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Reviews, Stage Reviews

San Francisco Opera 2018-19 Review: It’s a Wonderful Life

https://operawire.com/san-francisco-opera-2018-19-review-its-a-wonderful-life/

Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s “It’s A Wonderful Life” opened earlier this week at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. An American success story based on “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern, and Frank Capra’s beloved film on the same story, it combined old and new, young and original, odd and familiar, poignant and comic. Neither movie nor {…}
Reviews, Stage Reviews

Wexford Festival Opera 2018 Review: La Fanciulla Del West

https://operawire.com/wexford-festival-opera-2018-review-la-fanciulla-del-west/

While the music of “La Fanciulla del West” would be difficult to mistake for anyone other than Puccini’s, the actual drama lacks the usual sacrificial or torturous death of the heroine, which characterizes his other famous operas. In fact, it is the woman who his cast in the role of savior, riding in to rescue the man she loves from {…}
DVD and CD Releases

CD Review: Renée Fleming’s ‘Broadway’

https://operawire.com/cd-review-renee-flemings-broadway/

I’ve been listening to Renée Fleming and thinking about the recently deceased Montserrat Caballé.  To my ears, Fleming is the only active soprano whose voice can match the ravishing beauty of the Spanish diva’s. Neither singer is beyond criticism, but if voices were tactile, these are the kinds that would be behind thick glass in museums. Fleming, though, is unique {…}
Reviews, Stage Reviews

San Francisco Opera 2018-19 Review: Plácido Domingo in Concert

https://operawire.com/san-francisco-opera-2018-19-review-placido-domingo-in-concert/

The last time I saw Plácido Domingo up close was the first time: “Andrea Chénier,” San Francisco, 1975.  He was a dashing superstar and a tenor. On Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018, he was General Director of the Los Angeles Opera, overseer of Operalia, The World Opera Competition, which he founded in 1993, conductor, divo, and baritone. What also changed was {…}
Reviews, Stage Reviews

Lyric Opera of Kansas City 2018-19 Review: West Side Story

https://operawire.com/lyric-opera-of-kansas-city-2018-19-review-west-side-story/

Leonard Bernstein feared he would only be remembered for “West Side Story.”  As theaters around the world celebrate the centenary of his birth, a range of his works have come back to the spotlight, but opera theaters have confirmed Bernstein’s fears.  His only “true” operatic masterpiece, “A Quiet Place,” has received relatively scant attention. This is a shame, in part {…}
Reviews, Stage Reviews

Royal Opera House 2017-18 Review: Don Giovanni

https://operawire.com/royal-opera-house-2017-2018-review-don-giovanni-while-ildebrando-darcangelo-shines-the-audience-doesnt-make-don-giovannis-conquest-list/

So much is Don Juan’s tale the stuff of legend that it lends itself as easily to various interpretations as Greek myths. For every legendary story that encounters many incarnations – be it Tristan and Isolde’s love, Medea’s filicide or Romeo and Juliet – there comes a time when it is not only acceptable, but fascinating to encounter the familiar {…}
Reviews, Stage Reviews

Deutsche Oper Berlin 2017-18 Review – La Traviata: Kristina Mkhitaryan’s Outstanding Violetta Gains the Russian Soprano “Prima Donna Assoluta” Status

https://operawire.com/deutsche-oper-berlin-2017-18-review-la-traviata-kristina-mkhitaryans-outstanding-violetta-gains-the-russian-soprano-prima-donna-assoluta-status/

The Deutsche Oper Berlin has long been a mecca for iconoclast regie theater directors ranging from Hans Neuenfels and Claus Guth to Ole Anders Tandberg, whose recent staging of “Carmen” had more viscera on the stage than verismo. Curiously, the extant production of “La Traviata” by the former Deutsche Oper Intendant Götz Friedrich, dating back to 1999, is surprisingly uncontroversial. In his {…}

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