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Majeski makes sensitive, subtle ROH debut in Kát'a Kabanova

Majeski makes sensitive, subtle ROH debut in Kát'a Kabanova

It is a piece that is so clearly a microcosm of a very specific place and time. Director Richard Jones has chosen to set it in the mid-60s in a repressive, religious Russian community where a life of domesticity, is a woman's only option.

Alessia Naccarato
Challenging opera's "male swagger" in (La) Voix humaine

Challenging opera's "male swagger" in (La) Voix humaine

"In the operatic canon, there's a whole lot of male swagger, seduction, anger, and violence but a notable lack of vulnerability. Dramatically, I'm interested in shame and vulnerability, particularly in the lives of men."

Jenna Simeonov
#COC1920

#COC1920

2019/20 is a season of revivals, perhaps disappointingly so for some of the COC's longtime audience members who won't get treated to much they haven't seen before.

Jenna Simeonov
Stemme's Elektra visible in every wild look and lurching step

Stemme's Elektra visible in every wild look and lurching step

Every facet of this production is thoughtful and dramatic, so much so that even the actors aren't immune from its terrors. It was announced before curtain that Stemme sustained a knee injury during a rehearsal (one look at the steeply raked set and you'll wonder the whole cast isn't on crutches!).

Hannah De Priest
All too rare: Hannigan takes the podium with the Cleveland Orchestra

All too rare: Hannigan takes the podium with the Cleveland Orchestra

Hannigan's well received turn at the podium, met by an immediate and unanimous standing ovation, should serve to demonstrate to the Cleveland Orchestra, and to classical music institutions across the continent and around the globe, that making an effort to include and elevate marginalized perspectives holds significance well beyond meeting a quota or "catching up with the times."

Carly Gordon
La Nilsson: celebrating Birgit Nilsson at 100

La Nilsson: celebrating Birgit Nilsson at 100

The box seems to generate its own energy. Covered in sophisticated hues of copper and gray with a resplendent image of Birgit Nilsson as Brünnhilde, who had surely passed through hair and make-up before leaving Valhalla, it is of monolithic proportions.

John Hohmann
Bucking trends: Hook Up

Bucking trends: Hook Up

It was at times Sondheim, at times Schwartz, at times Bernstein, but the overarching feeling (to me) was akin to Adam Guettel's masterpiece A Light in the Piazza.

Greg Finney
Expressionist nuance: Elektra at the COC

Expressionist nuance: Elektra at the COC

What can one possibly say about Christine Goerke in this role and still do justice to the kind of singing we experienced on Saturday night? Her vocal range is not of this dimension and her finesse to Strauss' bombastic score is something to be witnessed in person.

Greg Finney
So true it hurts: Hook Up

So true it hurts: Hook Up

The party scene put a pit in my stomach, as did everything that came after. The confusion, the horrid feeling of not knowing - but kind of knowing - what happened during a blackout, the inadequate explanations to friends and boyfriends, it was all too true.

Jenna Simeonov
TSO's 2019/20 a season of (mostly) classics

TSO's 2019/20 a season of (mostly) classics

"There's nothing I like better than planning programmes," says Davis, of his enthusiastic stepping in as the TSO's Interim Artistic Director. But, eager to pass the torch officially to Gimeno, "the next season will be Gustavo's."

Jenna Simeonov

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