VIEWPOINTS – Is the age of avant-garde performance over?: Nikos Karathanos’s THE BIRDS and Meg Stuart’s UNTIL OUR HEARTS STOP

Are we living in a world in which the avant-garde is obsolete, a mere caricature of what it has historically been? Or have we simply been desensitized to a degree … 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 →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Anna Netrebko debuts a smoldering TOSCA at the Met

Last night, I caught the second cast of Sir David McVicar’s traditional new staging of Puccini’s Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera. I had thought the opening cast – which featured … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Basil Twist’s genre-busting SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE returns, triumphantly

What’s the most compelling dance performance currently playing in town? Well, I’d place my bet on singular visual artist Basil Twist’s gorgeously handcrafted Symphonie Fantastique at HERE Arts Center. The thing is, … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – ROCKTOPIA is a rock-meets-classical music collision that counts on your endorphins being released

Last night at the appropriately blandly-named Broadway Theatre, I caught Rocktopia, a tourist-friendly concert that mashes up rock with classical music. Although the production is advertised as an opportunity to hear the … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR & IL PIGMALIONE/PIGMALION: The Met and City Opera synergistically counterpoint each other

I had questioned the resuscitation of New York City Opera when they announced that a traditional production of Puccini’s war horse Tosca would be the vehicle for their return. However, since then, … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The Met’s delightful new production of COSÌ FAN TUTTE almost unlocks Mozart’s problematic opera

Like Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte is a fiendishly opera difficult to get right. That’s because, on paper, its depiction of women is terribly dated, even mean-spirited. In the opera, two … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Meredith Monk’s CELLULAR SONGS at BAM is equally beguiling and confounding

Tonight, I caught the opening night performance of Meredith Monk’s Cellular Songs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. BAM has long been a hotbed for avant-garde music- and theater-making, and Ms. Monk … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – John Kelly’s TIME NO LINE weaves together a living memoir, creating art in the process

Last night, I caught one of the final performances of veteran performance artist John Kelly’s theatrical memoir Time No Line at, fittingly, La Mama’s Ellen Stewart Theatre. Sufficiently doing justice to his long, storied … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The Met revives its raw production of Richard Strauss’s ELEKTRA, ecstatically led by Christine Goerke and Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Tonight, I revisited the Metropolitan Opera’s raw production of Richard Strauss’s still-shocking, laser-focused one-act operatic adaptation of the Greek tragedy Elektra. Even if the staging from the late, great Patrice Chéreau this time around … Continue Reading →