Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” is the perfect opera for people new to the art form: It’s a fast-paced, lively crime drama with captivating characters, irresistible rhythms, and indelible melodies for days. But the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s Thursday performance of the operatic classic — a semi-staged production directed by Sara Widzer — also provided more than enough […]
Rochester Opera
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Opera review: Eastman Opera Theatre’s ‘L’incoronazione di Poppea’
Eastman Opera Theatre continues to impress with presentations brimming with excellent singers and professional production values. This time around, it was Claudio Monteverdi’s final opera “L’Incoronazione di Poppea.” Performed in Italian with English supertitles, this production of “The Coronation of Poppea” at Kilbourn Hall was also notable for its use of period instruments, and for […]
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Pegasus Early Music stages its first opera, ‘Dido and Aeneas’
In the world of opera, good things often come in large, gaudily wrapped packages. Pegasus Early Music this weekend hopes to prove that small is good, operatically speaking, with a production of Henry Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas.” The opera will run this Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Jewish Community Center’s Hart Theater. “It’s been […]
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Opera Review: Eastman Opera Theatre’s “Le Nozze di Figaro”
Sun-Ly Pierce and Paulina Swierczek
shine in this stellar production
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Chamber Opera Festival goes for intimate performances
The word “opera” is often preceded by the adjective “grand,” but many operatic pleasures are as intimate as they are rewarding. Exploring the vast repertoire of small-scale and one-act operas has been a specialty of Rochester Lyric Opera for several years, and this weekend’s RLO Chamber Opera Fest will feature a variety of musical goodies. […]
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Opera Review: Eastman Opera Theatre’s “Hydrogen Jukebox”
Eastman Opera Theatre on Friday presented the second of four performances in Kilbourn Hall of Philip Glass’s music theater work “Hydrogen Jukebox,” featuring the words of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. What transpired was more like a stream of surreal and illusory fragments than anything approaching traditional opera: An imposing hall, like some forbidden church sanctuary. […]
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“Hydrogen Jukebox” bends the opera genre
In 1966, Allen Ginsberg penned ecstatic yet defiant words in his poem “Wichita Vortex Sutra”: “I claim my birthright! … Joy reborn after the vast sadness of War Gods! A lone man talking to myself, no house in the brown vastness to hear, imagining the throng of Selves that make this nation one body of […]
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Opera Review: Finger Lakes Opera’s “The Elixir of Love”
The only disappointing thing about Finger Lakes Opera’s production of “L’elisir d’amore” (“The Elixir of Love”) is that it’s over after only two performances last weekend. The organization is only in its second year, but with this fresh production of an old favorite, it sets some high standards. This was as pleasurable an opera production […]
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“Carmen” of the Finger Lakes
In recent years opera companies, symphony orchestras, and other arts groups have made headlines with their financial difficulties, and some have folded or reorganized — for example, Rochester’s Mercury Opera is no longer a presenting company, but as the Opera Guild of Rochester, the organization supports other operatic events. And Rochester Lyric Opera, formerly Empire […]
