34 stories by "Mike Silverman"
NEW YORK (AP) -- Mimis come and Rodolfos go, but one thing never changes in "La Boheme" at the Metropolitan Opera: When the curtain goes up on Act 2, the audience al…
NEW YORK (AP) -- You've probably heard how all three original stars dropped out of the Metropolitan Opera's new "Tosca" and how the conductor had t…
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- In a downtown theater, five teenagers take refuge at a site once occupied by members of the radical group MOVE. Across the street, a serial killer terrorizes Vict…
NEW YORK (AP) -- No monsters of depravity for Waltraud Meier, thank you. The German mezzo-soprano takes a very different view of the Greek queen Klytemnestra than the one usually seen…
WASHINGTON (AP) -- For the Washington National Opera, completing Wagner's "Ring Cycle" has been an endeavor worthy of its epic subject: Launched with great …
NEW YORK (AP) -- Portraying an aging, embittered Queen Elizabeth is hard work, but for Sondra Radvanovsky there's a moment late in Donizetti's opera "Robert…
NEW YORK (AP) -- You won't hear Nina Stemme singing in Act 1 of Puccini's "Turandot," but watch closely and you'll spot her - looming over…
And sad to say, despite the expenditure of considerable talent and money — and a splendid performance by Eva-Maria Westbroek in the title role — the question remains unanswered f…
NEW YORK (AP) -- When the Metropolitan Opera closes out its HD broadcast season this Saturday, tenor Marcelo Alvarez will be doing double duty. In a relatively rare feat, he'll sing the …
When King Philip II of Spain faces off against the Grand Inquisitor in Verdi's "Don Carlo" at the Academy of Music, they won't just be portraying history, they'll be making a bit of it, too.…
Take a little brainwashing, add a few political assassinations and stir in a villainess evil enough to rival Lady Macbeth. The enduring result is "The Manchurian Candidate," first as a novel…
NEW YORK (AP) -- Soprano Deborah Voigt keeps a picture of herself performing alongside tenor Placido Domingo at the Metropolitan Opera - both as a treasured memory of a great triumph and…
CHICAGO (AP) -- When Anthony Freud was 14, his favorite pastime was going to the opera in London and then, on the train ride home to Wimbledon where he lived with his parents, "dreaming …
NEW YORK (AP) -- In a bare rehearsal room three floors underground at the Metropolitan Opera, Michael Volle was learning how to move around on a set that wasn't there....
NEW YORK (AP) -- When the Metropolitan Opera announced in February that it would present John Adams' "The Death of Klinghoffer" this fall, there was, as Peter Gelb recalls it, "absolutel…
NEW YORK (AP) -- After a summer of uncertainty, the sounds of discord gave way to joyful music-making as the Metropolitan Opera opened its season Monday night with a sparkling new produc…
NEW YORK (AP) -- For Ildar Abdrazakov, this may go down as the biggest opening night that almost didn't happen....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Figaro might not be getting married anytime soon. Mimi and Rodolfo might not fall in love in that cold Parisian garret. And Macbeth might never murder his way to the thr…
NEW YORK (AP) -- Suddenly, it seems, Olga is everywhere....
NEW YORK (AP) -- For longtime Broadway actor Danny Burstein, the big challenge in preparing for his Metropolitan Opera debut has been "trying to find the funny."...
CHICAGO (AP) -- There are baritones who sing opera, and then there are "Verdi baritones." Quinn Kelsey has no doubts about which camp he is in....
NEW YORK (AP) -- It's an opera singer's nightmare: Suddenly, in mid-performance, the voice fails to respond - and instead of a high note, the audience hears a painful croak....
NEW YORK (AP) -- For Patricia Racette, this was already shaping up as a memorable year at the San Francisco Opera, opening the season in Boito's "Mefistofele" and returning in June to he…
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- Ask Susan Graham how she reacted when Santa Fe Opera first offered her the title role in Offenbach's "The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein."...
HOUSTON (AP) -- Thunderbolts and torrential rains greeted the audience arriving for Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" at the Worth Theater Center on Saturday night. Inside the opera house th…
