All stories by Arthur Kaptainis on BroadwayStars

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Opera review: Bluebeard’s Castle/Erwartung by Arthur Kaptainis

Newcomers and return customers alike will not regret their investment

SOURCE: news.nationalpost.com at 05:35PM
Monday, April 20, 2015

Opera review: The Barber of Seville works up a lather by Arthur Kaptainis

Often it is possible to say of a COC production that the music prevails but in this case the stagecraft proves damnably difficult to edit out.

SOURCE: news.nationalpost.com at 12:49PM
Monday, February 2, 2015

Opera Review: COC’s Die Walküre is ride on, and even just Act 1 is worth the price of admission by Arthur Kaptainis

Atom Egoyan was sharing in the acclaim of a hugely successful revival of the Canadian Opera Company production of Wagner’s Die Walküre Saturday night in Toronto

SOURCE: news.nationalpost.com at 03:36PM
Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Opera Review: Mozart’s Don Giovanni falls hard under COC’s heavy hand and curtain by Arthur Kaptainis

Mozart’s Don Giovanni is one of the most messed-around-with operas in the standard repertoire. And the COC's latest production is no exception

SOURCE: news.nationalpost.com at 03:42PM
Monday, January 19, 2015

Concert Review: Mozart merely meh in Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s annual festival by Arthur Kaptainis

The people at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra have reasoned for years that Mozart is what we need in bitter mid-January

SOURCE: news.nationalpost.com at 01:36PM
Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Opera Review: William Tell from Turin hits the mark by Arthur Kaptainis

Yes, Virginia, there is an opera called William Tell attached to the overture we love so well

SOURCE: news.nationalpost.com at 12:17PM
Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Canadian Opera Company auditions put young talent in the stage’s spotlight by Arthur Kaptainis

The Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio is almost literally a troupe of young singers waiting in the wings, appreciated in principle for their hard work in supporting roles but only occas…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 05:35PM
Friday, October 31, 2014

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Gerontius is to die for by Arthur Kaptainis

Like most Catholics and most Victorians, Edward Elgar regarded death as a doorway rather than a terminus

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 04:30PM
Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Opera Review: The Canadian Opera Company’s Madama Butterfly is a notch below essential by Arthur Kaptainis

Not a night of bel canto. Verismo? Yes, especially after intermission. And Puccini throughout, which of course has everything to do with the indestructability of Madama Butterfly

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 04:24PM
Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Opera Review: Don Quichotte is a compact classic by Arthur Kaptainis

Don Quixote the literary classic runs over 900 pages. Don Quichotte the opera gets you out of the Four Seasons Centre in less than two and a half hours. There is some abridgement

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 10:25AM
Monday, April 28, 2014

Opera Review: CoC’s Roberto Devereux finds merit in imperfection by Arthur Kaptainis

Bless Queen Bess. A formidable and long-serving monarch, she set high standards of shrewdness and inspired many first-rate fictional treatments

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 09:46PM
Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Opera Review: With Hercules, COC’s big idea doesn’t help an in-between opera by Arthur Kaptainis

Alas, poor Hercules. Neither opera nor oratorio, fish nor fowl. Styled a “musical drama” by Handel and his librettist, this English-language work of 1745 is not an easy thing to stage, y…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 04:24PM
Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Opera Review: At least the music rocks at this Masked Ball by Arthur Kaptainis

It is well known that Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera ran afoul of the censors on account of its frank depiction of regicide in the Swedish cour

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 05:09PM
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Monday, October 7, 2013

Opera Review: La Bohème leaves Puccini’s tale of laughter, love and sorrow intact by Arthur Kaptainis

With good sounds emanating from the pit and a podium approach that mixed momentum and lushness, this La Bohème can be approached with cautious optimism

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 12:29PM
Thursday, October 3, 2013

Veteran Ben Heppner a definite maybe for COC’s Peter Grimes, with Anthony Dean Griffey in the wings by Arthur Kaptainis

Will there be a Britten switcheroo? The Canadian Opera Company flew in Anthony Dean Griffey, a noted American tenor, for the dress rehearsal of Peter Grimes on Wednesday night, with Ben Hepp…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 05:05PM
Monday, June 17, 2013

Kaptainis: The Canadian Opera Company sales are heading south, and it’s troubling by Arthur Kaptainis

Last season the company announced its net ticket revenue at $10.9-million. In the 2012-13 report this number is $9.9-million

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 08:34PM
Monday, February 18, 2013

Concert review: Canadian-made Parsifal makes powerful impression at Met by Arthur Kaptainis

François Girard and Michael Levine collaborating on a new Parsifal? Considering what these Canadians have done for Wagner in the past, I was expecting people to boo before the curtain went …

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 10:37AM
Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Opera review: You can’t suck the fun out of Die Fledermaus by Arthur Kaptainis

Why were people laughing and clapping in the Four Seasons Centre rather than glumly having their expectations thwarted?

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 10:52AM
Friday, October 5, 2012

Concert review: Anne-Sophie Mutter and the TSO by Arthur Kaptainis

Mutter has blended star appeal throughout her career with dedication to contemporary music.

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 02:03PM
Monday, October 1, 2012

Opera Review: The Canadian Opera Complany’s Il Trovatore is thunderous by Arthur Kaptainis

Hard to take seriously as a story but even harder not to like as a score, Il Trovatore is probably the least-performed of Verdi’s mid-period hits.

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 04:30PM
Saturday, August 4, 2012

Concert review: National Youth Orchestra at Koerner Hall by Arthur Kaptainis

Showpiece overload: It is recurring syndrome in National Youth Orchestra tour programs. Not that these concerts (including the Toronto stop on Tuesday, presented by Toronto Summer Music) are…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 04:35PM
Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Comment: Alexander Neef and the COC by Arthur Kaptainis

My reading is this: When Neef got an offer from a European company, he board promptly panicked and handed him the keys.

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 03:22PM
Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Opera review: Wagner’s Ring at the Bavarian State Opera by Arthur Kaptainis

MUNICH — Okay, freunds and fräuleins, shall we call it ge-done? Wagner’s Ring, four operas in six nights, though not in the right order, and delivered by three Brünnhildes, three W…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 11:56AM
Saturday, June 23, 2012

Concert Review: Last Night of the Proms by Arthur Kaptainis

The people at the TSO say it ain’t so. The run this week of the Last Night of the Proms at Roy Thomson Hall did not necessarily represent cheerio for this long-running exercise in high-spi…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 11:01AM
Thursday, June 14, 2012

Concert review: TSO presents Mahler’s Eighth Symphony by Arthur Kaptainis

Strong start, fab finish. All conductors strive for both, most pray for the latter, which is waht Peter Oundjian got Wednesday in Toronto

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 01:28PM
Sunday, June 10, 2012

Opera review: Einstein on the Beach by Arthur Kaptainis

Whatever epithet might be attached to Einstein on the Beach – wellspring of minimalism, unrepeatable masterpiece of non-linear narrative, avant-garde epic, colossal waste of time – it re…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 12:44PM
Thursday, June 7, 2012

Concert review: Toronto Symphony Orchestra plays Shostakovich by Arthur Kaptainis

For most of us, the year 1905 is much like the years before and after. For Dmitri Shostakovich it presented an opportunity to evoke a revolutionary uprising with elemental power and cinemati…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 10:01PM
Thursday, May 24, 2012

Concert review: Toronto Mendelssohn Choir at Koerner Hall by Arthur Kaptainis

Choral programs come in a few flavours, including extroverted and extra-extroverted. The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, with orchestra, gave us an example of the latter on Wednesday in Koerner H…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 01:14PM
Saturday, May 19, 2012

Concert review: Evgeny Kissin and the TSO play Grieg by Arthur Kaptainis

Grieg’s Piano Concerto is a beautiful piece, almost to the point of having been demoted to pops status. Many thanks to Evgeny Kissin for restoring its classical credentials on Thursday wit…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 10:19AM
Monday, May 7, 2012

Toronto Symphony Review: Sci-fi Spectacular by Arthur Kaptainis

Sci-fi Spectacular: It sounds like an entertaining night in Roy Thomson Hall, and it surely was last week, as the TSO presented an array of themes and excerpts from movies and television sho…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 05:03PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards