Reviews
San Francisco OperaDie Frau Ohne Schatten “Productions like this, rare though they be, are why we live in hope every time we go to the opera”
The glorious history of Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten at the San Francisco Opera—including its 1959 U.S. premiere and the still vivid 1976 staging under Karl Böhm and Nikolaus Lehnhoff—is continuing in brilliant form. Sir Donald Runnicles, the beloved past...
Manitoba Underground Opera The Mansplaining Division “Alissa Watson’s spot-on stage direction allows each character to shine”
Manitoba Underground Opera surfaced this spring with its ambitious new 2023 festival titled "Odyssey", setting sail with Laura Gow’s The Mansplaining Division as the first of three mainstage shows presented May 24-26. This year also marks a radical departure for the...
Metropolitan Opera Die Zauberflöte “Musically, this Flute was top-flight”
How often does an opera audience seem united by one big, heady communal high? That was the feeling at The Metropolitan Opera’s new Die Zauberflöte on May 22, a giddily joyous experience that sent me home in buoyant spirits. Simon McBurney’s tirelessly inventive,...
Opéra de Québec Madama Butterfly “La révélation de la soirée fut assurément l’inspirante et dynamique Clelia Cafiero”
Pour sa première production, en 1985, L’Opéra de Québec avait choisi Madama Butterfly. Repris en 1999, 2005 et 2013, cet opéra de Puccini revient donc sur la scène du Grand Théâtre pour la 5e fois. La pandémie étant officiellement terminée, ses quatre représentations...
Canadian Opera Company Pomegranate The World Premiere of Kye Marshall and Amanda Hale’s Opera
On paper, the Canadian Opera Company’s Pomegranate, the opera about lesbian love and loss was intriguing and appealing; it had its world premiere on June 2 at the COC Theatre on Front Street. A plot line that shifts between ancient Pompeii as Vesuvius erupts and a...
Opéra National de Paris Ariodante Robert Carsen is “a master of the surprise ending”
With more than three decades in the field, Robert Carsen is celebrated in Europe and America alike for his intelligently conceived and stunning productions, and— as his new Ariodante shows—he is also a master of the surprise ending. Is it purely serendipitous that the...
Southern Ontario Lyric Opera La traviata “an evening of superb vocalism by the principals”
Since its inception in 2015, the Southern Ontario Lyric Opera (SOLO), under the leadership of Artistic Director Sabatino Vacca, has been a welcome addition to the musical life of Burlington and beyond. This performance of La Traviata, staged in the acoustically...
Theater an der Wien Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo “not just a landmark in opera history but also genuinely enjoyable”
Emilio de’ Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo of 1600 is the first opera to come down to us and has some claim to being the earliest work in the genre. In 2021 it was given a fully staged production, directed by Robert Carsen, at the Theater an der...
Opéra Comique Carmen “the top-notch children’s chorus from the Maîtrise Populaire de l’Opéra Comique is an absolute highlight”
German director Andreas Homoki's new staging of Carmen brings the world's most-performed opera back to its roots at the Opéra Comique, where it was premiered in 1897, using the actual backstage with Gustave Eiffel's seven iron doors and brick wall as the main backdrop...
Canadian Opera Company Tosca “a reading that loudly accented some of the big moments and played up the vivid colouring of Puccini’s rich orchestration”
The late American musicologist Joseph Kerman famously dubbed Puccini’s Tosca “that shabby little shocker,” though his pithy characterization is actually the opening salvo of a critical assault on the composer’s final opera, Turandot. Kerman had already had his way...
Houston Grand Opera Salome Maestro Keri-Lynn Wilson “balanced crisp rhythms and powerhouse sonority with delicacy and lilt”
There is a lot of talk in Richard Strauss’s Salome that something bad may happen. Several unfortunate things happened concerning Houston Grand Opera’s sixth staging of the opera, seen April 30 in Wortham Theater Center’s Brown Theater. But multiple delays and...
Canadian Opera Company Macbeth “COC Chorus and Orchestra are in top form for this musically exciting work”
Verdi’s Macbeth, which opened the Canadian Opera Company’s spring season April 28, is a challenging piece. It premiered in Florence in 1847 but was then revised for Paris in 1865 with significant cuts and additions. It’s mainly the later version we see today, which...