| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 3-Oct-2012 War Memorial Opera House | Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi in San Francisco |
 In the last few decades, Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi has flirted with standard repertory status, but it has not sufficiently won the hearts of opera-goers to warrant more than the occasional production. Though blessed with some of the composer’s finest melodies, the opera has problems for modern audiences. Firstly, the tale does not follow Shakespeare’s version of the star-cross’d lovers’ story; the protagonists are already in love when the opera begins, which means no ball, no love at first sight, no balcony scene.Read full review... | |
| 27-May-2012 Theater an der Wien | Wiener Festwochen's new Traviata: The wood and the trees |
 Deborah Warner’s new production of La Traviata for the Wiener Festwochen is dotted with dramatic ideas to much the same extent as flowers are strewn and champagne is uncorked in the Act I ‘Brindisi’ (drinking song), which is to say sparingly. A minor updating of look, done on the cheap if costumes and props are anything to go by, proceeds according to Verdi’s conception of a contemporary tale, but seems at odds with Warner’s reluctance to pursue the work’s modern resonances.Read full review... | |
| 29-Jan-2012 Theater an der Wien | Iolanta and Francesca da Rimini sung strongly at the Theater an der Wien |
, Saimir Pirgu (Godefroy de Vaudémont), Ensemble & Arnold Schoenberg Chor.jpg) Iolanta and Francesca da Rimini work particularly well as a double bill because both works share the theme of lovers who find themselves at the mercy of possessive forces. Iolanta's domineering father ultimately yields in Tchaikovsky's opera, but in Rachmaninov's the deceitful Lanceotto is not so accommodating. In the Theater an der Wien’s new production the emphasis is on storytelling, which director Stephen Lawless does effectively in a straightforward staging of Iolanta and a not-unexpected updating of Francesca.Read full review... | |
| 10-Nov-2011 Kennedy Center: Opera House | Lucia in Washington: The House Always Wins |
 On Thursday night the DC opera fans gathered at the Washington National Opera for the opening night of David Alden’s production of Donizetti’s timeless tale of love and horror, Lucia di Lammermoor. It soon became obvious that the production presented to us was not the most conservative one. Immersed in pitch black darkness with but a thin ray of light across the wall, the stage was anything but easy to look at. Alden’s production transported us into the house of eternal twilight – the house of the Ashtons.Read full review... | |
