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Interviews, Stage Spotlight

Interview: Tenor Stephen Costello’s Debut Double-Header

https://operawire.com/tenor-stephen-costellos-debut-double-header/

What’s a nice guy like the 2009 Richard Tucker Award-winner Stephen Costello to do when playing a character known for anger issues and a jealous streak a mile wide? Go for sympathy, make the audience empathize with “a lost person with a good heart.” That’s what Costello did for his role debut as Don José in the Dallas Opera production {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opéra de Lille 2018-19 Review: Rodelinda

https://operawire.com/opera-de-lille-2018-19-review-rodelinda/

Even by usual standards of patently implausible baroque opera plots, “Rodelinda” reaches new heights of Delphic abstruseness. William Hartston in the London Express described Handel’s 19th opera as “everyone wanting to marry or kill everyone else.” Regardless of Hartston’s hyperbole, confusion certainly abounds. A Penelope-esque wife erroneously thinks her husband is dead not once, but twice. The two principal protagonists {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Hungarian State Opera 2018 Tour Review: Mario and the Magician & Bluebeard’s Castle

https://operawire.com/hungarian-state-opera-2018-tour-review-mario-and-the-magician-bluebeards-castle/

As the Hungarian State Opera continues its New York tour at Lincoln Center, the second night saw a double feature of performances from Hungarian composers: “Mario and the Magician” by Janos Vajda, and “Bluebeard’s Castle” by  Bela Bartok. What followed was an enthralling showcase of the talents of the company, wherein the artists powerfully brought to life the methods, and {…}

Interviews, Stage Spotlight

Interview: Soprano Deanna Breiwick On Dealing With the Currency of the Human Heart

https://operawire.com/interview-soprano-deanna-breiwick-on-dealing-with-the-currency-of-the-human-heart/

Soprano Deanna Breiwick has been around music and performance her entire life. She comes from a family of musicians and vocalists. She sang her first studio recital at age five, began as a classical harpist at age seven, and was let loose on Italian arias by age 14. Her first opera production was “Dialogues des Carmélites” at age 21 and {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Beijing Music Festival 2018 Festival Review: Orfeo

https://operawire.com/beijing-music-festival-2018-festival-review-orfeo/

Over the past decade, opera has evolved with many composers experimenting and infusing new ideas into the art form. That was what Fay Kueen Wang and Zou Shuang did when they created the new work “Orfeo.” The work, which was promoted as an “immersive opera,” had its world premiere at the Beijing Music Festival and the results were visually gorgeous {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Metropolitan Opera 2018-19 Review: La Fanciulla Del West, Jonas Kaufmann Edition

https://operawire.com/metropolitan-opera-2018-19-review-la-fanciulla-del-west-jonas-kaufmann-edition/

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 was a new beginning for the Metropolitan Opera’s production of “La Fanciulla del West.” While Eva-Maria Westbroek and Zeljko Lucic remained at the center of the drama, a new star would be taking over the mantle of Dick Johnson / Ramirez – tenor Jonas Kaufmann. In many ways, this was THE story of this production and {…}

Special Features

How The Beijing Music Festival Presented the First Musical Theatre Piece In Its History

https://operawire.com/how-the-beijing-music-festival-presented-the-first-musical-theatre-piece-in-its-history/

What do opera and musical theatre have in common? Do they belong in the same companies and spaces? Are they compatible? These are questions that the classical music world has been contending with for the past decades. In a push to expand an audience and bring younger audiences, such companies as the Lyric Opera of Chicago and other smaller companies {…}