Category Archives: Uncategorized

‘Fidelio’ Review: A Harsh Sentence

San Francisco Opera new production of Beethoven’s work, set in a detention facility, might leave some hoping for an early release.  By Heidi Waleson Oct. 19, 2021 3:15 pm San Francisco  Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” an Enlightenment paean to freedom and a celebration of the triumph of courage over tyranny, is regularly updated to reflect contemporary struggles. A …

Continue reading “‘Fidelio’ Review: A Harsh Sentence”

Raising the Curtain on Your Computer Screen

While companies slowly return to in-person performances, online videos like ‘La Voix Humaine’ and ‘In Song’ continue to bring the opera house to your home.  By Heidi Waleson Oct. 4, 2021 2:59 pm ETSAVEPRINTTEXTListen to articleLength 6 minutesQueue While live, indoor opera has returned in cities such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, other …

Continue reading “Raising the Curtain on Your Computer Screen”

‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’ Review: The Met Comes Blazing Back

Monday night’s performance, the first in 18 months, featured the Met’s first-ever opera by a Black composer: a stage adaptation of the memoir by Charles M. Blow. By Heidi Waleson Updated Sept. 29, 2021 6:58 pm New York Opening night of the Metropolitan Opera on Monday was a major event: The country’s largest opera company returned …

Continue reading “‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’ Review: The Met Comes Blazing Back”

‘Macbeth’ and ‘Carmen’ Reviews: Bold Voices in the Windy City

In Chicago, a production that moves Verdi’s work to the mid-19th century from medieval times and a concert of Bizet’s classic. By Heidi Waleson Sept. 22, 2021 5:25 pm Chicago Lyric Opera of Chicago opened its 2021-22 season on Friday with a new production of Verdi’s “Macbeth” in its regular theater, with full orchestra and chorus. …

Continue reading “‘Macbeth’ and ‘Carmen’ Reviews: Bold Voices in the Windy City”

Blue’ Review: Opera in the Age of Black Lives Matter

The story of a Black police officer’s family struck by tragedy when their son is killed by a white police officer. By Heidi Waleson Sept. 14, 2021 1:09 pm Detroit Michigan Opera Theatre embarked on a new chapter of its history last year with the appointment, as artistic director, of Yuval Sharon, best known for genre-defying, …

Continue reading “Blue’ Review: Opera in the Age of Black Lives Matter”

Glimmerglass Festival Review: Opera Under the Open Sky

This year’s festival moved outdoors due to Covid-19 and included ‘The Magic Flute,’ ‘Gods and Mortals,’ ‘Il Trovatore’ and ‘The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson.’ By Heidi Waleson Aug. 18, 2021 1:37 pm ET Cooperstown, N.Y. Francesca Zambello, the general and artistic director of the Glimmerglass Festival, knows how to improvise. With Covid-19 restrictions on live …

Continue reading “Glimmerglass Festival Review: Opera Under the Open Sky”

‘The Lord of Cries,’ ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ and ‘Eugene Onegin’ Reviews: Al Fresco Arias

The Sante Fe Opera’s scaled-down summer season includes one world premiere and three classics, performed and produced to varying degrees of success.  By Heidi Waleson Aug. 10, 2021 4:46 pm ET Santa Fe, N.M. With its open-air theater, Santa Fe Opera had a big advantage in the return to in-person performance this summer. Still, evolving pandemic …

Continue reading “‘The Lord of Cries,’ ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ and ‘Eugene Onegin’ Reviews: Al Fresco Arias”

King Arthur’ Review: Round Table Love Triangle

For all its romance, Bard SummerScape’s indoor production of Ernest Chausson’s rarely performed opera resembles an action movie with an underlying message: Don’t let a girl into the boys’ club. By Heidi Waleson Updated July 27, 2021 4:21 pm ET Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. Some American festivals moved their staged operas outdoors this summer, but Bard SummerScape mounted …

Continue reading “King Arthur’ Review: Round Table Love Triangle”