Bunnies having wild sex, Siberian prisoners and a hot, sexy Carmen. Here's the best of the 2009-2010 opera season. And even the Tosca I saw wasn't bad--with the cuts and the second cast.
The Fairy Queen at BAM
"As the mind-bending masques began, a lake, a Monet haystack and even the Garden of Eden appeared. Not to mention the tableau of two dozen dancers in Easter bunny costumes enacting the Kama Sutra on the BAM stage...."
The Nose at the Met
"Most entertaining are the animations featuring the Nose's adventures as it grows to human size, acquires legs, dresses up as a State Councillor, and leads its owner a merry chase around the city. A memorable image: old film of Shostakovich himself playing the piano, his face obscured by the black bulk of the runaway Nose."
Don Giovanni at City Opera
"By putting all the actors onstage during the overture, the director forces the audience to "play detective" and figure out who everybody is as the drama develops. But there was no missing the excellent assembly of voices."
From The House of the Dead at the Met
"The lights came up to reveal Richard Peduzzi's set, which consisted of moving, bleak gray walls, placing the prisoners in a bizarre B.F. Skinner box."
Carmen at the Met
"Each act opens with a scena played out by two dancers, an idealized version of the relationship between Carmen and Don José. The opera's action is compressed in and around a crumbling, Romanesque arena that moves and rotates with the needs of the staging."