Living at the Opera

Now that interviews with the singers have become an important intermission feature of the Met’s HD Telecasts, the viewing audience gets to meet the artists as they come off stage right after their performances. At the Encore Telecast of Carmen on February 3rd, it happened to be after Act Two, which stood out not only [...]

If the audience’s reaction to the January 6, Met Encore Telecast is to be taken as an example of how enjoyable a new opera production can be, then Bart Sher’s Contes d’Hoffmann rates as one of this year’s Telecast successes. The theater director won a Tony for his revival of South Pacific and then turned [...]

From Seen and Heard International By: Bernard Jacobson Seattle Opera, soloists, cond. Yves Abel, dir. José Maria Condemi, set designer Allen Moyer, costume designer John Conklin, lighting designer Thomas Hase, Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, Seattle, 16 and 24.1.2010 (BJ) Music trumped drama in Seattle Opera’s new Trovatore, partly because vocal and orchestral values were so [...]

From Seen and Heard International By: José M Irurzun On my way to Valencia I was wondering how I would handle the transition from the Barcelona Tristan to Lucia in just three days. The jump from one opera to the other is not an easy one, unless you see in the Donizetti two protagonists as [...]

From Seen and Heard International By: José M Irurzun After the brilliant performance of Ariodante last December, Oviedo finished its opera season with a greyish kind of tone from a Simon Boccanegra that left much to be desired. Coming from the Santa Fe Festival with stage direction by Stefano Vizioli, discovering what the interest in [...]

From Seen and Heard International By: James L. Zychowicz; Picture © Dan Rest Lyric Opera of Chicago continues its 2009-2010 season with a masterful staging of Gaetano Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore or The Elixir of Love, as it is billed. The revival of this venerable production is enhanced by an excellent cast, led by Lyric’s Ryan [...]