Opera Review: All the Pretty Horses

Die Walküre returns at the Metropolitan Opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Fearless: Christine Goerke makes her Act II entrance as Brunnhilde in Die Walküre.
Photo by Richard Termine © 2019 The Metropolitan Opera.

It's hard to believe, but the Metropolitan Opera’s controversial Robert Lepage production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle has been treading the boards at America's largest opera house since 2011. That's ten years that New York's Wagner addicts have had to deal with this technologically innovative but sometimes balky production, set on a hi-tech platform ("the Machine") that uses spinning and rotating teeter-totter boards to create scenery for this massive mythological work. This week marked the return of Die Walküre, the most popular section of the Ring. It was also the only Ring opera to be included in this season's Live in HD schedule. Saturday's matinee, the second performance of the season. was also the opera's broadcast day.

Opera Review: A Blaze of Saddles

Eva-Maria Westbroek shines in Puccini's Golden West.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

California Love: Eva-Maria Westbroek and Yusif Eyvazov in La Fanciulla del West.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera.

It is a hard existence to be a lesser known work from the pen of a great opera composer, and no opera has suffered more cruel jokes than Puccini's La Fanciulla del West ("The Girl of the Golden West.") Since its premiere on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in 1910, Fanciulla has fought for survival, much like the hardscrabble gold miners that make up the bulk of its colorful cast. The opera returned to the Met this month with a good cast. On Monday night, a performance featuring tenor Yusif Eyvazov and soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek provided a much needed shot of red blood to an anemic fall season.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci

The verismo twin bill returns in darkness and light.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Roberto Alagna puts the greasepaint on as the killer clown in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera revives  its 2015 staging of "Cav/Pag", the most famous double bill in opera. Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana is a story of adultery, revenge and murder (in that order) in a rural Sicilian village. Pagliacci, also  a story of adultery, revenge and murder is centered around a company of traveling players. Both operas end in bloodshed and both star tenor Roberto Alagna in the leading roles.

Opera Review: Cheaters Never Win

The Met goes medieval with Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Purple prose: Marcello Giordani (l.) and Eva-Marie Westbroek are doomed lovers in
Riccardo Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini. Photo by Marty Sohl © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

On Monday night at the Metroplitan Opera, New York’s best-equipped opera company unveiled its first revival of Riccardo Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini in 25 years. This 1914 opera has hovered at the fringes of the standard repertory for almost a century. It is only produced when there’s a star soprano determined to take on the challenge of playing the love-struck title role. This handsome production from Piero Faggioni allowed the audience to time-travel back three decades to see how grand opera was done back in the 1980s--when this production was mounted for Renata Scotto.

DVD Review: Blonde Ambition

Anna Nicole at the Royal Opera of Covent Garden.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Busting out: Eva-Marie Westbroek as Anna Nicole Smith.

Photo by Catherine Cooper © 2011 

Royal Opera at Covent Garden/ Opus Arte

Mark Anthony Turnage's ambitious opera Anna Nicole is a scathing indictment of American celebrity culture, materialism and media hype. It's an opera about the things in society that have replaced opera in the popular culture. Its focus, the rise and fall of a girl from Texas named Vicki Lynn Hogan, who became an international celebrity as Anna Nicole Smith.