It was with slight trepidation that a hardcore devotee of Richard Wagner sat down last night and waited for the first performance of Pittsburgh Festival Opera’s version of his Rhinegold (Das Rheingold) to begin. The most majestic orchestral passage in… Read More ›
Pittsburgh Festival Opera
Pittsburgh Festival Opera Off to a Fun Start with “La Bohème Warhola”
If one were to compile a list of five operatic warhorses most likely to survive a make-over, Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème would easily place, if not take the number one spot. Pittsburgh Festival Opera proved the work can be effectively… Read More ›
Pittsburgh Festival Opera’s 2018 Season Kicks Off July 6th
The local “Intimate Opera Theater,” Pittsburgh Festival Opera, will begin its summer offerings the evening of Friday, July 6, at the Falk Auditorium of Winchester Thurston in Shadyside. For three weeks, the company will offer an eclectic assortment of staged… Read More ›
Corset Up and Remember to Breathe
Corsets on stage: Sometimes we see them, sometimes we don’t. Corsets have certainly made a comeback since designer Coco Chanel knocked them out of daily wear for early 20th century women. However, actors and singers often find themselves wearing corsets… Read More ›
Intermezzo
Pittsburgh Festival Opera continues to make good on its promise of producing Richard Strauss rarities, and for the fourth consecutive summer has revived one of the composer’s lesser known works. The company last year set the bar as high as… Read More ›
Xerxes
Pittsburgh Festival Opera gave the first of three performances of Händel’s Xerxes last night, and it was a delightfully rare opportunity to hear this seldom performed “Baroque” music. The work premiered in London in 1738, and flopped after a handful… Read More ›
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Stephen Sondheim’s musical adaptation of Sweeney Todd has been entertaining audiences for nearly forty years, and last night’s performance of the work by Pittsburgh Festival Opera did much to explain the show’s enduring popularity. In Sondheim’s creation of the musical,… Read More ›
“If I Loved You…” – Pittsburgh Festival Opera’s New Revue
In keeping with its long, distinguished and successful history of world premieres and making old music new again, Pittsburgh Festival Opera this summer is producing If I Loved You… – a revue featuring the best of Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s prolific… Read More ›
A Gathering of Sons – World Premiere
Last night was an auspicious collection of “firsts” – Pittsburgh Festival Opera presented its first performance of the summer under their re-branded company name, and the opera chosen for the occasion was the world premiere of the much anticipated A… Read More ›