Opera Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations

Review: MARIA, in Cinemas and Streaming
by Gary Naylor - December 31, 2024

Angelina Jolie is compelling in a movie that concentrates on the misery to the exclusion of almost everything else in the diva's life...

Review: HANSEL AND GRETEL, Royal Ballet and Opera
by Gary Naylor - December 29, 2024

Macabre and spectacular, this is Christmas fare as it once was and should still be, fully trusting its audience....

Review: Strauss’s Powerhouse FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN Casts Big Shadow at the Met
by Richard Sasanow - December 07, 2024

Richard Strauss’s DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN (THE WOMAN WITHOUT A SHADOW), with a libretto by his long-time collaborator, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, has made a triumphant return to the Met with a stellar cast and the Met Orchestra in peak form under Yannick Nezet-Seguin. It dazzled and glowed like few other...

Review: THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, London Coliseum
by Michael Higgs - December 03, 2024

Sarah Tipple brings the comedic opera to life with gloriously ridiculous period costumes, an outstanding cast and an abstract set that mirrors the plot’s absurdism with precision....

Review: MACBETH at Kennedy Center
by David Friscic - November 18, 2024

Malevolence, greed, the thirst for power and the never-ending quest for revenge dominate the Washington National Opera production of composer Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth. The vocals by the company of classical singers assembled here are the glory of this production....

Review: THE ELIXIR OF LOVE, London Coliseum
by Alexander Cohen - November 18, 2024

​​​​​​​Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. That’s the hypothesis of Harry Fehr’s new iteration of The Elixir Of Love, a self-reflexive swipe on 1970s sitcoms drunk on the saccharine sentimentalism of second world war triumphalism. Pip pip. Tally ho....

Review: THE SOUND VOICE PROJECT, Royal Ballet and Opera
by Gary Naylor - November 15, 2024

Words run out, as The Voice is lost and recovered...

Review: LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR at Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
by Barry Lenny - November 09, 2024

There are only three more performances, so book quickly....

Review: THE TALES OF HOFFMANN, Royal Ballet and Opera
by Gary Naylor - November 08, 2024

Damiano Michieletto brings plenty of pizzazz to Offenbach's crowdpleaser, but wastes some of his on-stage talents...

Review: SAN DIEGO OPERA PRESENTS LA BOHÈME at San Diego Civic Center
by Ron Bierman - November 06, 2024

What did our critic think of SAN DIEGO OPERA PRESENTS LA BOHÈME at San Diego Civic Center? San Diego Opera celebrated the opening of its 60th season with Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème, the same opera the company staged to open its first season. Its magnificent melodies, a touchingly tragic love story...

Review: Top Singing and Tap Dancing Highlight Richard Tucker Awards Gala
by Richard Sasanow - November 02, 2024

As usual, the gala concert of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation started off with an interloper from the golden age of opera: Richard Tucker himself, singing Mascagni’s “Addio alla Madre” from CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA. A tough act to follow for those singing live at Carnegie Hall, but happily no one se...

Review: The Marx Brothers Found Life in TROVATORE that the Met Couldn’t Muster
by Richard Sasanow - November 01, 2024

I must admit that the Met’s current revival of IL TROVATORE--with RIGOLETTO and TRAVIATA, considered the great creations of Verdi’s middle period--made me think of another masterwork, “A Night at the Opera,” my favorite of the movies by those champions of silliness, the Marx Brothers....

Review: RIGOLETTO, London Coliseum
by Franco Milazzo - October 31, 2024

There’s no shame in pulling an old favourite from the vaults but Jonathan Miller’s 1982 gangster-themed production is firing blanks in this latest revival....

Review: CARMEN at Polish National Opera
by Natalia Jarczynska - November 03, 2024

What did our critic think of CARMEN at Polish National Opera?...

Review: FIDELIO at Kennedy Center
by David Friscic - October 28, 2024

The Washington National Opera’s production of Beethoven’s Fidelio is a triumph of elegant, efficient style and directorial finesse. Director Francesca Zambello re-invigorates the somewhat uninspired libretto by Joesph Von Sonnleithner with a vigor and intelligence that envelops this tale of valor, c...

Review: GODS & MORTALS: A CELEBRATION OF WAGNER at The Kennedy Center
by Rachael F. Goldberg - October 28, 2024

'Gods & Mortals: A Celebration of Wagner' is a beautiful, if limited, array of performances and works highlighting both the composer and Kennedy Center’s own wonderful talent....

Review: ACIS AND GALATEA at Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre
by Keira Grant - October 27, 2024

Opera Atelier’s production of G. F. Handel’s Acis and Galatea was a fun and fresh take on an opera that has delighted audiences since its premiere in 1718. Handel referred to it as his “little opera.” This production is a very “user-friendly” introduction to Baroque opera and historically informed p...

Review: FAUST at Four Seasons Centre For The Performing Arts
by Keira Grant - October 24, 2024

Vocally and musically, the Canadian Opera Company's production of Gounod's Faust directed by Amy Lane was a sumptuous feast for the ears. While elegant, The restrained production values didn't quite sell the delights of debauchery, leaving the well-known story's premise somewhat flat....

Review: RENÉE FLEMING AND THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at Kennedy Center
by Elliot Lanes - October 21, 2024

With the size of theatrical orchestras being drastically cut, one of the few places left to hear a full string section is at a symphonic concert. What better symphony is there than YOUR National Symphony Orchestra (NSO)?...

Review: Golijov-Hwang AINADAMAR Brings Dreams, Flamenco and Death in Met Debut
by Richard Sasanow - October 16, 2024

Osvaldo Golijov’s AINADAMAR, which made its Met debut this week, with a libretto translated by the composer from the English original by David Henry Hwang, isn’t the first Spanish language opera at the Met, but it’s certainly the first to sound that way. Read the review. ...

Review: THE TURN OF THE SCREW, London Coliseum
by Gary Naylor - October 13, 2024

Isabella Bywater ratchets up the tension, as Ailish Tynan and Jerry Louth shine as the governess and her male charge. ...

Review: TROUBLE IN TAHITI and THE QUIET PLACE, Royal Ballet and Opera
by Gary Naylor - October 11, 2024

If you're a parent, brace yourself - and enjoy the glorious singing and fine music writes our critic about TROUBLE IN TAHITI and THE QUIET PLACE. ...

Review: FIDELIO, Royal Ballet and Opera
by Alexander Cohen - October 10, 2024

Tobias Kratzer’s production pulls the rug from underneath you writes BWW's critic. ...

Review: With Great Music But Little Jesting, RIGOLETTO Returns to the Met
by Richard Sasanow - October 07, 2024

“This is not a cathartic tragedy or a tale of noble sacrifice. There are no admirable characters here, no moral lesson, no redemption, and no silver lining. There is only a merciless depiction of society’s dark side,” say the Met’s program notes for RIGOLETTO. I’m not so sure....

Review: Droning Overwhelms the Lives of THE LISTENERS in New Mazzoli-Vavrek Opera
by Richard Sasanow - October 03, 2024

It’s fascinating that within two weeks, as the new US opera season began in earnest, Northeast operagoers heard a pair of new (or new-ish) operas by well-known creators: the US premiere of THE LISTENERS at Opera Philadelphia, by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek and the much-revised GROUNDED by Jeanine...