VIEWPOINTS – 2018’s Best in Opera

2018 was a relatively strong year for opera in New York. The year was pretty well balanced in terms of worthwhile new works, new productions, and revivals. Although I mostly found myself at the Metropolitan … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Weeks 7-11: Memorable highlights include the dramatization of Joan Didion’s THE WHITE ALBUM and Mark-Anthony Turnage’s visceral opera GREEK

Weeks 7 through 11 of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival showcased to BAM-goers a wide variety of genres in its three distinct spaces (the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Harvey, and BAM … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Kaija Saariaho’s haunting ONLY THE SOUND REMAINS, directed by Peter Sellars, is of a single fabric

Last night, I caught the New York premiere of  Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s Only the Sound Remains at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center, by way of Lincoln Center’s White Light … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – At the Met, Robert Carsen’s striking production rescues Boito’s rarely-performed MEFISTOFELE from weirdness

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Robert Carsen production. Earlier this week, that dry spell was broken when I attended a performance of the important Canadian director’s striking, rightfully-acclaimed … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Week 6: A banner week featuring Philip Glass’s SATYAGRAHA & Sasha Waltz’s KREATUR

After taking two weeks off from attending performances at the Next Wave Festival, I was eager to reengage in BAM’s flagship festival once again last week. Even before Week 6 commenced, … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – SAMSON ET DALILA & MARNIE: A look at this fall’s new productions at the Metropolitan Opera

This fall, the mighty Metropolitan Opera unveiled two new productions. The first was its 2018-2019 season opener, Darko Tresnjak’s new staging of Camille Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila; the second was Nico Muhly’s … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Mazzoli and Vavrek’s compact, bleak PROVING UP investigates the American Dream, disturbingly and profoundly

One of the most dramatically and musically potent new operas I’ve come across in recent years was Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Breaking the Waves (which I encountered at last year’s Prototype Festival), … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – ERC’s TCHAIKOVSKY: NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART lets the tortured composer’s work do the talking, movingly

I recently took in a performance of Ensemble for the Romantic Century’s Tchaikovsky: None but the Lonely Heart, the company’s final production of its 2017-2018 season, at the Pershing Square Signature … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Charles Wuorinen’s highly anticipated, emotionally turbulent operatic adaptation of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN doesn’t fully satisfy

Last night, I attended the final performance of New York City Opera’s brief run of Brokeback Mountain, Charles Wuorinen’s operatic adaptation of the Annie Proulx short story (made famous by … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Joyce DiDonato leads a sparkling account of Massenet’s CENDRILLON at the Metropolitan Opera

Last night at the Metropolitan Opera, I caught American mezzo-soprano star Joyce DiDonato take on the title role in Cendrillon, Jules Massenet’s operatic version of the popular Cinderella fairytale. Quite surprisingly, … Continue Reading →