Richard Sasanow

Richard Sasanow

Richard Sasanow has been BroadwayWorld.com's Opera Editor for many years, with interests covering contemporary works, standard repertoire and true rarities from every era. He is an interviewer of important musical figures on the current scene--from singers Diana Damrau, Peter Mattei, Stephanie Blythe, Davone Tines, Nadine Sierra, Angela Meade, Isabel Leonard, Lawrence Brownlee, Etienne Dupuis, Javier Camarena and Christian Van Horn to Pulitzer Prize-winning composers Kevin Puts and Paul Moravec, and icon Thea Musgrave, composers David T. Little, Julian Grant, Ricky Ian Gordon, Laura Kaminsky and Iain Bell, librettists Mark Campbell, Kim Reed, Royce Vavrek and Nicholas Wright, to conductor Manfred Honeck, director Kevin Newbury and Tony-winning designer Christine Jones. Earlier in his career, he interviewed such great singers as Birgit Nilsson, and Martina Arroyo and worked on the first US visit of the Vienna State Opera, with Karl Bohm, Zubin Mehta and Leonard Bernstein, and the inaugural US tour of the Orchestre National de France, with Bernstein and Lorin Maazel. Sasanow is also a long-time writer on art, music, food, travel and international business for publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, Town & Country and Travel & Leisure, among many others.






MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

Review: Met's Laffont Competition Unleashes New Artists on Grateful Audience
Review: Met's Laffont Competition Unleashes New Artists on Grateful Audience
March 21, 2024

No matter how many “star” performances the Met manages to muster in the course of a season, there’s nothing quite as exciting as the Laffont Grand Finals Concert—formerly known as the Met’s National Auditions Finals—which took place this past Sunday afternoon for its 70th season, when we got to hear up-and-comers who might have knocked our socks off at the concert itself or could at some time in the future.

Review: Yahoo for Ermonela Jaho! at Palau de la Musica Tribute to Victoria de los Angeles
Review: Yahoo for Ermonela Jaho! at Palau de la Musica Tribute to Victoria de los Angeles
March 13, 2024

It’s hard to compete with a dazzling concert hall like Barcelona’s Palau de la Musica Catalana—designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, one of Antonio Gaudi’s contemporaries in the modernista style. Or, with the famed Catalan (yes, not Spanish) diva Victoria de los Angeles, a Met favorite, whose centenary was being celebrated. Nonetheless, Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho did quite impressively in her house debut at the Palau with the Franz Schubert Filharmonia under Tomas Grau.

Review: Sierra, Bernheim Soar in the Met's ROMEO ET JULIETTE
Review: Sierra, Bernheim Soar in the Met's ROMEO ET JULIETTE
March 10, 2024

While I’ve admired soprano Nadine Sierra’s before, she seemed to reach a whole new level with her glorious turn as Juliette in the season’s first performance of Gounod’s ROMEO ET JULIETTE at the Met the other night. She was vivid and a delight to watch as she inhabited the teenaged heroine of the piece. Perhaps it was her stage partner, French tenor Benjamin Bernheim, who egged her on to such heights, with his nuanced singing and boyish demeanor.

Review: Lively ORFEO in Concert at Barcelona's Liceu Opera from Maestro Rene Jacobs
Review: Lively ORFEO in Concert at Barcelona's Liceu Opera from Maestro Rene Jacobs
March 7, 2024

Composers can’t seem to keep away from the Orpheus story. Why not? It’s a juicy one, drawing on the Greek myth about a man who tries to use the power of music to rescue his beloved wife from Hades.

Review: Another BALLO, Another Peculiar Reinvention, at Barcelona's Liceu, under Riccardo Frizza
Review: Another BALLO, Another Peculiar Reinvention, at Barcelona's Liceu, under Riccardo Frizza
March 4, 2024

UN BALLO IN MASCHERA—A MASKED BALL—certainly makes for a juicy opera, on paper at least. It has a plot filled with passion, jealousy and conspiracies, and a score by Giuseppe Verdi that has some of his most memorable music, including a great duet, plus unforgettable arias for soprano, tenor and baritone, and some first-rate music for secondary characters (Ulrica the fortune teller and Oscar the pants-role page) and chorus. The production at Barcelona’s gorgeous Grand Liceu Theatre didn’t stint on the resources for the cast and Verdi sounded as good as he should under conductor Riccardo Frizza with the company’s orchestra and chorus in fine form.

Review: Juilliard's ERISMENA Goes for Truly Baroque with Game Cast under Heijboer Castanon
Review: Juilliard's ERISMENA Goes for Truly Baroque with Game Cast under Heijboer Castanon
March 1, 2024

It’s always a joy to see the Juilliard Opera/Juilliard Historical Performance department perform in the intimate realm of the Rosemary and Meredith Willson Theatre, where the audience is up close and personal to the action on stage. Last week’s performances of Francesco Cavalli’s ERISMENA happily fell neatly into that category. Even with a libretto that’s had more lives than the proverbial cat, the work manages to weave its magic.

Review: What's the Destiny of the Met's New FORZA? Close Your Eyes and Listen to the Fine Cast
Review: What's the Destiny of the Met's New FORZA? Close Your Eyes and Listen to the Fine Cast
February 27, 2024

Much was made of the fact that it’s been almost 20 years since Verdi’s LA FORZA DEL DESTINO was last seen at the Met. For its heralded return, they picked a choice cast (starting with Lise Davidsen), a fine conductor (Music Director Yannick Nezet Seguin) and a director (Marius Trelinski) who’s, well,… Two out of three ain’t bad, considering the cast. So we might as well start there.

Feature: Director Mary Birnbaum Readies EMIGRE—Oratorio by Zigman, Campbell and Walsh—for US Debut at Geffen Hall
Feature: Director Mary Birnbaum Readies EMIGRE—Oratorio by Zigman, Campbell and Walsh—for US Debut at Geffen Hall
February 27, 2024

“I think the story is about survival, and about people sheltering one another,” director Mary Birnbaum told me in our conversation about EMIGRÉ, the oratorio that features what she called “composer Aaron Zigman’s sweeping score” and the “complex storytelling” by librettist Mark Campbell and lyricist Brock Walsh. The work makes its US debut on February 29 at the New York Philharmonic in Geffen Hall, under conductor Long Yu.

Review: LISE DAVIDSEN's 'Wesendonck Lieder” Highlights Met Orchestra Concert at Carnegie under Nezet-Seguin
Review: LISE DAVIDSEN's 'Wesendonck Lieder” Highlights Met Orchestra Concert at Carnegie under Nezet-Seguin
February 5, 2024

The foray of the Met Orchestra under Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin into the concert hall the other night—Carnegie Hall to be specific, during its “Fall of the Weimar” series—was in some ways like a three-part meal that mixed the order of the courses. First came an appetizer (running less than 10 minutes) in the form of Bach’s “Fuga [Ricercata] a 6 voci” from Musical Offering, BWV 1079, a late work by the composer (1747) rethought by Anton Webern in the 20th century. Then there was dessert in the form of Wagner’s “Wesendonck Lieder,” gloriously sung by soprano Lise Davidsen to thunderous applause. Finally, there was the main course: Mahler’s 5th Symphony, which was greeted rapturously by concertgoers.  

Review: Kouyoumdjian-Vavrek ADORATION Is a Cautionary Tale at Prototype
Review: Kouyoumdjian-Vavrek ADORATION Is a Cautionary Tale at Prototype
January 22, 2024

Another year has come to an end for the Prototype Festival of new opera theatre-music theatre, under the banner of Beth Morrison Projects and HERE. For those of us who couldn’t make it to all the shows on display at various venues around town, it’s always something of a crapshoot: Which ones do you choose? This week, for me, it was the Mary Kouyoumdjian-Royce Vavrek ADORATION, based on the eponymous Atom Egoyan film.

Review: No Heaven, Only Hell, in Huang Ruo's ANGEL ISLAND from Prototype at BAM
Review: No Heaven, Only Hell, in Huang Ruo's ANGEL ISLAND from Prototype at BAM
January 15, 2024

Huang Ruo’s artistically bold, viscerally devastating ANGEL ISLAND had its local debut the other night at BAM’s Harvey Theatre on Brooklyn’s Fulton Street, produced by Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) and BAM. Its New York premiere is part of the annual Prototype Festival of opera theatre-music theatre--co-founded by BMP and HERE--which has been bringing challenging contemporary works of different stripes to town since 2013.

Review: When Akhmetshina's CARMEN Is On Stage at The Met, Don't Fence Her In
Review: When Akhmetshina's CARMEN Is On Stage at The Met, Don't Fence Her In
January 6, 2024

Sometimes you hear a singer who embodies a role so completely that it’s hard to imagine her in anything else. That’s how I felt about the wonderful mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina, who’s singing the title role in the Met’s new production of Bizet’s CARMEN, which I saw at its second performance. Her portrayal was as full-bodied as her voice and she sizzled, filling up the stage as much as one can imagine. It’s little surprise that she’s considered the Carmen of the moment, having appeared in seven other productions (with two to come).

Review: Bullock, Tines, Costanzo, White Thrill under Conductor Reif in Chamber Version of Adams's EL NINO
Review: Bullock, Tines, Costanzo, White Thrill under Conductor Reif in Chamber Version of Adams's EL NINO
December 25, 2023

The American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) continues showcasing a chamber version of John Adams's, EL NINO, beckoning back to Handel's MESSIAH, which played a few days ago at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. It showcased spectacular singing from Julia Bullock, Davone Tines, Anthony Roth Costanzo and Jasmin White, under conductor Christian Reif.

Happy Birthday, La Divina!
Happy Birthday, La Divina!
December 3, 2023

Maria Callas—or Maria Anna Cecilia Sofia Kalogeropoulos—was born in New York City on December 2, 1923. She was a supernova who blazed across the opera world (and beyond) and it will never be the same. If you need proof, take a listen to the Warner Classes/Erato boxed set, “La Divina: Maria Callas In All Her Roles,” which was issued in September, consisting of 131 CDs of La Callas in all her 74 roles.

Review: Met's First TANNHAUSER of the Season Interrupted by Demonstrators
Review: Met's First TANNHAUSER of the Season Interrupted by Demonstrators
December 1, 2023

All that was missing were shouts of “food fight!” to turn last night’s performance of Richard Wagner’s TANNHAUSER—the first of the Met’s season—into a version of National Lampoon’s Night at the Opera, as climate activists interrupted the house debut of the great baritone Christian Gerhaher, and audience members traded barbs with the demonstrators, threatening the company’s determination that “the show must go on.”

Review: Magical Realism of Daniel Catan's FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS Spellbinds Audience in Met Debut
Review: Magical Realism of Daniel Catan's FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS Spellbinds Audience in Met Debut
November 18, 2023

Just as the Met’s debut of Mexican composer Daniel Catan’s FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS (FLORENCE IN THE AMAZON) began the other day, a member of the audience yelled out “Viva la ópera en español!” (“Long live opera in Spanish!”). And that was before a single note of the composer’s lyric, highly accessible and heavy-on-the-Puccini score was played.

Review: Edward Hopper Paintings Inspire LATER THE SAME EVENING by John Musto and Mark Campbell at Juilliard Opera
Review: Edward Hopper Paintings Inspire LATER THE SAME EVENING by John Musto and Mark Campbell at Juilliard Opera
November 15, 2023

It’s amazing how much emotion John Musto and Mark Campbell have been able to cram in the mere 75 minutes of LATER THE SAME EVENING, a one act opera, which has been on view this past week at Juilliard Opera at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, on West 65 Street, down the block from Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall.

Review: Comedy Tonight! MasterVoices Does THE FROGS, Or Why Isn't Sondheim at the Met?
Review: Comedy Tonight! MasterVoices Does THE FROGS, Or Why Isn't Sondheim at the Met?
November 7, 2023

MasterVoices, under Ted Sperling, found THE FROGS irresistible—and the result was a hit, or, as Shakespeare wrote in “Hamlet”: “A hit, a very palpable hit.” With its libretto by Burt Shevelove and Nathan Lane (and Nathan Lane again), it fit the stage of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theatre very nicely indeed.

Review: X Marks the Spot at Met Premiere of 'X: Life and Times of Malcolm X'
Review: X Marks the Spot at Met Premiere of 'X: Life and Times of Malcolm X'
November 5, 2023

It’s taken a long time for X: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MALCOLM X—the rediscovered and revised ‘80s work by Anthony Davis, Thulani Davis and Christopher Davis, in Robert O’Hara’s production and conducted by Kazem Abdullah--to cross the plaza from what was the old City Opera at New York State Theatre to a premiere at the Metropolitan Opera.

Review: Plenty of High Notes at Unusually Low-Key Richard Tucker Awards Gala
Review: Plenty of High Notes at Unusually Low-Key Richard Tucker Awards Gala
November 1, 2023

An historic recording of golden age tenor Richard Tucker singing “Sound an Alarm” from Handel’s JUDAS MACCABEUS” set the tone for the Richard Tucker Music Foundation’s Gala concert at Carnegie Hall. There was wonderful singing ahead of us—but of a certain kind. Like many other classical organizations, the Tucker Foundation, has found that, as Charles Dickens said in “A Tale of Two Cities,” “It was the best of times, the worst of times.” The “best” is for the quality of the singers that the foundation has supported through varying kinds of grants. The “worst”? Money from the usual donor pool is in shorter supply than usual, which meant a less elaborate evening



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