Boston Lyric Opera gave the work by Guadeloupe-born composer Joseph Bologne a snappy staging without making a strong case for its score, while MetLiveArts deftly put the more famous composer’s work in a global context. By Heidi Waleson Ashley Emerson and Brianna J. Robinson in ‘The Anonymous Lover’ PHOTO: NILE SCOTT STUDIOS Boston and New York With opera …
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Prototype Festival Review: Originality in Opera
The annual festival returned with an uneven slate of new works, from Huang Ruo’s oratorio ‘Angel Island’ to Heather Christian’s lively ‘Terce: A Practical Breviary.’ By Heidi Waleson Jan. 16, 2024 at 5:30 pm ET A scene from ‘Angel Island’ PHOTO: MARIA BARANOVA New York and Brooklyn, N.Y. At its best, the annual Prototype Festival, coproduced by Beth …
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‘Carmen’ Review: A Misguided Modernization at the Met
Carrie Cracknell’s production, which had its premiere on New Year’s Eve, sets the opera in the present-day U.S. while offering few fresh insights into Bizet’s classic By Heidi Waleson Rafael Davila and Aigul Akhmetshina PHOTO: KEN HOWARD / MET OPERA New York Director Carrie Cracknell, who made her Metropolitan Opera debut with a new production of Bizet’s …
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‘Rodelinda’ Review: Handel Well-Handled at Carnegie Hall
The English Concert, an ensemble led by Harry Bicket, returned to the New York venue for its annual performance of an opera by the Baroque master, turning in one of its finest productions to date. Conductor Harry Bicket (at the harpsichord, back to camera) and Lucy Crowe PHOTO: STEVE J. SHERMAN By Heidi Waleson Dec. 13, 2023 at …
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‘Florencia en el Amazonas’ Review: Exuberant Spanish Singing at the Metropolitan Opera
Just the third work in the language ever performed at the New York institution, composer Daniel Catán’s homage to magical realism proved lavish but low on drama. By Heidi Waleson Nov. 21, 2023 at 5:33 pm ET Griffin Massey and Mattia Olivieri PHOTO: KEN HOWARD New York The Mexican composer Daniel Catán’s “Florencia en el Amazonas,” which …
‘X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X’ Review: Songs of Struggle at the Metropolitan Opera
Director Robert O’Hara resurrects Anthony Davis’s 1986 work about the black civil-rights leader, in a production that gives thrilling voice to a richly jazzy score. By Heidi Waleson Nov. 14, 2023 at 6:04 pm ET Will Liverman (center) in a scene from Anthony Davis’s ‘X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X’ PHOTO: MARTY SOHL/THE METROPOLITAN …
‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ Review: A Story of Paralysis Takes Flight
At the Dallas Opera, Joby Talbot and Gene Scheer’s adaptation of the memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby movingly depicts the writer’s experience of being left speechless and almost entirely immobile by a stroke. By Heidi Waleson Nov. 6, 2023 at 5:33 pm ET ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ at the Dallas Opera PHOTO: KYLE FLUBACKER Dallas …
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‘Grounded’ Review: An Opera on War Waged at a Distance
Composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist George Brant’s world premiere at the Washington National Opera follows a female fighter pilot who is reassigned to flying drones. By Heidi Waleson Oct. 31, 2023 at 5:16 pm ET A scene from ‘Grounded’ PHOTO: SCOTT SUCHMAN/THE KENNEDY CENTER Washington ‘Grounded,” a two-act opera by Jeanine Tesori and George Brant, which had its world premiere …
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‘Intelligence’ Review: Jake Heggie’s Songs for Spies
The composer’s new work, which had its premiere at Houston Grand Opera in a production by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, follows a Confederate landowner and an enslaved woman in her household as they run a Union espionage ring during the Civil War. By Heidi Waleson Oct. 25, 2023 at 5:34 pm ET Jamie Barton and …
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‘The Hunt’ and ‘Sin-Eater’ Reviews: New Songs of Old Worlds
Kate Soper’s opera, which had its premiere at New York’s Miller Theatre last week, adapts a medieval legend about virgins used to trap unicorns; David T. Little’s work, performed by Philadelphia’s The Crossing, stems from the bygone practice of paying social outcasts to absorb the sins of the wealthy dead. By Heidi Waleson Oct. 17, …
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