A bold debut album: Brian Mulligan sings Dominick Argento

Review

Mulligan has a thrilling quality in his voice, an open-throated sound that's masculine, honest, and completely appealing; his is an exhilarating balance between constant beauty and toeing a risky edge.

"How did we do?" Second Movement Presents: rough for opera #16

Review

All of the pieces were presented as works in progress, with the possibility of expansion or revision pending audience feedback. Being in this kind of environment, even as a spectator, was thrilling, with everyone in the room contributing to the creative process that goes into creating a piece of music theatre.

Xenophobia, Fake News, & Mental Health: Peter Grimes

Review

Warner's Grimes is far from blameless, mirroring the ambiguity around an attitude that welcomes outsiders when those outsiders pose a perceived threat. For a German audience that is still adjusting to the arrival of a million Syrian refugees in the wake of the 2015 migrant crisis and whose dark history of unfounded scapegoating still looms large, this Peter Grimes struck a resounding chord.

Cosmic grandeur and human frailty: Crossing

Review

But forgetting this ambiguous relationship for a moment: Crossing is an engaging opera, held together over its generous hour and forty-minute run time (no intermission, thank goodness!) by a cohesive score happily swollen with motivic unity. When a recording becomes available, audiophiles can look forward to listening on repeat like a Wagnerite, collecting and linking more motifs each time.

A string of Pearls from Bizet and LA Opera

Review

Dark fabric billows beneath the set, and one is never allowed to forget that the sea is the underpinning of everything that’s happening. When the inevitable storm comes, the fabric is no longer lovely and tranquil but frightening as it inflates to ever bigger and bigger "waves." Another constant device: during much of the drama in Act I, a lone fisherman bobs up and down in his boat beneath the pillars that hold up the village.

Searching for superlatives: LOC's suberb Rigoletto

Review

Here is when a reviewer typically starts reaching into his bag of superlatives, but at the risk of hyperbolizing, Kelsey's performance sets a new standard. At just 39 years old, the Ryan-Opera-Center-alumnus looked and sounded every bit the part of a father aged and disfigured by paranoia, disillusionment, and delusion.

Laughing out loud: The Barber of Seville at ENO

Review

Count Almaviva was sung by Eleazar Rodríguez, a singer who had as much energy in his stage presence as he did in his singing. He brilliantly toed the line between goofy and sincerely lovestruck, playing the character of Almaviva full of youthful optimism and romantic determination. His singing, too, was wonderful - his lovely leggiero voice handled the technical demands of Rossini with ease.

Rowley wins the night in Nashville Opera's Tosca

Review

My companion for the evening hadn't seen Tosca before (or even heard the music!), and quickly read a synopsis in advance ("I get the idea," she texted me, "Opera war Italy love murder. Papal stuff."), but a synopsis can't really prepare one for this opera, can it?

AAM's King Arthur: a missed Brexit

Review

Some segments worked well, such as the famous freezing scene as a metaphor for the despair felt by the Remainers, or the ambiguity subverting the triumphalism of "Saint George, the patron of our isle". But why the duet "Two Daughters of Aged Stream are we" should evoke a nightclub or the martial posturing of "Come if you dare our trumpets sound" should call to mind a train station will have to be explained to me.

Folk songs for lunch: Esprit Orchestra & Krisztina Szabó in the RBA

Review

Szabó takes a cue from folk-song performance practice, keeping things simple and all about storytelling. She found ease in her role among Berio's varied sound worlds, and let her listeners settle in to what's familiar in these songs: the tunes. The light-filled, close-up environment of the Amphitheatre is unnerving for many artists, but Szabó is a performer who relishes the chance to step into her audience's personal space.