Opera Warhorses

The Lyric Opera of Chicago, which owns Nicolas Joel’s classic 1983 production (created for Luciano Pavarotti) of Verdi’s “Aida” revived it for the first time in eight years for a “February” and a “March” cast. The latter was the occasion for the first Chicago performances by the Chinese soprano Hui He in the title role [...]

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Lyric Opera became the first stop of a new production of the venerable 1927 American musical “Show Boat”, whose music is by Jerome Kern and libretto by Roger Hammerstein. A co-production of four major American opera companies, the Show Boat sails next to Houston Grand Opera in January 2013, then Washington National Opera in May [...]

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One of the San Diego Opera’s most famous productions is David Gately’s much esteemed relocation of Donizetti’s great comic opera “Don Pasquale”,  into a tongue-in-cheek potrayal of the mid-19th century American West.  Pasquale is transformed into the owner of a hotel. Dr Malatesta dresses like Buffalo Bill. Ernesto is a Cowpoke who bathes at Miss [...]

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