Viardot vs Grisi

Kicking off Viardot-vs-Grisi’s 2026 calendar of operatic pilgrimages, I headed west for Nashville Opera’s premiere of Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West this past Thursday, an adventure which would evolve into a bit of a physical challenge. Originally planned as a joint review between Chris Myers and I back in April of 2025 when the premiere was announced before the curtain of Nashville Opera’s production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, last week’s impending east coast ice storm threatened to make mincemeat of both travel reservations and the opera’s scheduled performances.…

Returning to the spectacular Carnegie Music Hall this past Sunday, Pittsburgh Festival Opera followed up last year’s presentation of Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur with a performance of Ponchielli’s epic tragedy, La Gioconda. For a fledgling enterprise treading about in these uncertain times, and now in its second season producing operas in concert form, the choice of repertoire is a bold one.…

Sandwiched between performances of Verdi’s La Traviata, the Atlanta Opera broke new ground last Saturday by offering the southeastern premiere of Philip Glass’ La Belle et la Bête. Matching a beat first established in 2023 with Shapiro’s Frankestein, The Movie Opera, this presentation of Philip Glass’ La Belle et la Bête introduced another hybrid work combining film and opera to Atlanta audiences, and was presented in a full orchestra edition aimed to satisfy the dimensions of the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.…

Five years into the apocalypse (or is it nine?) and it’s safe to say that life has once again hit its stride in Atlanta, which welcomed another November in classic style: Unpredictable and dramatic temperature drops, spirited elections, and the opening of the Atlanta Opera 2025-26 season with performances of Verdi’s La Traviata, which warrant another entry into these recollections.…

Closing its audacious 2024-25 season, The Atlanta Opera unveiled a production of Handel’s Semele this past Saturday, a first for the city. This inspired bit of programing served to highlight a season distinguished by a series of bold gambles by the company, starting off with a fine production of Mozart’s perennial favorite Die Zauberflote, and juxtaposed by well-intentioned yet unidiomatic performances of Verdi’s Macbeth, an opera better enjoyed by local audiences twice before.…

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.…