Conversations "of the most urgent nature": We Shall Not Be Moved

Review

We Shall Not Be Moved asks hard questions about race, gender, flaws in our education system, and more. This work brings up parts of history that many would have us sweep under the rug. Great art has the ability to teach us the difficult lessons our education has deliberately excluded. After the performance was over, Bill T. Jones said that he wanted this opera to start a conversation.

Tamara Wilson gives a "flawless" Aida at WNO

Review

While Zambello's attempt to create a modern, stylized Aida may have failed, this performance is a delight for the ears. Tamara Wilson's flawless performance alone is worth making the trip to the Kennedy Center.

A masked ball: American Baroque Opera Co.'s Opera Cabaret

Review

This group has succeeded in being a passionate representative of Baroque opera as not merely an outlier that "comes before the real operas of Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, and Bizet", but as a vibrant, effusive, and brilliant genre sui generis that appreciates the love and devotion performers bring to it.

A refreshing gateway drug: The Magic Flute at O17

Review

While a new and forward-thinking production such as this Flute is of tremendous value, we must be wary of the cost on the performers themselves. There is a danger in productions where singers are made to fit into a sort of machine (see The Metropolitan Opera) and do not have total freedom to access their full range of expressive tools. These are the tools which would otherwise allow them to connect with the audience and portray their respective characters without limitation.

A dreamy psychological thriller: Vanessa at Oper Frankfurt

Review

Thoma presents the trio of women as three generations of the same person: Erika, the Baroness and Vanessa herself are all one immortal woman, eternally alone and suffering, stuck in time forever and unable to move forward. The Baroness embodies Vanessa's future as a bitter widow, while her niece Erika represents her past as a hopeful, beautiful, innocent young girl. As Erika laments, "Sometimes I am her niece/But mostly her shadow".

LA Opera scores in first half of Bizet double-header

Review

If you're someone who has seen little or no opera, Carmen is perhaps the perfect place to start because it's a perfect show; the libretto and score are true partners. Although the show runs about three and a half hours, the drama is so compelling and the music is so beautiful, you never find yourself looking at your watch (or, depending on your age, the clock on your cellphone).

A stunning premiere: Elizabeth Cree

Review

The production is bursting at the seams with variations in style, mood and display. Its musical ideas seamlessly transition from comical to frightening. The score includes some familiarity in terms of the musical vocabulary it employs. We hear moments evoking a Broadway musical, moments that are reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann's sounds of horror, and moments of gorgeously sweeping romantic lines.

Brisk & wicked: Die Zauberflöte at ROH

Review

Speaking of maniacal, the Monostatos of Peter Bronder brought the house down. This creepy and twisted creature slithered about the stage, more screaming his lines than singing, which made the actions of him and his evil band of goons thrilling to watch. Bronder is the kind of performer who we could glean meaning from only seeing his eyes peering through a black curtain - every movement is filled with intention.

The "positive impact" of Community Created Performances

Review

The stories they shared were uniquely told yet, sadly, all too familiar in today’s social and political climate. Drawn from the performers' own lived experiences, messages of solidarity and discrimination, faith and dejection, success and failure were accented against that complex mosaic of a backdrop: Chicago.

In review: Il trovatore at Oper Frankfurt

Review

"Balanced" is the emphasis here, with the infamous requirements of the four lead roles met by the quadfecta of Piero Pretti (Manrico), Elza van den Heever (Leonora), Brian Mulligan (Conte di Luna), and the very last-minute replacement for an ailing Tanja Baumgartner, mezzo-soprano Marianne Cornetti (Azucena), flown in from Pittsburgh just in time for Friday's dress rehearsal.