Richard Sasanow

There was a time early in this century when conductor Lorin Maazel led Massenet’s opera THAIS, surprising audiences by picking up a violin during Act II to play the work’s famous “Meditation” himself—usually the realm of the concertmaster. At the NY Philharmonic’s performance of Poulenc’s monodrama, LA VOIX HUMAINE, on Thursday, soprano/conductor Barbara Hannigan did him one better.

In case we had to be reminded—after the Met's recent Laffont Competition lineup, where three Juilliard singers were among the 10 finalists—the

Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho wasn't the first Violetta of this season's LA TRAVIATA by Verdi at the Met.

The story of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera—two great Mexican artists who also happened to be in a tempestuous marriage—seems tailor-made for the opera stage. They struggled in their art, as well as in their lives and relationship with one another. Passions explode. So it’s not surprising to see them on the stage at the Met in EL ÚLTIMO SUEÑO DE FRIDA Y DIEGO, composed by Gabriela Lena Frank (newly crowned winner of the Pulitzer prize for music) with libretto by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer winner for his play “Anna in the Tropics”).

I caught up with Heartbeat Opera’s reinvention of Samuel Barber’s 1958 opera, VANESSA, to Giancarlo Menotti’s libretto, a few days after its debut at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York, after premiering last summer at the Williamstown (MA) Theatre Festival.

“Stories are stories are stories, whether it’s Wagner’s Wotan and Fricka (in the Ring), Handel’s Jupiter and Juno (in Handel’s SEMELE) or Broadway’s Tevye and Golde (FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) and they repeat in different cultures and traditions,” General Manager and Artistic Director of the Atlanta Opera, Tomer Zvulun, said to me. “And whether it’s talking about siblings or spouses, or parents and children, we always end with similar concerns.” Our conversation was about his company’s new production of Wagner’s TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, better known to Wagner aficionados as GOTTERDAMMERUNG, which opens on May 30 at Atlanta’s Cobb Performing Arts Center.

I’d say that “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is not a maxim that has ever been used for Puccini’s Chinese-inspired fairytale, TURANDOT, which returned for another go-around at the Met the other day with two alternating casts. (I saw it with Liudmyla Monastyrska, Roberto Alagna and Juliana Grigoryan in the main roles.)

While the US celebrates its 250th anniversary (with not much to cheer about), those bel canto specialists under Will Crutchfield at Teatro Nuovo are reveling in the 200th year since Italian opera (or at least opera in Italian) came to this country. And not a moment too soon.

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While it was only one part of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra’s concert, under Keri-Lyn Wilson, at Geffen Hall the other night, there’s no denying that…