There are elements of Eurotrash in this outdoor Aix-en-Provence summer opera production. Nevertheless, the splendid singing and acting transform the story, normally treated as farce, into something considerably more serious. As many other critics have noted, the young lovers have not yet sorted everything out as this performance ends. Act One begins with the principal characters running around in the outdoor theater -- while the audience takes it in as if they had been advised to sit back and enjoy the novelty. Very likely they were also asked to refrain from applauding at the end of arias and ensemble pieces, in which the three-hour opera abounds.
The production by Deutsche Oper Berlin achieves a beautiful balance between the stage drama and the ...
Carlos Álvarez takes the title role in the first of Verdi's Shakespearean operas, with Maria Guleghi...
Joan Sutherland's farewell performance to the operatic stage offsets this story of the St. Bartholom...
This Blu-ray is a splendid record of a creative production with terrific voices and direction, as go...
Visually this is a gripping production which captures the drama of this opera perfectly. It's downri...
A tribute to marriage coming from a bachelor is a tad suspicious. But for Beethoven the idealization...
The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House presents a new production of Poulenc's short opera La Voix Hu...
The sets and costumes by Ponnelle are truly reflective of the 'grand style'. Plus the fact that the ...
CARMEN is the classic tale of forbidden passion between a young man and a spoken-for woman, Carmen. ...
Just as a young woman is about to marry her sweetheart, she is discovered—by the entire village, to ...
Verdi’s admiration for Shakespeare led to such masterpieces as Othello and Falstaff, and if the earl...
A village hires a priestess to pray for the safety of their pearl fishermen, but long lost love gets...
José Cura sings and acts here with an inwardness and intensity which make a profound impression. So ...
On a June night in 2017, opera lovers thronged to the Royal Opera House in London to hear tenor Jona...
Mirella Freni, Placido Domingo, Christa Ludwig, and Robert Kerns star in this Jean-Pierre Ponnelle-d...
The Lyric Opera of Chicago's 1985 production of Puccini's opera, set in the late nineteenth century ...
The stupendous climax to Wagner’s four-part Ring cycle is brilliantly realized by the Otto Schenk/Gü...
Originally commissioned to celebrate the completion of the Suez Canal and the opening of Cairos new ...
St. Margarethen is a magnificent structure and a grand setting for Nabucco. This venue, along with t...