(Photo: Agnese Zeltina Latvian National Opera) Latvian National Opera’s new production of Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” was no simple reflection on the poet’s failed love affairs, in which the Muse/Nicklausse attempts to convince Hoffmann to forsake love’s attraction in favor of poetry. Rather, the director, Aik Karapetian, had an intriguing and very different reading in mind that turned it into {…}
(Credit: Cory Weaver) Whether you view Richard Wagner’s opera, “Tristan und Isolde,” as an expressive tale of universal human redemption or simply a unique take on the many medieval romances of love and death, there is no question it casts a spell. In the opening of San Francisco’s new production by Paul Curran, conducted by San Francisco’s own Eun Sun {…}
(Photo: ©2024 Marc Brenner) It is the first time The Royal Opera have staged Leonard Bernstein’s valedictory operatic double-bill of “Trouble in Tahiti” and “A Quiet Place,” presented in the Linbury Theatre. It is conducted by Nicholas Chalmers, who is also making his Covent Garden debut, and directed by Oliver Mears. “Trouble in Tahiti” is from 1954, and is separated {…}
(Photo: Marty Sohl / Met Opera) In recent years, it has become that contemporary opera has an identity issue. In a world where musical theater and cinema / television dominate the entertainment landscape (not to mention video games), contemporary opera has seemingly done its utmost to match these works in breadth and scope. The problem is, opera has always had {…}
(Photo Credit: Ewa Marie Runquist) Very rarely do I review concerts featuring heavy hitter singers and feel sad afterwards, for the audience and performer alike, wishing that what was presented was something else entirely. However, in Berwaldhallen’s second offering of the 2024-25 season, “So We Will Vanish With Anne Sofie von Otter,” the great Octavian, the incomparable mezzo-soprano, and one {…}
(Photo: Marek Olbrzymek) It is too often the case that Janáček’s “The Cunning Little Vixen” is presented as an opera for children, no doubt because it has lots of furry animals that talk and sometimes act like humans, although it is also probably a reaction to the fact that Janáček’s inspiration for the opera came from a cartoon strip in {…}
(Photo: Tristram Kenton) “Eugene Onegin,” Tchaikovsky’s reworking of Pushkin’s verse novel into seven ‘lyric scenes,’ has not been seen on the Covent Garden stage for nearly a decade. Ted Huffman’s new staging would have been an event for that reason alone, but its significance was underlined by the fact that it sees one of the most striking young directors making {…}
(Photo credit: Philippe Gisselbrecht) On October 4 and 6, the Metz Opera Theatre, in collaboration with the Fondazione Teatro di Piza and the Fondazione Pergolesi Spondini di Jesi, and with the support of the Italian Consulate in Metz, presented Puccini’s “La Rondine,” an interesting choice for this pocket opera whose programming has always been eclectic. All the more so as {…}
(Photo: Jan Windszus Photography) Ever since its premiere in 1742, George Frederic Handel’s “Messiah” has been considered a work of vocal and intellectual power. All the more so when it is performed in an airport hangar, with over 350 choir members, dramatically staged, on a stage over 180 feet wide. The Komische Oper Berlin hashtags #everything extraordinary – in large {…}