This summer, “This House,” a new opera by Ricky Ian Gordon, Lynn Nottage, and Ruby Aiyo Gerber, will make its world premiere. The opera will be showcased at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as part of the company’s landmark 50th season and will be performed at the Loretto-Hilton Center on May 31 and June 5, 11, 13, 21, and {…}
(Photo: Eric Woolsey) For their 2024 mainstage summer festival season, Opera Theatre Saint Louis (OTSL) paired two fixtures in top-ten performance frequency, “The Barber of Seville” and “La Bohème,” with two exciting, less offered menu items. Philip Glass’s “Galileo Galilei” (2002) received just its fourth staging anywhere, while George Frideric Händel’s operatic capolavoro, “Julius Caesar” (“Giulio Cesare in Egitto,” 1724) {…}
(Photo credit: Eric Woolsey) No matter the repertory selected, Opera Theatre Saint Louis’s (OTSL) 2024 season would have faced a significant challenge: following their memorable 2023 season and its refreshing inclusion of many singers of color. Surrounding a forgettable “Cosí Fan Tutte,” three productions made maximal artistic impact, including a fine “Tosca” starring Katie Van Kooten and Hunter Enoch as {…}
(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 {…}
Opera Theatre Saint Louis has announced its 2022 season featuring four works. Daniela Candillari will conduct a new production of Bizet’s “Carmen“ directed by Rodula Gaitanou. The production will star Sarah Mesko in the title role, Adam Smith as Don Jose, Christian Pursell as Escamillo, and Yunuet Laguna as Micaela. Performance Dates: May 21 – June 25, 2022 Rory MacDonald conducts Mozart’s “The {…}