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”
In director François Girard’s production of the operatic fairy tale, powerful turns from Piotr Beczała and Christine Goerke compete with a series of questionable design choices. A scene from Wagner’s ‘Lohengrin’ PHOTO: MARTY SOHL/METROPOLITAN OPERA By Heidi Waleson New York The Metropolitan Opera returned from its monthlong hiatus on Sunday afternoon with Wagner’s “Lohengrin,” last seen at …
Continue reading “‘Lohengrin’ Review: Color-Coded Wagner at the Metropolitan Opera”
Composer and librettist Kate Soper’s inventive, uneven adaptation of a 13th-century French poem at Long Beach Opera explores the messiness of romantic love. Laurel Irene and Lucas Steele PHOTO: JORDAN GEIGER By Heidi Waleson Feb. 21, 2023 6:11 pm ET San Pedro, Calif. ‘Le Roman de la Rose,” a 13th-century, 21,000-line poem written in Old French, is …
Continue reading “The Romance of the Rose’ Review: An Opera on Love’s Disorder”
This year’s edition of the adventurous showcase includes an intimate double bill by Irish composer Emma O’Halloran and a dazzling, uncategorizable work by Gelsey Bell that spans geologic time A scene from ‘Morning//Mourning’ PHOTO: MARIA BARANOVA By Heidi Waleson Jan. 10, 2023 7:18 pm ET With the 10th anniversary season of the Prototype Festival under way, it’s …
Continue reading “Prototype Festival Review: Operas Personal and Planetary”
Umberto Giordano’s 1898 verismo work has a creaky plot but an engaging score, beautifully delivered by soprano Sonya Yoncheva in a handsome new production at the Metropolitan Opera Sonya Yoncheva PHOTO: KEN HOWARD / MET OPERA By Heidi Waleson Jan. 4, 2023 5:26 pm ET Umberto Giordano’s “Fedora” (1898) proved to be perfect New Year’s Eve fare …
Continue reading “‘Fedora’ Review: How the Met Toasted the New Year”
Kelli O’Hara, Renée Fleming and Joyce DiDonato in ‘The Hours’ PHOTO: EVAN ZIMMERMAN / MET OPERA By Heidi Waleson Nov. 29, 2022 at 1:05 pm New York ‘The Hours,” by composer Kevin Puts and librettist Greg Pierce, which had its world-premiere staged production at the Metropolitan Opera last Tuesday, is clever in concept. Its sources—the 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Michael …
A magical world premiere at San Diego Opera imagines Frida Kahlo reuniting with her husband, Diego Rivera, from beyond the grave; composer Ethel Smyth’s 1906 work, in a fusty revival at Houston Grand Opera, depicts English villagers who plunder shipwrecks and kill the survivors. Guadalupe Paz and Alfredo Daza PHOTO: KARLI CADEL By Heidi Waleson Nov. 1, …
Continue reading “‘El último sueño de Frida y Diego’ and ‘The Wreckers’ Reviews: The Music of Death”
The opera, which premiered at Penn State, depicts the fierce conflict between urban planner Robert Moses and journalist Jane Jacobs. Rinde Eckert as Robert Moses (right), with Tomas Cruz PHOTO: JEREMY DANIEL By Heidi Waleson Length (6 minutes)Queue State College, Pa. It’s odd that “A Marvelous Order,” an opera depicting the epic Robert Moses vs. Jane Jacobs battle over the fate of …
Continue reading “‘A Marvelous Order’ Review: Battling the Power Broker”
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