News & Reviews

The Virginian-Pilot: Va. Opera's "Magic Flute" relies on mastery of emotion By Teresa Annas The Virginian-Pilot ©November 7, 2013 Poor Papageno. He catches birds and sells them for a living, is rough-hewn and earthy, and has fallen for a girl who flew the coop. He...

The Virginia Opera opened its rousing, energetic spring production of Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s classic musical “Carousel” last weekend at Norfolk’s Harrison Opera House. Running through May 19, the current performances, presented in conjunction with the 2013...

A few days before New Yorker Greg Ganakas headed to Norfolk to direct the classic musical "Carousel," he visited a carousel in Central Park, just to remember what it's like. "It reminded me of when I was a child and when I first stepped onto it, and how fast it went,"...

Matthew Worth has tackled some demanding roles in his operatic career, including the philandering "Don Giovanni" at Virginia Opera and Father Flynn in Minnesota Opera's world premiere of "Doubt." This month he returns to the Virginia Opera stage in a classic of...

Carousel barker Billy Bigelow loves Julie Jordan, but can never seem to do right by her. After tragedy strikes, Billy must answer for his behavior, but can a selfish man find it in his heart to be selfless? Carousel’s timeless themes of love and redemption are...

One of the greatest operas ever written, The Marriage of Figaro is a witty, yet profound tale of love, revenge and forgiveness. Figaro, valet to Count Almaviva, and Susanna, maid to the Countess, are set to be married…but the Count has his own designs on Susanna’s...

In this famous tale of lust and disgrace, the newly impoverished Blanche Dubois arrives in 1940’s New Orleans to live with her sister and brother-in-law in their shabby apartment. As the weeks press on, dark truths about Blanche’s past collide with the stark reality...

“The Marriage of Figaro” is slippery. Just when you think Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte are settling into sweet comedy, this 1786 opera has a way of skittering into farce. Just when “Figaro” seems content to trade on melodrama, it deepens toward tragedy....

For Richmond-born Matthew Burns, Friday’s opening of Virginia Opera’s “The Marriage of Figaro” at Richmond CenterStage will be a down-home family affair. Burns, a bass-baritone, will be singing opposite his wife, soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird, as ladies’ maid Susanna, who...

There are so many great moments in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” that can send an audience away happy — a meltingly beautiful “Dove Sono” from a lovelorn Countess, a comic turn or two from an oversexed Cherubino, or even the slapstick antics of duplicity and...