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Manon Lescaut, Hungarian State Opera, May 29, 2011
Hungary’s principal operatic stage surged into summer with this revival of Puccini’s heart string-pulling third opera. Manon Lescaut is a weaker retelling of the Abbé Prévost’s novel than Massenet’s...
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Siegfried, San Francisco Opera, May 29, 2011
Opera administrator Speight Jenkins has suggested that we think of Siegfried as the scherzo of the Ring. Most of us would agree that our teenage years were the scherzo of our own lives, and so we know...
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The Marriage of Figaro, Opera de Paris, June 2, 2011
Mozart’s best known work is opera’s quintessential ensemble piece. Placing it on the plain of excellence requires a uniformly talented cast that not only performs well in isolation but also functions...
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Bayreuth Festival, August 24-28, 2011
The sleepy Franconian town of Bayreuth is most famous for its annual festival devoted to the works of Richard Wagner, who chose the locale as an idyllic site for both his residence and for a theater he...
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Der Rosenkavalier, English National Opera, February 24, 2012
The English National Opera’s tour de force 2011-2012 season continues with this revival of David McVicar’s production of 2008. Shared with the Scottish Opera, McVicar’s effort reflects a kind of...
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Jenufa, Deutsche Oper, Berlin, March 4, 2012
The audience at any Janacek opera must be ready to be appalled, watching persons acting in ways that are in truth no other than they ways they might have acted themselves; but they come back...
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Samson and Delilah, Washington Concert Opera, May 13, 2012
Washington Concert Opera, a venerable player in the capital’s arts scene, celebrates its 25th anniversary this season. A warm Washington spring may not be the first climate that comes to mind when...
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Wagner concert, Washington Chorus with Wagner Society of Washington, DC...
The intrepid Wagner Society of Washington, DC has much to be proud of as it approaches the fifteenth anniversary of its founding. From a small number of enthusiasts meeting in a bookstore, the...
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Salome, Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, May 24, 2012
The Cleveland Orchestra’s annual residency at Carnegie Hall always raises much anticipation, particularly since its dynamic conductor Franz Welser-Möst took over the orchestra in 2002. Ten years later...
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Two Recitals at Carnegie Hall, January 23-24, 2013
Disappointment with New York recent opera offerings leads one’s attention naturally to the city’s active recital life. This week at Carnegie Hall featured two noteworthy is sometimes overlooked...
View ArticleWozzeck and Salome, Carnegie Hall, February 28 and March 1, 2014
Musical New York was abuzz with these twin highlights of the Vienna Philharmonic’s annual residency. Much extended this year in honor of New York’s general focus on Vienna and its culture, the VPO...
View ArticleTristan und Isolde, Gran Theatre del Liceu, Barcelona, March 18, 2015
Earlier this month Valery Gergiev and his Mariinsky personnel performed Tristan und Isolde (March 3) and the Ring (March 4-8) at the new Mariinsky Theatre II in St. Petersburg. Barely a week later this...
View ArticleVienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, February 28, 2016
In another outstanding Carnegie Hall residency, the Vienna Philharmonic featured the star conductor Valery Gergiev leading arguably the world’s greatest orchestra in a repertoire of Russian classics...
View ArticleThe Ring of the Nibelung, Oper Leipzig, May 5-8, 2016
This Inszenierung debuted here four years ago but this was the first time it was presented over four consecutive days – a novelty for those who have seen the Ring too many times which in fact drew me...
View ArticleTristan und Isolde, Theatre des Champs Elysees, May 18, 2016
The action of the opera is slight: the characters are declaiming their feelings throughout. Hence Nietzsche called it Wagner’s Opus Metaphysicum. The only choice that is made throughout the piece is...
View ArticleDie Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Komische Oper Berlin, October 8, 2016
The stage for this production is unaccountably filled with cartoonish parallel “houses” made of foam-board, shaped like the green houses in Monopoly, but slim and ten feet tall. They are all painted...
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