San Francisco Opera’s It’s a Wonderful Life (seen Nov. 20th), Jake Heggie’s latest work for the operatic stage, might be called a musical—and he would not object. He declares that he has been writing them for years. Still, his prior successes with Dead Man Walking...
Bavarian State Opera’s new production of Otello (seen Nov. 28th) would seem to have all the ingredients for a compelling take on Verdi’s distillation of Shakespeare’s tragedy: top soloists Jonas Kaufmann (Otello), Anja Harteros (Desdemona) and Gerald Finley (Iago);...
It’s no mere tilting at windmills that Mozart’s Don Giovanni, rising from its own grave 231 years since its premiere in Prague in 1787, shudders with even greater resonance in today’s brave new #MeToo world, where modern day moguls fueled by their own narcissistic...
Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, presented by UofT Opera and directed by Michael Patrick Albano takes advantage of a talented ensemble while dealing with what is a rather unfocused work for the stage. As seen on Nov. 22, the opera’s themes—relevant when introduced in 1946...
Calgary Opera opened its new season in daring fashion on Nov. 17th with a bold and expensive production of Charles Gounod's five-act tour-de-force, Roméo et Juliette. Current General Director Keith Cerny impressively finessed bringing Claude Girard's famed, 1986 Opéra...
Against the Grain Theatre’s Bound v.2 (seen Nov. 19th) is opera for our times. Handel arias and ensembles have been adapted into a production that appears to border on dystopian but is, in many ways, startlingly relevant despite its source music: four “wanted persons”...
There have been many stories told in every art form of late about immigration, migration and displacement. Our country knows its fair share of émigré stories, many of which have been turned into operas and musicals. But no story has been quite so moving as the one...
As the most compact of the Ring operas —clocking in at a trifling two-and-a-half hours— Das Rheingold can let smaller companies dip a toe into Wagner’s Nibelungen universe without committing to the scale and expense of the other works in the cycle. A case in point is...
There’s almost always a certain splashy excitement attendant on a new production’s opening night, but sometimes it’s the next season’s revival that delivers the greater musical and dramatic punch. That’s what happened with Metropolitan Opera's Tosca, unveiled on New...
I’m an unabashed admirer of verismo opera, but I freely admit having qualms when Wexford announced a pairing of Franco Leoni’s L’oracolo (1905) and Umberto Giordano’s Mala vita (1892) to open its 2018 festival. I knew Leoni’s gory Chinatown pasta pot from its vintage,...
While David Alden’s production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor contains a few puzzling or unresolved aspects, it is powerful, memorable and effective. First seen at English National Opera in 2008, it has returned to London for a third run, having also been...
“The Empire holds its breath, awaiting orders.” These lines, sung early in the Canadian Opera Company’s world premiere of Hadrian (seen Oct. 17th), plunge us immediately into the opera’s primary conflict of an emperor torn between his duty to lead and the mourning for...