DC REVIEW: Anything but Business as Normal in the American Opera Initiative (Washington National Opera) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - January 22, 2024January 22, 2024 Jonathan Pierce Rhodes (Ari) and Justin Burgess (Gale) in the world premiere of the short opera Hairpiece at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on Friday, January 19. Photo by Bronwen Sharp. One of the great criticisms of the American opera industry is its obsession with things now more than a
NYC REVIEW: Adoration, Myths, and Reality (PROTOTYPE FESTIVAL) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - January 13, 2024January 14, 2024 Tenor Omar Najmi stars in the opera Adoration at the PROTOTYPE Festival in New York City. Photo by Maria Baranova. Prejudice, love, collective judgment, and the uncertainty of truth. These are some of the major threads woven into Adoration, a new opera by Mary Kouyoumdjian and Royce Vavrek that premiered at
NEWS: Minnesota State Arts Board Announces Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre Visual Arts by John Anderson - October 15, 2023October 17, 2023 Common Loons Taking Off (2023), an acrylic on canvas painting by Duluth-based artist Karl Bardon. Bardon is 1 of 99 artists to receive grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board in a recently announced set of awards. Blacksmithing, opera, ballet, novels, screenplays, podcasts, and more. These are just a few of
INTERVIEW: Opera on the Lake’s Anne Wieben and Redesigning Scandalous Stage Marriages Arts Music Opera Theatre by John Anderson - July 20, 2023July 20, 2023 A 2022 file photo of Opera on the Lake's summer operetta festival. If you're a fan of opera – or have been wanting to give it a try – you've probably heard of Opera on the Lake, the summer festival that brings Viennese operetta to St. Paul's Como Park. This year,
REVIEW: Cantus/Really Spicy Opera Double-Header (Minneapolis Music in the Parks) Arts Music Opera Theatre by John Anderson - June 20, 2023June 23, 2023 A quintet of singers from Minneapolis-based Really Spicy Opera singing at the Lake Harriet Bandshell in Minneapolis on Sunday, June 18. The Lake Harriet Bandshell is back! The Minneapolis summer music scene's long-time anchor has been under renovation since warmer weather returned. When work is completed, the bandshell will have new
REVIEW: The 2023 AOI Operas at the Kennedy Center (Washington National Opera) Arts Music Opera by Basil Considine - January 23, 2023January 24, 2023 The gods of Oshun: Olodumare (Christian Simmons, left), Shango (Daniel Smith, upstage center), Oshun (Katerina Burton, downstage center), and Esu (Athony P. Ballard), which premiered on Saturday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Photo by Scott Suchman. On Saturday, a trio of new operas premiered at the Kennedy Center in
PREVIEW: Opera on the Lake Returns with The Merry Widow Arts Music Opera Theatre by Amy Donahue - July 24, 2022July 25, 2022 Opera singer, director, and arts visionary Anne Wieben (standing) performing with the Opera on the Lake company at an outdoor concert at the Lake Harriet Bandshell in July 2021. COVID-19 has barely slowed Anne Wieben down. As theatres around the world shuttered, the Minnesota native and opera singer went about finding
INTERVIEW: Gary Briggle on G&S, Interim Leadership, and Murder Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - July 6, 2022July 6, 2022 Some of the many faces of singer, actor, director, playwright, and arts leader Gary Briggle. Except for a penchant for murder (on-stage, that is), Gary Briggle keeps reinventing himself. Glance at his resume, though, and a few trends emerge. Opera director and principal tenor in Ohio. Television actor in the 1980s. Long-time
PREVIEW: The Rape of Lucretia (An Opera Theatre) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Amy Donahue - April 1, 2022April 2, 2022 Lucretia (mezzo-soprano Kara Morgan) holds a laurel wreath – symbolizing honor in ancient Roman society – in An Opera Theatre's production of The Rape of Lucretia, which opens this evening at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, MN. Photo courtesy of An Opera Theatre. Twin Cities opera fans have a lot of choices in
REVIEW: A Brilliant Savoy Soap Opera is Ruddigore (GSVLOC) Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - March 20, 2022April 1, 2022 Part of the cover plate for the original vocal score of Ruddigore, prior to the opera's renaming. Had the comic opera writing duo W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan lived a half-century later, they would have assuredly written for the emergent genre of the day: television soap operas. If they had lived