Artiste: Margaret Lattimore

A disappointing decision to downplay the ghosts and uneven performances made for a difficult and distracting in situ staging of Britten's adaptation of the classic Henry James thriller. 

Robert Carsen's Eugene Onegin was binned by the Met but works wonderfully in its revival by the Canadian Opera Company COC with high class singing and acting from a young, engaging cast.

Andrea Chénier can seem more a series of scenes than a dramatic whole and it relies on exciting, charismatic luminaries to hold it together and keep the interest high. This revival of Nicolas Joël’s staging is a noble effort, but disappoints.

The plight of women trapped in plural marriage—one husband with multiple wives—glowed like a firebrand on the Perelman Theater stage on Sunday. Opera Company of Philadelphia’s Dark Sisters, in co-production with Gotham Chamber Opera and the Music-Theatre Group, is OCP’s final offering of the 2011-12 season.

The barely legal lives of women in polygamous marriages may seem like fertile ground for an opera. Dark Sisters, composed by Nico Muhly with a libretto by Stephen Karam, has many attractive moments in music and story, yet demonstrates the difficulties of drawing art from life.