Classical Music Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 11

BWW Review: A GRIM AND POWERFUL 'GLORY DENIED' at Union Avenue Opera
by Steve Callahan - August 19, 2019

A soldier gone to a far off war, absent for years. His wife in anguish, not knowing whether she's a widow. It's a story far older than The Odyssey....

BWW Review: PROM 31: BRAHMS, BRUCKNER & STRAUSS, Royal Albert Hall
by Sophia Lambton - August 11, 2019

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted an evening of music where emotion overrode pristine beauty....

BWW Review: LA BOHEME at Union Avenue Opera
by Steve Callahan - July 29, 2019

Union Avenue Opera is on a roll! Two homers in a row! First their sublime Candide, and now an equally fine production of Puccini's La bohème. Union Avenue knocked them both right into the bleachers, and those of us who were lucky enough to catch one of those prize performances now own a true treasur...

BWW Review: CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER PRESENTS SUMMER EVENINGS at Alice Tully Hall
by Joanna Barouch - July 24, 2019

The fifth season of Summer Evenings during the 2019 Mostly Mozart Festival presented 3 delightful concerts, featuring soloists Anthony McGill, clarinet, and Sharon Isbin, guitar....

BWW Review: PROM 2: BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, Royal Albert Hall
by Sophia Lambton - July 21, 2019

*****#JakubHrusa builds a wondrous labyrinth of melodies with @bambergsymphony and @JoshuaBellMusic in the original #BohemianRhapsody @BBCProms...

BWW Review: PICNIC POPS SALUTE TO AMERICA! at Grand Rapids Symphony
by Brian Hilbrand - July 15, 2019

Twenty-five years ago in Grand Rapids, the Van Andel Arena still was on the drawing board. Meijer Gardens had opened just three months earlier, but it would be many years before an outdoor amphitheater would be built as a venue for summer concerts.   At Cannonsburg Ski Area, on a steamy evening in m...

BWW Review: WOZZECK at Des Moines Metro Opera: A Thought Provoking Work of Art
by DC Felton - July 07, 2019

Every so often, a production comes around that leaves you pondering about the show when it is done. For me, it's usually a jarring show that asks the audience to think about how we see things in the world, and if the way we see things can be adjusted or not. Des Moines Metro Opera's (DMMO) product...

BWW Review: Union Avenue Opera Gives St. Louis a Brilliant CANDIDE
by Steve Callahan - July 08, 2019

Run, don't walk, to see the brilliant CANDIDE at the Union Avenue Opera in St. Louis! This is the opening production of their twenty-fifth festival season, and it is, for my money, the most wonderful of the many lovely shows they've done....

BWW Review: THE PEARL FISHERS at Santa Fe Opera
by Maria Nockin - July 01, 2019

On June 29, Santa Fe Opera presented its second production of the 2019 season, a revival of Georges Bizet's exotic THE PEARL FISHERS. First seen in Lee Blakekely's 2012 version, the production has fared well. Current director Shawna Lucey staged a tasteful, straight forward revival of the work Bizet...

BWW Review: CANDIDE at Des Moines Metro Opera: A Beautiful Kaleidoscope That Makes the Best of all Possible Shows
by DC Felton - July 01, 2019

Some people think everything happens in life for a reason. Others choose to relish all the great parts of life while others drown in the despair of the horrible things that happen in the world. Whatever your philosophy on life is, one thing you would never expect is to see that philosophy come to ...

BWW Review: LA BOHEME Opens Santa Fe Opera's 2019 Season
by Maria Nockin - July 01, 2019

On June 28, 2019, Santa Fe Opera opened its 63rd Season with Giacomo Puccini's tale of poverty-stricken young lovers in nineteenth century Paris. Stage Director Mary Birnbaum told the tale in a straight forward manner but with with an occasional twist that fomented conversation among audience member...

BWW Review: LA BOHEME at Des Moines Metro Opera: A Breathtaking, Beautiful and Tragic Production
by DC Felton - July 01, 2019

In 2002, I was indirectly introduced to La Boheme. My introduction came when I was introduced to a musical that had come out and became a phenomenon on Broadway just 6 years earlier. The show quickly became a favorite musical of mine and showed me the impact that theatre can have on people. Since th...

BWW Review: MAINLY MOZART at the Balboa Theatre
by Ron Bierman - June 26, 2019

Each year Mainly Mozart brings concertmasters and principal players to San Diego from the major symphony orchestras of Cleveland, Philadelphia, New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, Dallas and elsewhere. They come for a month-long series that includes solo recitals, chamber music performances and orc...

BWW Review: No Stonewalling the Message of the Bell-Campbell STONEWALL at City Opera Premiere
by Richard Sasanow - June 25, 2019

If there's nothing colder than yesterday's news, the Stonewall riots--that cornerstone of the gay rights movement, 50-years-old this month--should be the equivalent of a frozen Margarita. Instead, it's hot as New York in August, in Leonard Foglia's nonstop production of STONEWALL, the opera by Iain ...

BWW Review: FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES at Opera Theatre St. Louis Captures Your Heart!
by Steve Callahan - June 18, 2019

Fire Shut Up in My Bones has opened at Opera Theatre St. Louis. It is gorgeous! Deeply intimate and honest, the beautifully told story almost overshadows the music by the great jazz trumpeter Terrence Blanchard....

TOSCA, A Political Lighthouse Opens at Opera Queensland
by Virag Dombay - June 13, 2019

Composed by Giacomo Puccini who is heralded as one of the greatest composers of all time, Opera Queensland's Tosca provides a powerful social-commentary on the manipulative nature of power and how love, somehow, though often tragically, manages to win. The work follows the story of Tosca, a famous s...

BWW Review: Reshaping Beethoven's FIDELIO into Lang's PRISONER OF THE STATE at the Philharmonic
by Richard Sasanow - June 12, 2019

The New York Philharmonic finished up its season with a powerful performance of a new version of the FIDELIO story by composer David Lang, which he neatly titled PRISONER OF THE STATE, summing up a key part of the story. Lang's score and the staging by Elkhanah Pulitzer—and the pulsating performance...

BWW Review: CHELSEA MUSIC FESTIVAL HONORS CLARA SCHUMANN at St.Paul's German Lutheran Church
by Joanna Barouch - June 10, 2019

Who was Clara Schumann, and why is the Chelsea Music Festival celebrating her this year?...

BWW Review: STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE: IN CONCERT at Des Moines Symphony: A Galaxy Far, Far Away comes to Iowa!
by DC Felton - June 08, 2019

Over the last few years, the Des Moines Symphony has done an amazing job of starting and growing a pops series. About a year and a half ago, the brought in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: In Concert. It was originally slated for two evening performances and had to be extended to a third pe...

BWW Review: Forget 'Games of Thrones,' DiDonato's Got a Grip on AGRIPPINA in Barcelona, and Heading to the Met and Covent Garden
by Richard Sasanow - June 06, 2019

For those of us who couldn't wait to hear mezzo Joyce DiDonato in a fully staged performance of Handel's AGRIPPINA—heading to Covent Garden in September and the Met in February in different productions next season—she has given us a first-class preview at the Liceu in Barcelona. For a couple of w...

BWW Review: A Glorious RIGOLETTO Opens at Opera Theatre St. Louis
by Steve Callahan - June 04, 2019

The Opera Theatre of St. Louis continues its 44th festival season of world class opera with a magnificent production of Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto. OTSL presented a splendid Rigoletto fourteen years ago, but this production is, I think, even better. It's the best Rigoletto your ever likely to see....

BWW Review: DER ZWERG at THEATRE AT ACE HOTEL
by Maria Nockin - June 04, 2019

Numi Opera began its inaugural season with Alexander Zemlinsky's almost forgotten Der Zwerg (The Dwarf), a piece once condemned by the Nazi Third Reich. In Los Angeles, the dark and cavernous ground floor of the Theatre at Ace Hotel was more than half full for the matinee performance on Sunday, June...

BWW REVIEW: EMMA MATTHEWS SINGS MOZART ARIAS Pairs The Sydney Symphony Orchestra For A Delightful Evening Of Music
by Jade Kops - June 03, 2019

Multi award winning Australian Soprano Emma Matthews returned to Sydney for a one-night treat with Sydney Symphony Orchestra as EMMA MATTHEWS SINGS MOZART ARIAS....

BWW Feature: New York City Opera Brings Music To Bryant Park
by George Weinhouse - May 21, 2019

When I was a child, my father took me to a series of outdoor concerts at a park near our home.  One of the programs featured excerpts from Bizet's opera CARMEN. This was one of my first exposures to opera and since then I have become a major devotee.  I have since joined the Patron Program at the Me...

BWW Review: SEASON FINALE: WEST SIDE STORY at Des Moines Symphony: A Beautiful Evening of Storytelling
by DC Felton - May 20, 2019

The season finale for the Des Moines Symphony is always a bittersweet concert. Going into it, there is the joy of seeing the amount of time some of the symphony members have been involved, which this year included a musician celebrating their 50th season. It was also heartwarming seeing Maestro Jose...