Audacious, experimental, unflinching: Top Ten Moments of the Utah Enlightenment for 2018

More apparent every year, the Utah Enlightenment is audacious, experimental and unflinching in its artistic entrepreneurship. In 2018, the pool for considering the most definitive moments of the Utah Enlightenment was as expansive and diverse as ever. The Utah Review presents the top ten moments for 2018, precisely because of promise and strength among its … Read more

Utah Opera opens season with Romeo et Juliette

Romeo And Juliet (Utah Opera)

Shakespeare’s tragic love story returns to the Utah Opera stage to open the company’s 2018-2019 season. Composed by Charles-Francois Gounod with libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, Utah Opera Chorus Master Michaella Calzaretta and Conductor Robert Tweten come together musically to deliver a stellar production sung in French by a cast of 54 supported by the 53-member Utah Symphony. With the … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2018: Grand preview of 42nd annual festival’s pop-up city of art, culture

In the 44 hours over the four days in which the 42nd Utah Arts Festival (June 21-24) will be open to the public, so many activities and performances will be available that only the savviest planner attending every minute of that time will be able, at best, to sample a respectable share of what each … Read more

Opening night audience goes batty over Utah Opera’s Die Fledermaus

courtesy of Utah Opera

Leave it to Utah Opera to close out its 40th season with the ultimate party opera. Filled with Champagne, duplicitous identities and disguises, Die Fledermaus drew hearty laughter and applause on opening night. Gracing the Utah Opera stage for the fourth time, Johann Strauss Jr.’s light-hearted operetta is sung in English with English supertitles. And … Read more

Three worthy February performances: NOVA Chamber Music Series’ On the Threshold of Winter, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Strata, PYGmalion Productions’ I And You

NOVA CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES: ON THE THRESHOLD OF WINTER, CHAMBER OPERA, MICHAEL HERSCH Michael Hersch is an extraordinary composer. His chamber opera titled On the Threshold of Winter, which recently was presented in an astonishing production by the NOVA Chamber Music Series, makes as huge demands on audience members as it does on the soprano … Read more

NOVA Chamber Music Series presents an extraordinary festival this week dedicated to music of Michael Hersch

I hereby recall the water from your cells, The sea sends me word Via an emissary. “I have a need for fuel (On the threshold of winter). Now I understand why for some time Dark clouds have hovered above me: Within them there’s a large part of myself Waving good-bye. The Emissary of the Blue … Read more

Backstage at The Utah Arts Festival 2017: Random acts of opera sponsored by Utah Opera return to City Library for second year

Soprano Clara Hurtado-Lee is looking forward to testing out the acoustics in the soaring and spacious Urban Room atrium of the City Library. Perched on the overhang on one of the floors above the main space, a trained opera singer can fill the entire vast space with her voice. For the second year at the … Read more

Utah Opera’s Don Giovanni goes Film Noir

Utah Opera’s 2016-2017 season closes with one of Mozart’s most popular operas, Don Giovanni. The 2016-17 season has been marked by serious operas with themes ranging from PTSD and the effects of war, to violence against women and political expression. Don Giovanni continues that trend with an updated production that shines a stark light on Giovanni’s … Read more

Utah Opera’s Lucia di Lammermoor is dramatic, yet subtle

Utah Opera’s 2016-2017 season has played to the moodier and dramatic side of human nature this year, and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor is no exception. This tale of a woman manipulated into turning her back on true love and marrying another has tragic consequences. Utah Opera added more drama to the production with a last-minute cast … Read more