(Photo credit: Eric Woolsey) “The Barber of Seville” can be tough to sit through. Opera Theatre Saint Louis (OTSL) swam upstream furiously against the libretto’s banalities to produce an entertaining show, with standout performances from Justin Austin in the title role, and Hongni Wu as Rosina. In youth, I received as a gift the London/Decca recording featuring Leo Nucci as {…}
In part of its opera for all series, Opera Maine will present Rossini’s “La Cenerentola.” Israel Gursky will lead Hongni Wu, who will play the title role beside Jack Swanson as the prince, as well as Patrick Carfizzi, Robert Mellon, Katherine Henly, Rachel Barg, and William Guanbo Su. They are joined by the Opera Maine Orchestra and Chorus and directed by {…}
San Francisco Opera has announced that it will live stream three of its summer season performances. The company will stream “Don Giovanni” on June 12. The production will star Étienne Dupuis, Luca Pisaroni, Adela Zaharia, Nicole Car, Christina Gansch, and Amitai Pati. Bertrand de Billy conducts. That will be followed up by a stream of “Dream of The Red Chamber” {…}
Santa Fe Opera has announced its 2022 festival, which will run between July 1 through August 27, 2022. The season will include five new productions, 38 performances, one world premiere, one company premiere, and an international co-production. In sum, there will be 26 artists making their debuts and another 29 returning to the company. It all kicks off with “Carmen,” {…}
The Minnesota Opera has announced its 2020-21 season featuring five productions with a number of important rising stars. The season opens with Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio” starring Claudia Boyle as Konstanze, Andrew Stenson as Belmonte, and Kenneth Kellogg as Osmin. Omer Ben Seadia directs James Robinson’s original production. Performance Dates: Sept. 26- Oct. 4, 2020 Corinne Winters andJohn Moore star in {…}