Odyssey Opera June Festival at Boston University Theatre, June 11 & 12, 2014
The Boston Globe, June 19, 2014
My first review for the Boston Globe covers the first two nights of a four-night festival by Odyssey Opera, a new company arisen from the demise of Opera Boston. You can read more about the organization's origin in this 2013 article by Geoff Edgers, and you can also read Jeremy Eichler's review of the company's first undertaking, a September 2013 concert performance of Wagner's Rienzi. Finally, a column by David Weininger and a feature article by Harlow Robinson detailed the making of the June Festival, Odyssey's first foray into fully staged productions. (Note that non-subscribers get 10 free articles per month, so pace yourself.)
Lots of people had asked me when I'd start writing again after making my transition from the Times to the Globe. Truth is, I was eager and anxious, while at the same time cautious about wanting to be sure I'd mastered the minutiae (if not necessarily the broader strokes) of my new position, chiefly assigning and editing, before I added more to my plate.
Still, I'd already planned to take in the two presentation Odyssey would mount in its theatrical debut: Verdi's Un giorno di regno on the first night, a double bill of Mascagni's Zanetto and Wolf-Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna on the second, with each program repeating during the next two nights. So when Jeremy Eichler through no fault of his own ended up with an impossible schedule that week, I was ready and willing to jump in. It didn't hurt that I already felt oddly comfortable with Giorno, thanks to a delicious Parma video I'd spent much time with and the previous production I reviewed at the Glimmerglass Festival just last summer.
All told, I'm pretty happy with the result, and most certainly was gratified by how quickly the words came tumbling out when I put myself to the test. Thus reassured, I've taken the liberty of assigning myself a handful of preview articles during the weeks and months to come – and who knows? Maybe there's another review waiting to sneak up on me, too, once I finally solve the so-far unsurmountable problem of establishing a permanent home address here.
Stay tuned…
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