My connection to Santa Fe is limited to having once priced a week at the famous opera festival some years ago. I hate travel and used to be bored by classic operas, so even considering a trip to Santa Fe was an indication of how important opera had become for me.
My love of the classic repertoire started during act one of Turandot. I remember thinking, "I don't care that the story is stupid; I love it anyway!" Within a few years, the Metropolitan Opera began its "Live in HD" series of broadcasts to theatres, and my mentor Frank Boggs made sure I went to see all the classics with him over several years. [See Remembering Frank Boggs (04/2021)] Later, I was joined by my friends Susan and Suzanne.
My blogposts about operas are only a fraction of what I've enjoyed. I wish I'd written about Girl of the Golden West, Tosca, Macbeth, Boris Gudonov, everything I've ever seen by Donizetti, Peter Grimes, and many others that slip my mind now. I enjoy re-reading my accounts of operas I saw years ago.
- Adams Doctor Atomic staged two ways (11/2008); Nixon in China, "My Favorite Opera" (07/2021)
- Aucoin Eurydice (23/2021) composer Matthew Aucoin, libretto Sarah Ruhl. Great first act.
- Baroque Pastiche Enchanted Island (02/2012)
- Bates The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (05/2022) composer Mason Bates, libretto Mark Campbell
- Blanchard Two very moving operas by Terence Blanchard, first black composer to be staged by the Met: Fire Shut Up in My Bones, libretto Kasi Lemmons, and Champion [to be posted soon]
- Britten The Turn of the Screw (04/2013)
- Brady Edalat Square (04/2007) student-written production at Emory, moving and distinctive
- Donizetti Daughter of the Regiment (04/2008); In the second half of an essay about "tearing up" for America, I wonder why Donizetti's charming comedy made me cry
- Dun The First Emperor (01/2007) "banishes the critics"
- Gershwin Porgy and Bess (03/2011)
- Glass Akhnaten (12/2019), Kepler (06/2012), Waiting for the Barbarians (07/2008), Satyagraha live at the Met!
- Handel Giulio Cesare (05/2013), a reflection on opera "in its adolescence"
- Heggie Dead Man Walking (02/2019) and Three Decembers (05/2015), including (for the latter) a conversation with the composer and librettist
- Leoncavallo Pagliacci paired with Orff's Carmina Burana: I call it "the elevation of claptrap" (10/2006)
- Massenet Thais (12/2008), "Body and Soul"
- Mozart Marriage of Figaro (05/2008) -- compared to the first Iron Man movie
- Muhly Marnie (11/2018) I marvel at how good our species is getting at the musical theatre thing
- Nyman The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (04/2008) "Nothing Minimal about It"
- Poulenc The Human Voice plus Rossini and LaChiusa (11/2006), a reflection on the special charms of opera
- Puccini Madame Butterfly (03/2009) about the HD Met broadcast, continues to be one of my biggest hits, Il Trittico (04/2007) includes the single greatest change of scenery in my theatre experience
- Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin from the Met (10/2013) and in Atlanta, the first time I saw it (03/2007)
- Rossini The Barber of Seville (11/2006) reflects on how the comedy can exist in the same world as terrorists in Iraq
- Strauss Rosenkavalier (01/2010) is about how the opera treats time, and it's one of my personal bests; Salome (10/2008) weighs the opera's horror against Sweeney Todd
- Verdi Falstaff (12/2013), "Life is Good"; Otello (10/2012), and a reflection on Aida and other Verdi works in Learning to Love Verdi: Transcending his Time (03/2010)
←← | ← || → Use the arrows to follow the entire bike tour from the start.
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