Author Archives

• The Barber of Seville

  By George B Parous on April 4, 2016

  Pittsburgh Opera gave the first of four performances of Gioachino Rossini’s perennial The Barber of Seville Saturday night. The work is probably the most enduring of the composer’s 39 operas, and anyone who has seen vintage Warner Brothers’ cartoons or… Read More ›

• “27” (“Twenty-Seven”)

  By George B Parous on February 21, 2016

  27 or Twenty-Seven (as in 27 rue de Fleurus, Paris, the address at which Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas presided over their famous salon for many years in the earlier decades of the last century), received its first performance… Read More ›

• Little Women

  By George B Parous on January 22, 2016

  Judging from the full-dress rehearsal of Mark Adamo’s Little Women, at the CAPA Theater on Thursday night, there is every reason to believe that Pittsburgh Opera’s presentation of the work will enjoy the success it has achieved across America and… Read More ›

• Così fan tutte

  By George B Parous on November 9, 2015

  For its second production of the current season, Pittsburgh Opera brought out Mozart’s Così fan tutte last night before a fair-sized, appreciative gathering at the Benedum. The full title of the work, first performed in Vienna in January 1790, is… Read More ›

• Nabucco

  By George B Parous on October 11, 2015

  Pittsburgh Opera gave the first performance of its first production of the 2015-2016 season last night – Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco. The work had not been heard locally in a number of decades, and, happily, vacant seats were few and far… Read More ›

• The Winter’s Tale

  By George B Parous on September 17, 2015

  Last night Quantum Theatre presented the first performance of its The Winter’s Tale, a world premiere commissioned by The Benter Foundation. This Baroque opera, based on Shakespeare’s play, was created by Quantum’s Karla Boos; music director/conductor Andres Cladera; Chatham Baroque’s… Read More ›

• Capriccio

  By George B Parous on July 26, 2015

  Saturday night’s performance of the rarely heard Capriccio was the best work the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh has done this year, which is saying much, since “SummerFest†has been a series of successes. The size of the audience seemed to… Read More ›

• “New Kind of Fallout” – World Premiere

  By George B Parous on July 19, 2015

  Dating as far back as the 17th century, women have composed many operas – but today, virtually all are unknown and underperformed – if not lost altogether. Even at the Met, only Ethel Smyth’s Der Wald (“The Forest”), has been… Read More ›

• Damn Yankees

  By George B Parous on July 12, 2015

  Adler and Ross’ Damn Yankees, which ran over 1,000 performances and won seven Tony Awards during its original Broadway success of nearly six decades ago, was brought out of the local bull-pen last night by Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. It… Read More ›

• The Marriage of Figaro

  By George B Parous on July 11, 2015

  Even Albert Einstein was awed by Mozart’s compositions. “Beethoven created his music,” he once wrote, “but the music of Mozart is of such purity and beauty that one feels he merely found it – that it has always existed as… Read More ›