Viardot vs Grisi

The Atlanta Opera’s production of Richard Wagner’s Siegfried debuted this past Saturday, and things are officially getting serious. Last seen in the land of the peach under the auspices of the Metropolitan Opera tour in April 28, 1917 (a performance which also forced the farewell of the celebrated Johanna Gadski for her assumed political improprieties) Siegfried is the third installment in Wagner’s monumental tetralogy: Der Ring des Nibelungen, and it presents tremendous challenges to any company tasked with bringing the work to life.…

Still dazzled and somewhat woozy after an extraordinary weekend of opera in Sarasota, Viardot-vs-Grisi headed west to Music City, lured by Nashville Opera’s production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor – a cornerstone of the Bel Canto repertoire – featuring Rainelle Krause’s Lucia as the main attraction.…

For those who abhor humidity, tropical wildlife, and exposure to UV radiation, Sarasota in March can be an experience. This thought flashed over my sweaty brow during the many long walks between the theater and my deplorable hotel accommodations throughout the intense Sarasota Opera weekend schedule two weeks ago. …

Dark. Menacing. Sinister. Verdi’s Macbeth opened last Saturday at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre to much fanfare. Though the company cannot claim to be a haven for the early Verdi canon, the Atlanta Opera has mounted the composer’s first Shakespearean foray twice before.…

Following a fourteen-year absence from the company’s repertoire, the Atlanta Opera revisits Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte through a revival of its co-production with Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, originally unveiled in 2010. For those keeping count, that was Tomer Zvulun second production for the Atlanta Opera, fresh from a successful debut the previous year in Wagner’s Der Fliegende Hollander and still three years shy of his ascend to his current post as the company’s General and Artistic Director.…

Piggybacking on its main stage production of Puccini’s La Boheme this past January, the Atlanta Opera opened its 2024-2025 season under the banner of its Discovery Series this past Wednesday with The Boheme Project, an alternating double bill of sorts, featuring an updating of Puccini’s classic to modern times, alongside performances of Jonathan Larson’s Rent at Pullman Yards.…

Founded in 1978 by Helen Knox and legendary American mezzo-soprano Mildred Miller, Pittsburgh Festival Opera began life as Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, running alongside the more established Pittsburgh Opera company and offering complimentary repertoire of the less standard fare (notably works by American composers) in the summer months.…

With ears fully saturated by Atlanta’s heavy dose of Wagner (rumor has it Waltrauto attended every performance of Die Walkure), I traveled to Mormon Country seeking the perfect palate cleanser in the form of Utah Opera’s production of Massenet’s Thaïs.…

With the ethereal afterglow of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream still lingering in the air, Atlanta opera goers prepared for the operatic event of the past…well, four decades. The unveiling of the company’s first production of the second opera in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, the cycle’s most popular work and a premiere that may surely expand the company’s artistic ambitions, loomed at the end of April.…

Heading towards the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center last Saturday to attend the opening of Atlanta Opera’s production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, my anticipation mixed with a shade of dread. With the company’s recent designation as a Budget One company by Opera America last year, there has been (allegedly) renewed enthusiasm among local opera goers, alongside the occasional eye roll from neighboring regional hubs (again, allegedly).…