Little room for creativity in Font's WTO Barber

Review

This was a co-production with multiple opera houses around the world, including Houston Grand Opera and Opera Australia. As usual, the individuals in the company were top notch vocally, but unfortunately the production over all fell flat.

A freshly mixed bag at Tête-à-Tête's Opera Festival

Review

What I like about The Tete-a-Tete Opera Festival is that it is always a mixed bag. It is an incredibly liberating thing to watch so many creative performers and theatre-makers experiment with the limitations of the form.

Site-specific & intimate: selections from Tête-à-Tête: The Opera Festival

Review

All senses were catered to as audience members were misted with fragrant water and touched softly by the performers while being whispered and sung to directly.

Talking with singers: Mario Bahg

Interview

"The greatest purpose is to be evaluated. Every major competition brings famous vocalists or professionals involved in music to the jury."

Pountney's oversimplified War and Peace

Review

Writing an opera of this scale is not a simple charge and the task of producing it faces even more challenges; it is an immense work to attempt to pay homage to. There were a few magical, sparkling moments on stage that were completely true to the book, perfectly capturing the essence of Tolstoy's words.

Opera on the Lake makes charismatic debut with Die Fledermaus

Review

Characters would regularly go and stand at the bar to the right of the stage and "hang out" while the action was happening. This made for a very relaxed, fun and interactive atmosphere. In the Prince's aria during the party scene, Falke brought up a random audience member to take part in the festivities.

Unique venue makes for a fresh Così fan tutte

Review

I really liked Ms. Manich's bold choice at the end of having the sisters have suitcases in hand ready to leave. Just as the music ends the women make eye contact with their former fiancés, and they freeze.

Decadence at DMMO: Bon Appetit!

Review

At the end of the performance, the audience was served the very chocolate cake depicted in the opera, bringing the experience full circle. A decadent finish to a decadent evening.

Solid & subtle direction in WTO's Ariadne auf Naxos

Review

On Friday, July 19, Wolf Trap Opera opened their second opera of their summer season with Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. An opera within an opera is always a difficult feat in my opinion, and the creative team made it an entertaining and comical evening.

Talking with singers: Rihab Chaieb

Interview

"I've started listening back to my metal band that I was in during high school. That's the whole reason I started signing, is to be in a metal band. I had this nostalgia of going back and starting a band again. It's something in the back of my mind as a mid-30s project: create a metal band and tour the world after being an opera singer!"