One thing I can say, with assurance, about the newly revived New York City Opera’s programming is…that it is anything but the expected. Productions such as the recent “Delores Claiborne” and “Cruzar la Cara de la Luna,” all reviewed by me for Operawire, could not have been more different. But they all share an excitement and vision that is breathing new, creative {…}
Director Phyllida Lloyd’s 2002 production of Verdi’s “Macbeth” doesn’t need a revival to age. Cluttered with too many literal symbols – Lady Macbeth attempting to wash blood off in the bath, Duncan clad in a glittery gold cloak that Macbeth dons when assuming the throne, the presence of a running tap onstage as the two killer spouses sing of their {…}
Celebrating 60 years of the Chicago Symphony Chorus was no easy task given the unit’s reputation for quality. That anniversary was marked this past weekend with a program highlighted by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus putting forth an absolutely sublime Schubert Mass in E-Flat major. The three-part program began with maestro Riccardo Muti and the CSO performing the overture {…}
Concert performances of operas can be a rather mixed bag. The works themselves were concocted with the vision of being complete art forms and taking them out of this context can be difficult. Many operas can get away with it simply by the symphonic qualities of the music (see Wagner or Strauss). But this can take an even more complex {…}
Giuseppe Verdi didn’t think much of political oppressors no matter if they were civilized Habsburg princes with good table manners or arriviste autocrats with one hand on the guillotine and the other in the till. Some of the least attractive characters in his operas ranged from pushy regicidal wives and vengeful Venetian psychopaths to homicidal high priests of Ptah and {…}
This review is for the performance on Thursday, March 22, 2018. Before I begin my review, properly, of this absolutely incredible evening, which featured some amazing musical moments, I want to bring up a constant I have seen throughout the past few years at the Metropolitan Opera and many theaters in the world. This season, the Metropolitan Opera presented a {…}
This review is for a work currently in development, and as such does not reflect any future productions. Mary Prescott’s “ALICE” offers the audience a first-hand journey into the life of a woman utterly at the mercy of those around her. No relation to the works by Lewis Carroll, Prescott’s chamber opera employs a number of creative choices to bring {…}
In most cities, different musical organizations persist in such aggressive rivalry it makes the Montagues and Capulets look like kissing cousins. Not so in Barcelona where the three major performing venues, namely the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Palau de a Música Catalana and the L’Auditori have come together under a coordinating entity called Barcelona Obertura to make music in the {…}
There is something of Halley’s comet about Umberto Giordano’s most famous opera “Andrea Chénier.” It reappears every so often (happily not so infrequently as every 75 years) excites and dazzles, leaves verismo fanatics in paroxysms of delight, then vanishes back into the operatic firmament. With the recent notable exception at La Scala, productions of “Andrea Chénier” have invariably been connected to {…}