Julie Taymor’s staging of The Magic Flute is the Metropolitan Opera’s finest theatrical achievement in years. During the past decade, the company’s new productions have lurched between industrial fussiness (Herbert Wernicke’s Die Frau ohne Schatten), chilly mannerism (Robert Wilson’s Lohengrin) and creaky bravado (most of the revamped Verdi operas). But in putting Mozart’s crowning masterpiece Read More
The motley landscape of opera is busy with the sound of digging. Diligent operagoers can scarcely keep up with all the finds that clamor for their attention-the unknown gem from a tunesmith who is suddenly revealed to have been more than a poor shadow of Mozart; a onetime flop that, upon belated revival, turns out Read More
Baz Luhrmann’s much-anticipated production of La Bohème on Broadway is by no means the most moving version of the opera I’ve experienced, but without question it’s the chicest. You can understand why fashionistas rave over Baz. What you’re sure to remember the most is the lovely, cool design-or stylish surface of tragic things.
It’s a Read More
