Curtis Opera Theatre offers overwhelming double bill of family tragedy

By Susan Gould, 08 May 2019

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“Mary Birnbaum’s direction was sensitive to every nuance of words and music”

Reviewed at Kimmel Center, Perelman Theater, Philadelphia on 2 May 2019

Vaughan Williams, Riders to the Sea

Orth, Empty the House

Daniela Candillari, Conductor

Mary Birnbaum, Director

Grace Laubacher, Set Designer

Amanda Seymour, Costume Designer

Olivia Smith, Cathleen

Sage DeAgro-Ruopp, Nora

Sophia Maekawa, Maurya

Patrick Wilhelm, Bartley

Sophia Hunt, Faith

Dennis Chmelensky, Paul

Tiffany Townsend, Brenda

Members of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra

Lindsey Reynolds, Soprano

Anshuman Bhatia, Lighting Designer

Rigoletto cast dazzles in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s season opener

Graham Meyer, 14th September

Through brilliant singing and layered acting, Javier Camarena, Mané Galoyan, and Igor Golovatenko drive a Rigoletto to warm a traditionalist's heart.

****1

The Classical Style at Carnegie Hall

Rebecca Lentjes, 4th December

The opera, directed by Mary Birnbaum, rotates through a cast of characters including Tonic, Dominant, and Subdominant as well as a be-wigged Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

***11

Anna Netrebko shines in Vienna’s timeless Tosca

Laura Servidei, 18th April

In a world where opera productions often stray into the abstract, the Wiener Staatsoper’s Tosca offers a refreshing return to tradition – and Anna Netrebko delivers a splendid performance.

****1

Weinberg’s The Passenger at Dutch National Opera

Clare Varney, 17th April

Tobias Kratzer's 2024 Munich production makes its way to Amsterdam, proving that Weinberg's opera has the power to transfix.

****1

Frauenliebe und -sterben: Kratzer’s triple bill at Staatsoper Hamburg

Mengguang Huang, 15th April

Director Tobias Kratzer engineers a haunting pasticcio of Schumann, Bartók and Zemlinsky, tracing the domestic sphere’s shift from romantic surrender to the blood-soaked secrets of a century-spanning house.

****1

Diamonds and steel: Anna Pirozzi rules in La Scala’s Turandot revival

Laura Servidei, 12th April

Visually enchanting and meticulously staged, this centenary revival confirms Livermore's production as a modern classic.

****1

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Susan Gould

Philadelphia native Susan Gould has been writing professionally about classical music since her Barnard College years in New York. She has written for both American and European publications, primarily during fifteen years in Europe, and has done liner notes for recordings and program notes for opera companies and orchestras. Among those she has interviewed have been Sills, Tebaldi, Popp and Fleming; Bumbry, Ludwig, Fassbaender, and von Stade; del Monaco, Kraus and Pavarotti; Prey, Morris and Ramey; Muti, Abbado, Giulini, Sawallisch, and Eschenbach. Fluent in Italian, German and French, she has coached both student and professional singers in foreign-language diction since 1980.