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Returning stars and high-profile company debuts contributed panache to the energy-charged atmosphere.

San Diego Opera's main stage offering proved that even a warhorse can remain thoroughly enchanting when a production looks and sounds as beautiful as this company’s Madama Butterfly.

Tosca’s popularity stems not only from its music, but also from the inherent truth in its drama and its in-depth portrayal of unrestrained human passions. 

James Robinson's production of Adams' Nixon in China hits its stride at San Diego Opera. 

A well-rehearsed and cohesive Bohème in San Diego, although with some vocal disappointments. 

Matthew Richard Martinez reviews San Diego Opera's season-closing production of Massenet's Don Quixote starring Ferruccio Furlanetto.

Love and death, jealousy and revenge, assassination and intrigue, culminating in a dazzle of song, dance, and a shower of sparkling gold: San Diego's A Masked Ball has it all.

Playing hard to get has its rewards. At least that's what Donizetti tells us in The Elixir of Love that gives a charming opera a fresh take. 

San Diego Opera's season opening Pagliacci focused squarely on the character of Tonio, in Andrew Sinclair's intriguing vision for this verismo classic. But the vocal performances were lacking. A director can only do so much.

Aida typifies all that is grand about opera. Its exotic setting, majestic music, and dramatic love triangle can make for an evening unique among performing arts events. It’s not a bad way to close an opera season either. San Diego Opera did so on Saturday, capping a uniformly satisfying season with Zandra Rhodes’ vibrant production that was refreshing and at times thrilling.

An internationally acclaimed singer with a career spanning well over 30 years should be granted almost whatever role he’d like to do. It would also be understandable if the singer chose a well-known, crowd-pleasing piece, but, as is quite evident by now, Ferruccio Furlanetto is not a typical singer.

To Camille Saint-Saëns, the operatic appeal of the biblical subject of Samson is perfectly understandable. Theoretically, the story contains the dramatic trappings of exciting grand opera: a romance, tragedy, larger-than-life setting, a ballet. But for current operatic audiences, it is easy for the subject to appear stale. With a lack of dramatic dynamism, staging this piece can be a challenge.

Chicks dig the high notes. The enduring popularity of Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment seems to indicate as much. The plot is silly (even by opera’s standards) and much of the music is not as memorable as some of Donizetti’s more popular works.