Music bio (PDF version
 

• “A Tale of Two Fidelios,” Opera Today (March 2025).
• "Jumbotron at the Opera: Madama Butterfly at LA Opera," Opera Today (October 2024).
• "Rigoletto at the Chicago Lyric," Opera Today (September 2024).
• "An Unusual Bel Canto Revival in New York: Carolina Uccelli, Anna di Resburgo (1835),” Opera Today (3 August 2024).
• "Getting Beneath the Surface: Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte in Princeton,” Opera Today (June 2024).
• "Asmik Grigorian in Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera,” Opera Today (7 May 2024).
• "Jonas Kaufmann in Aida at the Bayerische Staatsoper,” Opera Today (21 April 2024).
• "Verdi, La traviata in Venice,” Opera Today (18 April 2024).
• "Celebrating the Schoenberg Sesquicentennial at Carnegie Hall,” Opera Today (22 March 2024).
• "A Shot of Coffee in New York,” Opera Today (26 February 2024).
• "Chornobyldorf: An Archaeological Opera in Seven Novels,” Opera Today (19 January 2024).
• "Médée at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden,” Opera Today (19 November 2023).
• "Salome at the Staatsoper Hamburg,” Opera Today (15 November 2023).
• "L'amore dei tre re at La Scala, Milan,” Opera Today (12 November 2023).
• "Die Frau ohne Schatten at Neuköllner Oper,” Opera Today (20 September 2023).
• "Eslon Hindundu's Chief Hijangua in Berlin,” Opera Today (17 September 2023).
• "Diminuendo Lagrimoso: Tracing the Decline of Big Opera Voices,” Berlin Journal (1 September 2023).
• "Das Rheingold at Ravello Festival,” Opera Today (27 August 2023).
• "A Tale of Two Lucias,” Opera Today (20 August 2023).
• "Rossini's 'Barber of Seville' at the Princeton Festival,” Opera Today (20 June 2023).
• "Tannhäuser at Salzburg,” Opera Today (April 2023).
• "Leoncavallo's Pagliacci at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma,” Opera Today (19 March 2023).
• "Lohengrin at the Met,” Opera Today (10 March 2023).
• "Tannhäuser at the Boston Symphony,” Opera Today (6 February 2023).
• "Salome in Paris,” Opera (London), January 2023.
• "Lohengrin at the Bayerische Staatsoper,” Opera Today (6 December 2022).
• "Elektra at the Washington National Opera,” Opera Today (18 November 2022).
• "Tristan und Isolde in Seattle,” Opera Today (24 October 2022).
• "Operatic Shock Treatment: Salomé in Paris,” Opera Today (22 October 2022).
• "Otello at Opera Philadelphia,” Opera Today (8 October 2022).
• "Idomeneo at the Met,” Opera Today (6 October 2022).
• "Hamlet at the Met,” Opera Today (26 May 2022).
• "Ariadne auf Naxos at the Met,” Opera Today (17 March 2022).
• "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Metropolitan Opera, New York,” Opera Today (16 November 2021).
• "Giovanna d'Arco at Opera di Roma,” Opera Today (22 October 2021).
• "La Voix Humaine by Opera Philadelphia,” Opera Today (25 September 2021).
• "Aida at the Macerata Opera Festival,” Opera Today (August 2021).
  • For PDF copy, click here.
• "Bluebeard's Castle, Munich,” Opera Today (07 March 2020).
• "What to Make of Tosca at La Scala,” Opera Today (19 December 2019).
• "Miracle on Ninth Avenue [Amahl and the Night Visitors at On Site Opera],” Opera Today (9 December 2019).
• "40th Anniversary Gala of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro,” Opera Today (28 August 2019).
• "Rigoletto at the Macerata Opera Festival,” Opera Today (17 August 2019).
• "The Sopranos at Tanglewood,” Opera Today (5 August 2019).
• "The Princeton Festival Presents Nixon in China,” Opera Today (29 June 2019).
• "Aribert Reimann's opera Lear at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino,” Opera Today (06 May 2019).
• "Petrenko Directs Beethoven's Missa Solemnis,” Opera Today (20 Feb 2019).
• "Where Have the Great Big Wagner Voices Gone?” in Isolde Schmid-Reiter, ed. Worttonmelodie der menschlichen Stimme. Die Herausforderung, Wagner zu singen (Regensburg: ConBrio Verlagsgesellschaft, 2019).
  • Unpublished version: "Is Dramatic Wagner Singing in Decline?" Lecture delivered at the conference of the Europäische Musiktheater-Academie, Wiener Staatsoper (April 2017).
• "Madama Butterfly at the Princeton Festival," Opera Today (5 July 2018).
• "Beethoven's Fidelio in Princeton,” Opera Today (5 July 2017).
• "Elegie für junge Liebende at Theater an der Wien,” Opera Today (5 June 2017).
• "Three Rossini Operas Serias,” Opera Today (6 May 2017).
• "Britten's Peter Grimes in Princeton,” Opera Today (26 June 2016).
• "Lohengrin at the Semperoper Dresden,” Opera Today (2 June 2016).
• "Where Have the Great Big Verdi Voices Gone?” in Isolde Schmid-Reiter, ed. ,,Poetischer Ausdruck der Seele": Die Kunst, Verdi zu singen Schriften der Europäischen Musiktheater-Akademie - Band 10 (Regensburg: ConBrio Verlagsgesellschaft, 2016).
  • An abridged version of this essay was presented as a lecture at the Wiener Staatsoper entitled "Is there a decline in Verdi spinto and dramatic singing?" (29 April 2016).
• "Cold Mountain at Opera Philadelphia,” Opera Today (8 February 2016).
• "Spontini's La Vestale in Brussels,” Opera Today (25 October 2015).
• "Verdi's La traviata at Opera Philadelphia,” Opera Today (10 October 2015).
• "George Benjamin's Written on Skin at the Lincoln Center Festival,” Opera Today (28 August 2015).
• "Verdi's Aïda at the Aspen Festival,” Opera Today (28 August 2015).
• "Charlie Parker's Yardbird at Opera Philadelphia,” Opera Today (15 June 2015).
• "The Maid of Pskov (Pskovityanka) at the Stars of the White Nights Festival, St. Petersburg,” Opera Today (15 June 2015).
• "Princeton Festival: Le Nozze di Figaro,” Opera Today (15 June 2015).
• "Giovanni Paisiello: Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” Opera Today (15 June 2015).
• "Twilight of the Gods," Opera (November 2013).
• “Dukas’ Ariane et Barbe-Bleue from Barcelona on DVD,” Opera Today (20 May 2013).
• “Puccini’s Manon Lescaut in Philadelphia,” Opera Today (26 April 2012).
• “Aida in Arizona,” Opera Today (19 March 2012).
• “Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio in Philadelphia,” Opera Today (6 March 2012).
• “Opera’s Search for Transcendence,” European Journal of Sociology 52 (2011).
• “Carmen in Philadelphia,” Opera Today (7 October 2011).
• "Phaedra in Philadelphia," Opera Today (6 June 2011).
• “Roméo et Juliette in Philadelphia,” Opera Today (5 March 2011).
• “On Tenors: A Professional Opinion,” Guest Blog on Extended Violin Diary (21 January 2011).
• “Go East, Young Diva,” International Herald-Tribune (Special Year-End “Global Agenda 2011” Section), 2 December 2010.
  • Also online at: New York Times, Opinion Pages, 2 December 2010. Click here.
• “Between Worlds: The New Seattle “Tristan” Explores the Threshold Between Life and Death,” Wagner Journal 4:3 (Autumn 2010).
• "Tristan in Seattle,” Opera Today (15 August 2010).
  • For a PDF copy of this review, click here.
• "Händel’s Semele at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris,” Opera Today (11 July 2010).
  • For a PDF copy of this review, click here.
• "Everyday Totalitarianism: Reflections on the Stuttgart Ring," The Opera Quarterly (Winter 2010).
• "Wild Card: Seiji Ozawa Returns to the Met," Opera News (December 2008).
• "International Wagner Competition, Seattle," Financial Times (19 August 2008).
• "Idomeneo and Doktor Faust at München Opernfestspiele," Opera Today (20 July 2008).
• "Verdi's Otello at the Shanghai Opera House," Opera (London, June 2008).
• "Puccini's Turandot in Beijing," Opera News (April 2008).
  • For a story by National Public Radio's Louisa Lim featuring an interview based in part on this story, click here.
• "Guo Wenjing's Poet Li Bai in Shanghai," Opera (London) (January 2008).
• "Wagner's Tannhäuser in Tokyo," Opera (London) (January 2008).
• "Tan Dun / Organic Concert in Shanghai," Financial Times (23 October 2007).
• "A Conductor Worth Watching," Financial Times (22 September 2007).
  • For a .pdf copy of the illustrated print edition, click here.
• "Luciano Pavarotti, 1935-2007," Newsweek (17 September 2007, International editions).
  • For a .pdf copy of the illustrated print edition, click here.
• "Everyday Totalitarianism: The Stuttgart Ring Cycle," Opera Quarterly (2007) Part of a symposium on contemporary staging of Wagnerian opera with Carolyn Abbate and Michael Ashman.
• "Sopranos at the Cineplex," Newsweek (16 March 2007, International edition).
  • For a .pdf copy of the illustrated print edition, click here.
• "Seattle: Review of International Wagner Competition," Opera (London, December 2006).
• "The Rise of American Arias," Newsweek (International edition, 3-10 July 2006).
• "Singing in the States," Newsweek (International edition, 3-10 July 2006).
• "Rethinking Mozart," Newsweek (30 January 2006, International edition)
  • (.pdf version)
• "Hidden Arias," Newsweek (1 June 2004, Atlantic edition).
• "In Defense of Bayreuth," German Politics and Society (forthcoming).
• "Moon over Mozart: Peter Sellars at Glyndebourne," Newsweek (11 August 2003, Atlantic edition).
• "All Wagner, All the Time," Newsweek (26 August 2002, Atlantic Edition).
• "Summer Reading: Three Essential Books on Opera," Commonweal (14 June 2002).

The Enraged Musician (1741)
by William Hogarth (1697-1764)
For high-res .jpg image, click here.
For information on this print,click here.

Kapellmeister Kreisler tanzt im Wahnsinn (1822)
(Conductor Kreisler dances in his Madness)
Drawing by E.T.A. Hoffman (1776-1822)
For high-res .jpg image, click here.