At Lincoln Center, Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon’s adaptation of the sci-fi novel about a teenager in a crumbling world turns an arresting book into a tedious cross between a song cycle and a harangue. By Heidi Waleson July 19, 2023 at 4:58 pm ET Marie Tattie Aqeel and the company of ‘Octavia E. …
Continue reading “‘Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower’ Review: Lost in Operatic Translation”
The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis reworks Scott Joplin’s creation and presents Carlisle Floyd’s classic about a community’s outsiders, while Haymarket’s production of Johann Adolph Hasse’s tragedy preserves its gender-bent precedent. By Heidi Waleson June 27, 2023 6:25 pm ET Brandie Inez Sutton and the chorus of ‘Treemonisha’ PHOTO: ERIC WOOLSEY Webster Groves, Mo. Current interest …
Henry Purcell’s moving Baroque opera features William Christie with Les Arts Florissants in a production at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, directed and choreographed by Blanca Li, that is both stylish and sometimes confusing. By Heidi Waleson June 20, 2023 5:13 pm ET Ana Vieira Leite, Kate Lindsey and Renato Dolcini, with a dancer in the …
Continue reading “‘Dido and Aeneas’ Review: Roman Tragedy in Barcelona”
Simon McBurney’s production of “The Magic Flute” at the Metropolitan Opera is an unusually nuanced yet still playful rendition of the fairy tale. By Heidi Waleson May 22, 2023 6:51 pm ET Lawrence Brownlee and Erin Morley PHOTO: KAREN ALMOND / MET OPERA New York Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” (“The Magic Flute”) is often staged as a fun …
Continue reading “‘Die Zauberflöte’ Review: The Met Humanizes Mozart’s Fantasy”
The director makes his Metropolitan Opera debut with a bleak, powerful production of the 18th-century classic. By Heidi Waleson May 8, 2023 6:03 pm ET Peter Mattei and Adam Plachetka PHOTO: KAREN ALMOND / MET OPERA New York This final month of the Metropolitan Opera season features two Mozart production premieres with some high-profile debuts. On Friday, …
Continue reading “‘Don Giovanni’ Review: Ivo van Hove’s Grim Mozart at the Met”
Directed by Tomer Zvulun, the company’s production of Wagner’s epic lacked a strong overarching concept; in New York, British tenor Allan Clayton delivered a stirring recital at the Park Avenue Armory. By Heidi Waleson May 3, 2023 3:42 pm ET Joseph Barron in ‘Das Rheingold’ PHOTO: KEN HOWARD Atlanta In his 10 years as general and artistic director …
Continue reading “‘Das Rheingold’ Review: Atlanta Opera Steps Into the ‘Ring’”
Heartbeat Opera gives ‘Macbeth’ a spare, putatively feminist reinterpretation and stages ‘Tosca’ as a production put on in a fundamentalist theocracy By Heidi Waleson April 18, 2023 6:02 pm ET Lisa Algozzini Photo: Russ Rowland Heartbeat Opera, which specializes in rethinking classic titles for contemporary audiences, opened its first fully staged new productions in 3 1/2 years at …
Continue reading “‘Lady M’ and ‘Tosca’ Review: Verdi and Puccini Imagined Anew”
The composer’s second opera at the New York institution is a visceral, jazz-influenced work about the closeted bisexual boxer Emile Griffith, who killed his opponent in a 1962 fight. Ryan Speedo Green PHOTO: KEN HOWARD / MET OPERA By Heidi Waleson April 12, 2023 5:55 pm ET New York After its huge success with the New York …
Continue reading “‘Champion’ Review: Terence Blanchard Comes Back to the Met”
A performance comprising three works by artists including Anna Deavere Smith and John Luther Adams received a technically spectacular production at Lyric Opera of Chicago; at Chicago Opera Theater, an opera about the brilliant British mathematician proved a labored telling of a tragic story. Gordon Hawkins as Preacher Man, Issachah Savage as Curtis Toler, and …
At the Seattle Opera, filmmaker Roya Sadat directs a timely but trite adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel, with music by Sheila Silver and a libretto by Stephen Kitsakos. Maureen McKay and Karin Mushegain PHOTO: SUNNY MARTINI By Heidi Waleson March 6, 2023 5:27 pm ET Seattle ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns,” by composer Sheila Silver and librettist Stephen Kitsakos, which had …
Continue reading “‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ Review: Arias in Afghanistan”
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