Classical Music Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 8

BWW Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Simulcast To Cars in Parking Lot
by Maria Nockin - August 05, 2021

British stage director Netia Jones put her singular stamp on a production of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream seen at the Santa Fe Opera on August 4, 2021. Performed in the opera house, it was simulcast to the lower parking lot where hundreds of patrons watched from the safety of their c...

BWW Review: MAZEPPA - Opera Blockbuster at Bolshoi Theatre
by Ani Arutyunyan - July 08, 2021

Recently the Bolshoi Theatre presented Tchaikovsky's three acts opera 'Mazeppa', based on Pushkin's poem 'Poltava', part of cultural legacy of Mazeppa. Pushkin took some creative freedom in order to create powerful characters and grand passions. The opera was composed between June 1881 and April 188...

BWW Review: J'Nai Bridges Recital for LA Opera
by Maria Nockin - June 23, 2021

On June 22, I watched J’Nai Bridges’ online recital at Los Angeles Opera’s website. Bridges has been making highly acclaimed debuts at major opera houses. For her LA Opera recital, she chose major selections by Johannes Brahms and Charles Gounod as well as many lesser-known shorter pieces. She sang ...

BWW Review: BRYAN HYMEL RECITAL FOR ARIZONA OPERA AND TUCSON DESERT SONG FESTIVAL
by Maria Nockin - April 29, 2021

On April 28, 2021, Arizona Opera, in partnership with Tucson Desert Song Festival, presented an online recital by dramatic tenor Bryan Hymel and pianist Michael Borowitz. They opened their streamed recital with the lyrical aria, 'Ombra mai fu” from Handel’s opera Xerxes. Sung by Xerxes I of Persia i...

BWW Review: THE SAN DIEGO OPERA'S BARBER OF SEVILLE at Pechanga Sports Arena
by Ron Bierman - April 29, 2021

The San Diego Opera continued its quixotic foray into parking-lot adventures with The Barber of Seville by Rossini, social distancing once again forcing substantial changes to a production's length and cast size. Revisions to libretto, costumes, set and lighting went all out for a zany farcical effe...

BWW Review: TIPPET RISE SPRING FESTIVAL at Streaming From Tippet Rise Art Center
by Joanna Barouch - April 15, 2021

Commencing Friday, April 16 running through Sunday, April 18, Tippet Rise on Tour will premiere ten short films featuring eclectic musical performances, readings of poetry, and live discussions with some of the musicians....

BWW Review: THE IMPRESARIO at Enigma Chamber Opera
by Andrew Child - April 08, 2021

There is a lot good about Enigma Chamber Opera’s new meta-comedy adaptation of Mozart’s The Impresario, but the highest praise must be reserved for its formatting as a highly scroll-able hour-long entertainment (mainly because it is actually at most a 20 minute performance trapped inside a redundant...

BWW Review: Merola Opera Program: ANYTHING FOR LOVE AND HONOR
by Maria Nockin - March 24, 2021

On Sunday, March 21, 2021, tenor Issachah Savage and collaborative pianist Laurie Rogers gave a half-hour recital called Anything for Love and Honor for the Merola Opera Program. Savage, a former member of Merola, won three prizes at Seattle’s International Wagner Competition in 2014: First Prize, t...

BWW Review: San Francisco Opera Streams SIEGFRIED
by Maria Nockin - March 22, 2021

On March 20, 2021, San Francisco Opera presented a free stream of Richard Wagner’s opera Siegfried as part of Francesca Zambello’s 2017-2018 American Ring. Forest projections set the mood for Runnicles and Zambello’s nature-friendly, quasi-impressionistic rendering of the opera. Lighting Designer Ma...

BWW Review: THE ART OF MUSICK - THE MUSIC OF HENRY PURCELL AND JOHN BLOW at Adelaide Town Hall
by Barry Lenny - March 18, 2021

Purcell was the greatest English composer until the arrival of Elgar....

BWW Review: A CHILD OF OUR TIME: ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 2021 at Adelaide Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
by Barry Lenny - March 17, 2021

It begins with the mezzo-soprano, the wonderful Elizabeth Campbell....

BWW Review: Houston Opera's Jack Swanson Recital
by Maria Nockin - March 15, 2021

On Friday evening March 12, 2021, Houston Grand Opera presented Live from The Cullen: Jack Swanson and Richard Bado in a wide-ranging recital of music by Robert Schumann, Leonard Bernstein, Roger Quilter, Kurt Weill, Franz Liszt, and Gioachino Rossini. Swanson can hold his audience spellbound with ...

BWW Review: Santa Fe Opera Online Benefit Concert
by Maria Nockin - March 12, 2021

On March 11, 2021, Santa Fe Opera presented an online benefit concert for its renowned apprentice programs. Singing the concert were former apprentices mezzo-soprano Emily Fons, tenor Jack Swanson, and baritone Will Liverman. Fons sings an aria from The Haunted Manor, Liverman sings an aria from Pag...

BWW Review: BOULDER OPERA THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO at Home Computer Screens
by Maria Nockin - March 08, 2021

On Sunday afternoon March 7, 2021, The Boulder Opera Company of Colorado presented Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro to audiences in the theater and online. Stage Director Michael Travis Risner set the time in the present. He provided the necessities required by the story and allowed the cast to prov...

BWW Review: DAS RHEINGOLD at Home Computer Screens
by Maria Nockin - March 08, 2021

On Saturday, March 6, 2021, San Francisco Opera did a wonderful thing. The company put the opening opera of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungen online, free to  the world of opera lovers and the universe of the curious. Anyone with access to the Internet can see the entire Ring on weekends in March, an...

BWW Review: LA Opera's DIGITAL SHORT DEATH Now Streaming
by Maria Nockin - February 23, 2021

Los Angeles Opera’s digital short film, Death, is Nadia Hallgren’s nine-minute creative take on Paul Laurence Dunbar’s turn-of-the 20th century poem, entitled Death. Two crows in seemingly choreographed flight introduce scenes with myriad black birds circling the edge of a leafless forest....

BWW Review: SOME ENCHANTED EVENING from Pittsburgh Festival Opera
by Maria Nockin - February 15, 2021

On February 14, 2021, Valentine’s Day, Pittsburgh Festival Opera presented seven singers in a romantic concert entitled Some Enchanted Evening.  James Lesniak and Robert Frankenberg provided thoughtful and supportive piano accompaniment and Festival Opera Board members added charming love stories....

BWW Review: COLUMBUS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Presents a LIVE Socially Distant Concert for Valentine's Day
by Christina Mancuso - February 14, 2021

Love was in the air as Columbus was finally reunited for the first time with a live (albeit socially-distant-mask-wearing) symphony orchestra performance featuring an intimate Valentine's Day concert with celebrated vocalists Jessica Hendy and Scott Coulter, accompanist John Boswell, and conductor S...

BWW Review: P R I S M at Los Angeles Opera
by Maria Nockin - January 29, 2021

On January 28, 2021, Los Angeles Opera streamed a newly filmed version of Roxie Perkins and Ellen Reid’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera  p r i s m. An operatic tapestry, p r i s m tells of the psychological dreams, desires and struggles of Bibi, a sexual assault survivor....

BWW Review: SOLDIER SONGS, THE MOVIE
by Maria Nockin - February 01, 2021

Soldier Songs is a filmed opera that tells about the life and memories of a returning soldier. Composer and librettist David T. Little says this concept took shape when Johnathan McCullough approached Little with an idea for a production of the opera involving an Airstream. When the pandemic happene...

BWW Review: Arizona Opera Presents STUDIO SPOTLIGHT CONCERT
by Maria Nockin - December 21, 2020

On Saturday evening, December 19, 2020,  Arizona Opera premiered its third  Studio Spotlight Series Concert online at no charge. The first part of the program featured tenor Bille Bruley, soprano Kaitlyn Johnson, and bass-baritone Brandon Morales singing opera arias. The second part was a performanc...

BWW Review: AMICI E RIVALI at CD Review
by Erica Miner - November 13, 2020

the two tenors take on the roles of sparring tenors who clearly get along musically and, by all accounts, personally as well...

BWW Review: SAN DIEGO OPERA'S LA BOHEME at Pechanga Arena Parking Lot
by Ron Bierman - October 28, 2020

A connoisseur's bravos replaced by honkin' horns and flashin' headlights? Puccini's La bohème staged in a parking lot? Such is opera performance in an age of COVID-19. A sold-out fleet of 450 cars contained opera-starved San Diegans who showed their appreciation of the performance in ways never imag...

BWW CD Review: AMERICAN COMPOSERS AT PLAY
by Erica Miner - October 27, 2020

Releasing a CD of vocal works entirely made up of 20th and 21st century composers is a brave and bold effort on his part....

BWW Review: LOTS OF STRINGS MUSIC FESTIVAL WITH MEMBERS OF ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA at The Rooftop Parking Area At Morris Museum
by Joanna Barouch - October 25, 2020

Under the benign gaze of Saturn, Jupiter, and a bright half -moon, a small ensemble of instrumentalists from the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performed their final concert of three under the stars at the Morris Museum in Morristown NJ on Saturday, October 24....