News & Reviews

By Roy Proctor So what can audiences expect of a mid-Victorian operetta populated by characters with penny dreadful names such as Dick Deadeye, Ralph Rackstraw and Little Buttercup? Quite a charming bit, as Virginia Opera proved in the rollicking production of Gilbert...

By Brian Bochicchio The Sondheim masterwork Sweeney Todd slashed its way into George Mason University this weekend, as Virginia Opera presented its version of the darkly enthralling musical experience. Stephen Powell (Sweeney Todd) and Phyllis Pancella (Mrs. Lovett)....

By Tim Smith For its fortieth anniversary, Virginia Opera slid into Broadway repertoire to deliver a highly satisfying account of Stephen Sondheim’s ever-chilling Sweeney Todd, one of the organizations strongest ventures of the past decade or so. Several companies...

By Roy Proctor Special correspondent So who says Broadway is Broadway and opera is opera and never the twain should meet? Obviously someone who has never looked and listened long and hard at Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd,” a powerhouse rendering of which is...

By Rich Griset Ron Daniels has a unique connection with the musical “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”: It probably wouldn’t exist without him. More than 40 years ago, it was Daniels who found the old penny dreadful tale and decided to turn it into a...

Stephen Sondheim said of Sweeney Todd, “If you do it in a theatre, it’s a musical. If you do it in an opera house, it’s an opera.”  Presented Sept. 26 at the Harrison Opera House as Virginia Opera’s 40th season opener, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street,...

By Mal Vincent An opera opening in Norfolk is a life-affirming experience - celebratory. Even routinely, it's about as close as the arts get to an event that mixes real pearls with dipped pearls. "Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street" | Handout photo....

By Teresa Annas NORFOLK Ron Daniels looked almost parental last week as he worked through some scenes from Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd." The director stood in Virginia Opera's rehearsal hall, low-key and inconspicuous in his black slacks and shirt, hands in pants...

By Teresa Annas The Virginian-Pilot©April 29, 2014 NORFOLK Virginia Opera has promoted two of its artistic staff members to lead positions, effective immediately. Adam Turner, formerly resident conductor, has been bumped up to principal conductor and artistic adviser....

Posted by Mike Paarlberg on Apr. 12, 2014 at 3:31 pm Louis C.K. has a bit in which he notes how incredible it is that women continue to go out with men, given that the number one threat to women, and chief cause of injury and mayhem to them is, well, men. The number...