San Diego Opera's 60th Anniversary La bohème sees Mimì as a ghost
Helios Opera brings hilarious Service Provider home
ReviewService Provider is essentially an opera all about cell phone use; the characters are on cell phones for most of the run-time, pretty much ignoring everything around them.
Obscura Nox: Plato meets Mozart and Iman Habibi in remarkable short film
ReviewUnder Mary Birnbaum's assured direction this harrowing and cerebral story moves in a refreshingly linear way. The extraordinary melding of music, voice, dance and photography, not to mention Plato's philosophical discourse, have melded in a way that leaves us artistically and emotionally sated.
HGO Carmen "the epitome of unity"
ReviewEverything about this production went out of its way to imbue the whole with artistic cohesion and integrity, even the elements that might have seemed vaguely avant-garde out of context.
Enigma Opera’s Curlew River a transcendent experience
ReviewI chose my words very carefully when I call this Curlew River a transcendent experience: I am afraid I cannot fully explain the power that this particular production had and why it had that power, but I remember leaving the Cathedral Church of St. Paul feeling somewhat transformed by the experience.
Installation La traviata intimate and effective production
ReviewLa traviata hosts what is probably opera's most well-beloved idiot plot: all of the characters make some fairly idiotic choices for the plot to progress as it does, and some characters can really come off as extremely unlikable as a result.
Les Délices presents Song of Orpheus: The Music Speaks For Itself
ReviewThe music is beautiful and speaks for itself. French Baroque rarities by Rameau, Dandrieu and Courbois dance with subdued, exuberant and often tremulous elegance around the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.
Stephanie Blythe: "I can't help but try to connect with people."
Interview"I've been singing Handel and Rossini and Wagner and Verdi and Schubert and Brahms my whole career. What's the difference if I'm doing that or doing Irving Berlin and Cole Porter and Johnny Mercer and Barry Manilow? It's all music and it’s all just different styles and I enjoy singing them all."
The opera buffa Seinfeld episode
HumourThe whole episode is an opera, guys! The barber thing, the memorable music from The Barber of Seville, it's all very self-aware. It's even got the Rossini-style comedy devices: people hiding in closets, slapstick scenes involving Newman — Don Basilio, maybe?
A subtle burn: Garden of Vanished Pleasures
ReviewGarden of Vanished Pleasures is available to stream through October 10, and you should watch before it's gone. I'd say this is one of the more mature, well-produced digital items I've seen, and I'm not really surprised that it comes out of Soundstreams.
BLO Cavalleria a welcome, if not triumphant, return
ReviewI think the night, strangely, was best summed up by the opening act: BLO elected to open the evening with the prologue from Cavalleria's much-beloved double-bill partner, I Pagliacci, with Arrey singing Tonio's line.