opera

Music

OperaHub’s Christmas Dinner

December 8, 2012

I’M late with a report on OperaHub‘s recent production of Hindemith’s The Long Christmas Dinner, based on a libretto by Thornton Wilder. I haven’t caught up with OperaHub in a while, whose youthful, witty, intelligent, and savvy spirit manages to make opera pretty damn cool and accessible. Their productions are free (not to say they […]

Music

The Midsummer What?

November 18, 2012

Highest props to the formidable Gil Rose to picking up a production of Tippet’s Midsummer Marriage left in the dust by Opera Boston’s demise and putting it on in a not unambitious semi-staging at Jordan Hall. I’ve long maintained that Gil Rose and his band, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, is the one classical (perhaps […]

Music

Midsummer Dreamscapes: Boston Lyric Opera’s “Dream”

May 6, 2011

BLO closes out its season with a lucid production of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Music

Sex and the City (of Rome): BLO’s “Agrippina”

March 17, 2011

Handel’s “Agrippina” describes the title character’s attempt to install her son Nero as emperor, or at least heir, to her husband (and uncle) Claudius’ throne. You might remember something similar from the last episode of I, Claudius (and Claudius the God), but Handel’s librettist Cardinal Vincenzo Grimani had his own take on things and it […]

Music

Meta-Minimalism and OperaHub’s “The Four-Note Opera”

March 13, 2011

It’s long past the short run of OperaHub‘s production of Tom Johnson’s 1972 The Four-Note Opera, but I owe a few words to this hilarious show from a company that’s doing big things in the fringe opera scene. This production marked the close of their season, as they move to rename and re-orient themselves (and […]

Music

Death in Atlantis: The BLO”s “Emperor of Atlantis”

February 5, 2011

Boston Lyric Opera is nailing it with its Opera Annex productions. Last year’s Turn of the Screw was a hugely anticipated smash hit and this season’s production of Victor Ullmann’s The Emperor of Atlantis is something of a surprise hit, continuing the record of sold-out runs. Obviously, the BCA’s Calderwood Pavilion doesn’t make quite as […]

Music

Operatic Beastiality: Guerilla Opera’s “Heart of a Dog”

September 19, 2010

Fringe opera at its best in a smart meta-satire…with plenty of sex and gore.

Music

MetroWest Opera presents “The Magic Flute” with a boarding school twist

May 2, 2010

More fringe opera coverage from Erin Huelskamp; MetroWest Opera sets The Magic Flute in a 1920s boarding school.

Music

Opera Boston’s “Madame White Snake”

March 3, 2010

Boston lowbrow attends the first local opera premiere in decades.

Music

Spanish Mustaches and Puppy Dog Lips: Riverside Theater Works’ “Cosi Fan Tutti”

February 24, 2010

Erin Huelskamp takes in Riverside Theater Works’ “Cosi Fan Tutti” and some wine in Hyde Park.

Music

BLO Does Britten in a Real Live Castle

February 9, 2010

Seeing the Boston Lyric Opera’s production of The Turn of the Screw in the Park Plaza Castle and perusing the press literature on their demographics, outreach, and special events, is enough to convince me that they’re moving the the direction every opera company (and for that matter, every high-culture producer) wants to move in. Upon […]

Music

Opera Boston’s Tancredi

October 25, 2009

Opera Boston’s Tancredi (final show the 27th) is exactly what Boston opera should be. Not a lavish star-studded production that’s recorded to be sold on DVD, or broadcast live to movie theaters; but an intimate relatively inexpensive production that showcases local talent and brings to the stage works that have fallen from favor. $30 or […]

Lectures

Opera, from the Future?

October 8, 2009

Elly Jessop, a master’s student in Tod Machover’s MIT Media Lab research group, gave a talk Wednesday night at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education on the upcoming production Death and the Powers, billed the opera of the future. Set to premier in Monaco September 2010, and tour internationally with a stop at the A.R.T., […]