Theater Opera

Satyagraha
The stunning opening of Satyagraha lays bare the strengths and weaknesses of the Metropolitan Opera’s production of this 1980 Philip Glass work about the years Mahatma Gandhi spent in South Africa (1893-1914), fighting for fellow Indians’ civil rights...

The Gambler
Why Sergei Prokofiev’s operas have never gained wider popularity is a mystery. The Russian master’s shattering music positively blazes throughout The Gambler, based on Dostoyevsky’s tale of dual obsessions with women and with gambling...

Tristan und Isolde
Conductor James Levine treats Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde as the most ravishing opera ever written, and it certainly sounds that way at the Met...

Peter Grimes
If there was ever a work that showed off the Metropolitan Opera Chorus to advantage, it’s Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes...

Otello
Verdi's Otello is back at the Metropolitan Opera in Elijah Moshinsky's epic production...

Die Walküre
The biggest news concerning the Met’s revival of “Die Walküre,” the most-performed opera of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle...

Hansel and Gretel
The Metropolitan Opera’s second annual holiday production is “Hansel and Gretel,” an opera with a built-in attraction for children of all ages...

War and Peace
Sergei Prokofiev's powerhouse operatic adaptation of Tolstoy's classic “War and Peace” had its Metropolitan Opera premiere in 2002 and returns in Andrei Konchalovsky’s hit-or-miss production, once again under the reliable baton of conductor Valery Gergiev...

"Cendrillon" and "Vanessa"
New York City Opera wraps its Fall 2007 season with new productions of "Cendrillon" and "Vanessa" that have languished on the fringes of the standard repertory...

"Macbeth"
An operetic version of Macbeth, written by Guiseppe Verdi and staged by Adrian Noble at the Metropolitan Opera House is, overall, expertly done minus a few rough patches...

Summer Opera Roundup '07
This summer, three intriguing operas brought audiences into worlds of fantasy. "Der Ring des Niebelungen," "Into the Little Hill" and "A Florentine Tragedy and The Dwarf" opened at the Metropolitan Opera House, Gerald W. Lynch Theatre and the Sosnoff Theatre, respectively....

The Met Opera Dazzles With Old Warhorses
Even though the Metropolitan Opera has gotten a lot of attention for its new productions this year, its bread and butter remains the old warhorses, works that never lose their musical and dramatic appeal...

Die Äegyptische Helena
“Die Äegyptische Helena” is not among Richard Strauss’s best operas, certainly not in the company of his masterpieces. Still, with ravishing music fighting a head-scratchingly bizarre libretto, “Helena” (or “The Egyptian Helen”) deserves wider currency, since even lesser Strauss is still Strauss...

Eugene Onegin
Peter Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece “Eugene Onegin” is one of the most emotionally affecting of all operas, with its tragic story of the doomed relationship between the reticent Onegin and the loving Tatiana. That unguarded emotion was on display in spades in the Met’s revival, which has completely sold out its run on the basis of sheer star power...

Jenufa
Czech composer Leos Janacek's heroines are among the most vividly drawn in opera--he consistently created strong-willed women as the protagonists of his musical theater works. As the lone Janacek opera to focus on two women, "Jenufa" provides ample opportunities for high drama...

I Puritani
The Met's production of Bellini's "I Puritani" has returned as a showcase for the immensely gifted Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, who's about as big a star as you can find these days in the opera world. And in "I Puritani," Netrebko doesn't disappoint...

Madame Butterfly & The Barber of Seville
The first productions of the new season at Metropolitan Opera House are two warhorses staged by starry theater and movie directors: Anthony Minghella's production of "Madame Butterfly" and "The Barber of Seville," directed by Tony award winner Bartlett Sher...

Handel's Semele
Setting Handel's baroque-era oratorio "Semele" in the early 1960s during the JFK administration is stupefying; that Stephen Lawless's staging isn't entirely ludicrous is due to a splendid cast and musicians, who remind us that this is among Handel's most elegant scores...

The Dawning of Anna Netrebko
In the rarefied world of opera, it's hard for some fans to take Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, the star of "Don Pasquale," seriously. She can't be such a terrific singer, a superb stage actress, and a fantastic personality, as well as thin and lovely to boot, right? It's just not possible!...

Wagner's End of Days
Richard Wagner is an operatic litmus test: you either love his works and attend faithfully, like going to church; or you stay away, not wanting to spend five-plus hours with Wagnerian cultists. And the ultimate test is Wagner's final opera, "Parsifal"...

A Sad Tale Told To Children
The one-act children's opera "Brundibar," a collaboration between director Tony Kushner and reknowned children's illustrator Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are), is a visual as well as musical delight...