“Hercules vs. Vampires” – campy humor from LA Opera
Before Italy unleashed a plethora of spaghetti westerns in the 1960s there were the sword-and-sandal epics of the ‘50s, nearly all of them done on a budget of pocket change. After years as a...
View ArticleJake Heggie’s “Moby-Dick” at LA Opera
by Bondo Wyszpolski The winds of fate have billowed the large sails of the Pequod, the doomed whaling vessel of Melville’s classic work of fiction and now an impressive opera by composer Jake Heggie...
View ArticleLA Opera: The Scream of the Butterfly
LA Opera’s “Madame Butterfly” (a review) by Bondo Wyszpolski Sometimes we go to experience an opera we’ve never seen before, and at other times we go because it’s a work we’ve seen many times and are...
View Article“Salome” : LA Opera’s decadent delight
“Salome” – Ah, the madness! by Bondo Wyszpolski Now, here’s an opera that doesn’t try and do too much, despite its many dysfunctional relationships and the way it encloses the viewer in an atmosphere...
View ArticleLA Opera: The Scream of the Butterfly
LA Opera’s “Madame Butterfly” (a review) by Bondo Wyszpolski Sometimes we go to experience an opera we’ve never seen before, and at other times we go because it’s a work we’ve seen many times and are...
View Article“Salome” : LA Opera’s decadent delight
“Salome” – Ah, the madness! by Bondo Wyszpolski Now, here’s an opera that doesn’t try and do too much, despite its many dysfunctional relationships and the way it encloses the viewer in an atmosphere...
View ArticleDon’t Look Back: Orpheus and Eurydice
Gluck’s “Orpheus and Eurydice” at LA Opera (a review) by Bondo Wyszpolski Would the composer Christoph Willibald Gluck ever have imagined that “Orpheus and Eurydice,” his myth-based opera that explores...
View Article“Satyagraha” shimmers on the opera stage
“Satyagraha” by Philip Glass at LA Opera, a review by Bondo Wyszpolski A fantasia or meditation on the life of Mohandas Gandhi might not seem like the ideal choice for an opera, but “Satyagraha,” which...
View ArticleMozart’s “Clemency of Titus” at LA Opera
“The Clemency of Titus” – an opera review by Bondo Wyszpolski If we open the door a little to allow in every last child, there are 17 operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, of which seven actually get to...
View ArticleLA Opera’s “El Gato Montés: The Wildcat”
Plácido Domingo brings zarzuela gem to L.A. Opera “El Gato Montés: The Wildcat” (a review) by Bondo Wyszpolski Spain is known for many things, from sangria to Segovia, but not for its operas. Oh, but...
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