This review is for the performance on Feb. 11, 2017. What happens when the Metropolitan Opera casts four superstars into Bellini’s final opera? The answer is golden age singing. For years “I Puritani” has been a vehicle at the Metropolitan Opera to promote the diva and sometimes has made casting uneven with little attention paid to who can sing the incredibly {…}
This review is for the performance on Friday, Feb. 3, 2017. When Sophie Koch cancelled all of her performances for Bizet’s “Carmen” at the Metropolitan Opera, attention immediately turned toward Clémentine Margaine, who was set to make her Met debut on Feb. 3. Instead the French mezzo saw her first performance at the history house pushed up two weeks. Of {…}
The ending of Puccini’s “Turandot” is one of opera’s great tragedies. The composer, at the peak of his power, had composed his most musically daring work to date with some of his most phenomenal strokes of dramatic genius alongside some of his most riveting and enduring melodies. And yet, when he was ever so close to completing it, he hit {…}
The best of all possible outcomes for any opera is a strong cast and a great production for a great work. In this context, the New York City Opera can certainly check off the box next to “success” with regards to its new “Candide.” Directed by Harold Prince, the revival of Leonard Bernstein’s comic operetta, which is based on Voltaire’s {…}
This review is for the performance on Wednesday January 11 and is written jointly by David & Francisco Salazar. Applause rang from every corner of the Metropolitan Opera, the audience awaiting the final performer to step onstage so that she too could get her accolades. The moment Ailyn Pérez walked out of the iconic golden curtain, she was not only {…}
This review is for the performance on Monday Jan. 10, 2017. Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” is one of the most famous works in the operatic repertoire as well as one of the funniest. It contains some of the most memorable melodies and space for singers to fool around and provide vocal fireworks. In recent years, the Metropolitan Opera has {…}
This review is written for the performance on Wednesday, January 4, 2017. Romeo and Juliette are undeniably the most famous couple in all of western literature and quite possibly the world. In hands of the famous bard, the two star-crossed teens fighting for their love in the midst of a family feud is one filled with tremendous emotional weight and {…}
Elina Garanca has steadily been moving to the dramatic mezzo-soprano repertoire as her career has developed. In this new solo album, the mezzo-soprano showcases what audiences will hopefully see in the future. “Revive,” the title Garanca has chosen for her album, is a mix of many popular tunes from the mezzo repertoire and some rarely heard. The result is an {…}
This review is for the final performance of the run on Dec. 18, 2017 and was written in collaboration with Francisco Salazar. How do you get younger audiences to engage with that “old” and “outdated” art form known as opera? That is the eternal question for the major opera houses around the world as they look to find a viable {…}