60 stories by "Anthony Tommasini"
Our chief classical music critic remembers playing and teaching the unforgettable scores of "Sweeney Todd," "Sunday in the Park With George" and other shows.
Ms. Freni was acclaimed for her exquisite singing in lighter lyric roles. In midcareer, she also dared to explore weightier ones.
The composer Matthew Aucoin is deferential to Sarah Ruhl's text, in a Los Angeles production that comes to the Met Opera next year.
This country-western parody of the operatic epic is set amid dining tables at a Manhattan barbecue restaurant.
This hybrid theatrical work, about a children's book author and the story he hopes to finish, combines elements of opera, drama, puppet show and chorus.
This production of the Leonard Bernstein 1956 operetta, which hovers between opera and musical theater, is a step toward a totally revamped City Opera.
As he works on a new musical, Stephen Sondheim talks about the role of words in his work and how Oscar Hammerstein II influenced that.
Ben Brantley and Anthony Tommasini weigh in on the debate set off by the Metropolitan Opera's decision to forgo darkening makeup in its latest production.
Anthony Tommasini and Jon Caramanica discuss Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway musical.
Peter Gelb, the Met's general manager, has brought more theater directors into opera, which presents challenges but has resulted in inventive productions.
Robert Lepage directed the Canadian Opera Company in works by Stravinsky. Largely based on fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, they incorporated water and puppets.
"Anna Nicole," the new opera about the American sex symbol, proved a weirdly inspired work, an engrossing, outrageous, entertaining and, ultimately, a deeply moving improbable triumph.
The sad truth is that until relatively recent decades, women have had severely limited opportunities within all the arts, especially music and, even more, composition.
Verdi and Wagner were great students of Beethoven, and their operas have symphonic sweep, architectonic integrity and orchestral richness galore. In addition, you cannot discount their endur…
“Summer and Smoke,” at the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater, tells of two young adults who grew up together in a small town but whose desire for each other is never realiz…
Ms. Verrett, called the Black Callas, sang both mezzo-soprano and soprano roles, including Lady Macbeth, Carmen and Tosca.
New York City Opera's "A Quiet Place," Leonard Bernstein's only full-length opera, makes a long-troubled composition finally work.
Technical mishaps from the debut of "Ring" appear to have been fixed.
A conservative composer’s “Seagull” at Dicapo Opera Theater.
A new production of "The Merry Widow," directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, underlines the challenges of presenting spoken dialogue in the vast Metropolitan Opera hall.
Two versions of "The Long Christmas Dinner" were performed on Friday at Alice Tully Hall.
"Here Be Sirens," by Kate Soper, is a hybrid of opera, play and musical theater that presents these creatures as avian-humanoid femme fatales.
Anthony Tommasini on this season's musical theater songs that stood out and that have potential for independent afterlives.
This season's Broadway scores were clearly influenced by numerous musical styles, including country, gospel, jazz and the folk songs of other nations.
A one-night-only performance of "Guys and Dolls" at Carnegie Hall on Thursday starred Nathan Lane, Patrick Wilson, Sierra Boggess and Megan Mullally.
