Opera

Opera Album Review: Muslims vs. Christians in 10th-Century Spain, Portrayed in an 1881 Gounod Opera (World-Premiere Recording)

November 13, 2019
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Gounod was no mere purveyor of gentle sentiments. This 1881 opera, superbly performed, shows plenty of drama and grit.

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Opera Review: A Decolonized “Magic Flute” by the Isango Ensemble

November 8, 2019
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What if you took canonical Western works and reimagined them from an African perspective?

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Opera Feature: MassOpera’s “Freedom Ride” — An Operatic Conversation on Civil Rights, Past and Present

October 28, 2019
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There can be little doubt that the urgency of the opera’s message about equality is as relevant as ever.

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Opera Album Review: Offenbach’s “La Périchole,” by an All-French Cast, Combines Zest and Elegance

September 26, 2019
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This is one of the zippiest, most life-affirming opera recordings I have heard in a long time. Well, this puts it a bit too blandly, because the work’s social satire also targets the smug self-satisfaction and careless cruelty of the powerful.

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Opera Album Review: A Renaissance-Toned Opera by Saint-Saëns, Finally (and Finely) Recorded

September 17, 2019
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One of Saint-Saëns’s most important operas, Proserpine, has recently been given its world-premiere recording, and the result is a revelation.

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Opera Album Review: Now Hear What Berlioz and Wagner Admired — Gaspare Spontini’s “Olimpie” in a Stupendous New Recording

July 12, 2019
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This world-premiere recording of the 1826 Paris version of Gaspare Spontini’s Olimpie makes a powerful case for a composer much admired in his own day.

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Opera Review: Boston Early Music Opera’s “Orlando” — Divine Madness

June 10, 2019
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This entertaining opera is a real soap opera, given that it chronicles the fallout of the passionate protagonist’s unrequited love.

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Opera Review: BLO’S “Handmaid’s Tale” — Sublime Dystopia

May 10, 2019
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The perversity of The Handmaid’s Tale oppressive allegory lends itself well to opera, and Boston Lyric Opera makes the most of the material’s emotional heights and depths.

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Opera Review: A Sumptuous New Recording of Korngold’s “The Miracle of Heliane,” Centerpiece of This Summer’s Bard Music Festival

May 1, 2019
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Once much-performed, then banished from the stage by the Nazis, The Miracle of Heliane, now available in a fine new recording, is perhaps the best opera by the man who would become one of Hollywood’s leading composers.

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Opera Review: MassOpera’s “Die Fledermaus” — Modern Life, Lampooned

April 9, 2019
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MassOpera’s updated version of Die Fledermaus pulls off a major feat.

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