| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 16-Feb-2013 Lincoln Center: Metropolitan Opera House | Rigoletto in flashing neon lights at the Met in HD |
 Verdi’s Rigoletto is possessed of a truly tragic plot. A physically disabled jester keeps his innocent daughter locked up except for weekly church visits, a situation which she only lightly resists. Rigoletto believes a curse is to blame for his daughter being killed, although she only dies as a substitute for the man Rigoletto himself has arranged to be assassinated. It’s a tragic, sexist and uncomfortable story which belongs firmly in the 16th century.Read full review... | |
| 21-Dec-2012 La Scala | A dream cast united in La Scala's Lohengrin |
 The first opera of the season at La Scala is an event of huge cultural significance in Italy, so it raised some hackles when, for Giuseppe Verdi’s centenary year, the management passed over Verdi in favour of Wagner’s Lohengrin. But even Italians disappointed by the insult to their culture found it impossible to quarrel with the quality of the singing talent on show.Read full review... | |
| 15-Sep-2012 AT&T Ballpark | Opera in the ballpark: Rigoletto at the home of the San Francisco Giants |
 The Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD simulcasts to movie theaters all over the world have been one of the biggest stories in the opera world in recent years and an undoubted hit with opera fans. Whether the program’s audience-building potential is commensurate with its box office hauls, however, is still a matter of debate. San Francisco Opera has also invested in technology to connect with new audiences by making performances available in what they call Opera Vision.Read full review... | |
| 12-Aug-2012 Hollywood Bowl | Verdi's Rigoletto at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Phil and Dudamel |
 A mid-19th-century Italian opera with the sound of the human voice front-and-center, and seemingly dependent on the trappings of the theater. If we want to keep the program conservative why not go with an opera by Mozart, Bizet, Wagner, or Weber instead? All of them used the orchestra with greater freedom and independence than we associate with Italian composers, many of whom composed for the orchestra as if it were little more than a giant guitar. Or so you would think.
Read full review... | |
