Don Giovanni

ATLANTAThe Atlanta Opera1/29/23 Brandon Cedel and Jennifer Johnson Cano in Atlanta Opera's Don Giovanni Raftermen for The Atlanta Opera THE ATLANTA OPERA CONTINUED its 2022-23 season with a film noir-inspired production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni that gave the classic a controversial twist (seen Jan. 29). Originally conceived by set designer R. Keith Brumley and costume designer Mary Traylor for Lyric [...]

From Opera News Online: Review of Madama Butterfly

ATLANTA Atlanta Opera 11/5/22 DESPITE ITS OPENING NIGHT FAILURE at Teatro alla Scala in 1904, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly became a perennial crowd-pleaser in the last century, well-loved for its tragic and innocent heroine, exotic milieu, and irresistible melodies. The Atlanta Opera opened its 2022–23 mainstage season with a revival of the AO-Castleton Festival Madama Butterfly last seen in Atlanta in [...]

Opera News Online: Review of…Cabaret

ATLANTA Atlanta Opera 6/12/22 IN EARLY JUNE, the Atlanta Opera offered Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret at the Pullman Yards—a cavernous, un-airconditioned 1904 industrial building that lies just southeast of downtown Atlanta at the edge of historic Candler Park (seen June 12).  The show was part of AO’s Discoveries Series, an initiative to bring new audiences to unconventional spaces [...]

Opera News Online: Review of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs

Opera News Online:  Review of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs

ATLANTA Atlanta Opera 5/8/22 IN MAY, Atlanta Opera offered The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs by Mason Bates and Mark Campbell (seen May 8). The opera had its world premiere in Santa Fe in 2017 and won the Grammy for best opera recording the following year. It’s a work riddled with themes of contradiction; an intellectual giant who practiced [...]

Review: Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham sings spellbinding “A Standing Witness”

Graham's performance opened the 20th anniversary season of the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. Peruse the catalogue of composer Richard Danielpour and one may deduce that he has a predilection for the mezzo-soprano voice. He’s written music for Jessye Norman (Sweet Talk), Denyce Graves (Margaret Garner) and Isabel Leonard (Of Love and Longing). He also has a [...]

The Voice and Health Literacy

Health literacy is the ability to find, use, and understand health information when making healthcare decisions. Under the leadership of Dr. Iris Feinberg at Georgia State University, my colleagues and I developed and produced a series of culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare videos about patient-provider communication and women's health. These healthcare scripts were researched and [...]

From the December 2021 Issue of Opera News Online

Giulio Cesare Atlanta Opera 11/6/21 IN THE FORTY YEARS since the Atlanta Opera’s inception, there has never been a Handel opera displayed on the theatre marquee. In fact, the last production of an opera predating Mozart was more than a decade ago, when David Daniels starred in AO’s production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Taking a risk [...]

From the March 2022 Issue of Opera News Online…

From the March 2022 Issue of Opera News Online…

Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Atlanta Opera GIOACHINO ROSSINI is credited for pointing out that all kinds of music are good, except the boring kind. Stage Director Michael Shell took this to heart when devising the concept for his Barbiere di Siviglia, which was produced by the Atlanta Opera this spring (seen March 13). Shell’s take, [...]

In the July 2021 Issue of Opera News…Review of AO’s The Threepenny Carmen, The Threepenny Opera

Kelly Kaduce, Atlanta’s Polly Peachum © Ken Howard FOR THE SPRING 2021 production in its “Big Tent” series, one full year into the coronavirus pandemic, Atlanta Opera distilled Bizet’s Carmen to its bare bones and reset Bizet’s fantasy in a low-rent Texas bar owned by Lillas Pastia. Tomer Zvulun, the company’s general and artistic director, and conductor Jorge Parodi [...]

ArtsATL Review: Album showcases nuanced voice of The Atlanta Opera’s Megan Marino

Megan Marino, a member of The Atlanta Opera Company Players, is given the spotlight on "The Travelled Road." (Photo by Dario Acosta) Review: Album showcases nuanced voice of The Atlanta Opera’s Megan Marino STEPHANIE ADRIANJUNE 3, 2021 New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini once commented that there was an eerie similarity to the songs of [...]