Author: Daniel Vasquez

It may come as no surprise to visitors to this site when we say that the pandemic has been rough on your friends Newoutpost. Short of become carefully reacquainted with the offerings of our local company (The Atlanta Opera), our return to polite society has been slow.…

Last Saturday night the Atlanta Opera unveiled the third stage production of its 2021-22 season, the company’s comeback season following the prolonged pandemic-related hiatus, with a performance of Rossini’s comic masterpiece, Il barbiere di Siviglia. Though pandemic statistics in our city and state continue to trend favorably, safety for staff and patrons remains a prime focus with the Atlanta Opera, and as it was at the time of the season’s opener last November (Handel’s Giulio Cesare,) proof of vaccination or a negative antigen test are still required to enter the Cobb Energy Center.…

Welcome back, stranger!

Last weekend, the Atlanta Opera made its much-anticipated return to mainstage productions at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre and opened its 2021-22 season with a first for the city: Handel’s Giulio Cesare. Aside from a selection of Handel and Hasse arias featured at a Spring Gala Concert back in 2007, and a full staging of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in 2009, the Atlanta Opera has rarely been known to champion early music, thus the prospect of such premiere proved enticing enough to force many (including myself) out of their pandemic accommodations of choice.…

Fueled by the recent announcement of its 2020-21 season, which is surely to be remembered as a game changer for the company, The Atlanta Opera’s second ever production of Richard Strauss’ Salome opened to thunderous applause this past Saturday. For this second effort, the company took great pains to give the daughter of Herodias and princess of Judea her due importance and created for her an entirely new production from the ground up.…

As the warm applause greeted the curtain of the Atlanta Opera’s season opening production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola this Friday, November 8th, glittery confetti showered on Angelina as she unfurled the final phrases of her celebrated aria (and arguably the only number keeping the opera active in the repertoire) “Non piu mesta”.…

Fresh from giving the neighborhood trick or treaters a halloween that will, hopefully, haunt their dreams for the remainder of the year, we ventured to Boston this past weekend for our first visit to Odyssey Opera. The young company, already causing stirs with its bold and daring choice of repertoire, devotes its seventh season to the exploration of the Tudor dynasty in opera, and ushers in November with (of this we are fairly certain) the American premiere of Giovanni Pacini’s Maria, Regina d’Inghilterra. …

The Atlanta opera closes its 39th season, one of its boldest and most far reaching to date, with Verdi’s perennial favorite middle period work, La Traviata. For Tomer Zvulun, it must feel a bit like a victory. Now in his 6th year as Artistic Director for the Atlanta Opera, Mr.…

To welcome spring, newoutpost ventured west for the opening night performance of Nashville Opera’s production of Jacques Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann on Thursday, April 4th. Despite being one of the biggest musical capitals in the United States, opera lags behind the more obvious musical genres in Nashville, and part of the company’s donation drive outlines becoming a medium tier regional outfit by 2020 as a prime goal in its printed literature.…

Absent in our city since its Atlanta Opera staging at the Civic Center in 2004, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin returned to Atlanta this past Saturday, this time on the stage of the Cobb Energy Centre, and was enthusiastically received. The new production, a joined effort shared by the Atlanta Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Seattle Opera, and Michigan Opera Theatre, is comprised of period appropriate sets and costumes which set the right atmosphere for Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece to properly unfold.…

As the small gathering of protesters held their ground outside the theater, an historic tableau greeted the Atlanta premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking this past Saturday. On the stage of the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, holding hands with the cast and the production team was the composer himself, as well as the real Sister Helen Prejean.…