Archives for June 2015

Imagine an empty stage apron with a black curtain behind it on which a beautiful woman with flowing blond air, all in white, is kneeling and pouring out expressive, rich sound, her words filled with an exquisite and resigned acceptance of fate, and you will have some idea of how Susan Graham realized the section of Berlioz Les Troyens that begins with “Je vais mourir” and concludes with “Adieu, … [Read more...]

I have been reviewing opera at least since 1947 when I first realized that every singer was not perfect. On that occasion the Violetta tried for the high E-flat at the end of Act I of La Traviata and spectacularly missed it. Ten years and some two hundred performances later the Dallas Morning News published my first critique--of the Metropolitan Opera's Samson et Dalila, with Rise Stevens. I loved … [Read more...]