Phil's Opera World

Opera in four acts and six scenes. Running Time: 2 hours. I wrote the body of this review three years ago in July, 2019, and I have been holding it off because I wasn’t sure that it is actually all that good. I have heard this opera three or four times. The time I wrote…

Opera in three acts. Running Time: 2 hours 10 minutes. THE Croatian National Opera (there really isn’t another one quite so famous) is set during one of the most bloody battles of the Ottoman-Hapsburg Wars between 3,000 Hungarian-Croatian forces and 100,000 invading Ottoman troops. A pyrrhic victory, the Ottomans did wipe out the Hungarians and…

Opera in tre atti. Running Time: 1 hour 50 minutes. This is my first attempt with Wolf-Ferrari, and it will probably be more off the beaten path than most of my earlier work, although I am somewhat more familiar with this opera than his others. Considering the late composition date, the score is rather conservative,…

Opera in quarto atti. Running Time: 2 hours 17 minutes. Let’s celebrate my 400th opera review with something I have been meaning to do for over six years! I threw in a few jokes in this one to mark the occasion. Probably one of the most glaring omissions from this site, perhaps now, after six…

Opera in one act. Running Time: 1 hour 32 minutes. WARNING: Relatively medical/graphic depictions of human sexual activity. This one isn’t for the kiddos, even if they show up for A LOT of it. Before Salome and Elektra there was Feuersnot which, like its sister operas caused a massive scandal with its sexy plot of…