Opera

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Opera Review: “Dido and Aeneas” — A Memorable Evening of Purcell

April 1, 2019
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Handel and Haydn Society assembled both a must-hear program and an extraordinary cast of singers.

Opera Review: Boston Lyric Opera’s “The Rape of Lucretia” — Bravi Tutti

March 14, 2019
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The Boston Lyric Opera is mounting a fabulous staging of Benjamin Britten’s visceral opera.

Opera CD Review: Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger,” Sung in Italian, Beautifully, with Conversational Ease

March 12, 2019
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A 1962 concert performance from Radio Italiana, now on CD, shows how delightful Wagner can sound without barking and slow wobbles.

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