 2012-13 season Los Angeles Opera season has been designed to showcase the legendary talents of the opera company’s general director Placido Domingo and music director James Conlon. Conducting six performances of Verdi’s “The Two Foscari [I Due Foscari]” and five of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, Conlon is scheduled to be the … Read more
A sellout Los Angeles Opera audience greeted Placido Domingo with an out-sized ovation for his latest exploration of the less-traveled baritone repertory. Domingo opened the Los Angeles Opera’s 26th season as Francesco Foscari in a provocative new Thaddeus Strassberger production of Verdi’s sixth opera, “I Due Foscari”, with the scenic designs of Kevin Knight and … Read more
