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

Longborough Festival Opera season starts slow with Orlando

Eleanor Knight, 30th May

Beth Taylor gives the lows and highs of Handel's heroics an almighty, whole-body shakedown in Sinéad O'Neill’s new staging of Handel's Orlando.

***11

Bang! Mozart’s volcano erupts in Opera Holland Park’s Così fan tutte

Peter Quantrill, 28th May

Mount Vesuvius looms over Cecilia Stinton’s compelling new production of Così fan tutte.

****1

Viennese splendour in Garsington’s Rosenkavalier revival

Roy Westbrook, 28th May

Bruno Ravella's splendid 2021 production of Strauss' opera of Viennese manners returns with a fine cast.

****1

A witty hotel Don Giovanni opens Blackwater Valley Festival

Andrew Larkin, 27th May

Tom Creed’s witty production at Lismore Castle delivers strong singing, sharp comedy and lively orchestral playing, even if the opera’s darker supernatural edges are somewhat diminished.

****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.