Performer: Aaron Crouch

The new opera by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek draws on cult mindsets and conspiracy theories but smartly avoids sensationalism. 

Lawrence Brownlee further cements his status as the world's leading bel canto tenor with a blazing performance as Rodrigo, the unlikely central figure in Rossini's rendering of the Shakespearean tragedy.

In place of a full musical, this revue highlighted classic and contemporary songs that celebrate places and cultures, although some selections seemed questionable out of context.

Francesca Zambello sets the whole opera as a flashback, showing, during the prelude, the heroine surrounded by doctors and nurses in a sanatorium for patients dying from tuberculosis.