Ariadne at Lyric. American Apollo at West Edge. Tolomeo at Philharmonia Baroque.

A Personal Canon

Favorites

A personal list. Biased towards the recent and unexpected.

01

Sweet Land

Du Yun & Raven Chacon · libretto by Aja Couchois Duncan & Douglas Kearney

Staging erasure.
2020
↗ Download from The Industry
02

L'Amour de Loin

Kaija Saariaho · libretto by Amin Maalouf

21st century spectral technique animates a 12th century troubadour text.
2000
↗ DVD (Finnish National Opera)
03

King Roger

Karol Szymanowski · libretto by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz & the composer

My favorite 20th century queer Polish opera.
1926
↗ Blu-ray (Royal Opera)
04

Anna Nicole

Mark-Anthony Turnage · libretto by Richard Thomas

A contemporary La Traviata.
2011
↗ Blu-ray (Royal Opera House)
05

X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X

Anthony Davis · libretto by Thulani Davis

Visionary. Jazz-infused. Powerful.
1986
↗ Stream at Met Opera on Demand
06

The Exterminating Angel

Thomas Adès · libretto by Tom Cairns & the composer

An exclamation point adaptation of the Buñuel film.
2016
↗ Blu-ray (Met production)
07

Moses und Aron

Arnold Schoenberg · libretto by Arnold Schoenberg

“For nothing can be sole or whole that has not been rent.”— W. B. Yeats
1957
↗ Blu-ray (Castellucci, Paris Opera)
08

Innocence

Kaija Saariaho · libretto by Sofi Oksanen (libretto), Aleksi Barrière (multilingual text)

The audience is implicated.
2021
Aix en Provence original production no longer available.
09

The Cunning Little Vixen

Leoš Janáček · libretto by Leoš Janáček, after Rudolf Těsnohlídek

A celebration of nature, all in Moravian speech-melodies and folk idiom.
1924
↗ DVD (Glyndebourne)
10

Death in Venice

Benjamin Britten · libretto by Myfanwy Piper

Britten's final work, and the best marriage of his interests and his craft.
1973
↗ DVD (ENO production, Opus Arte)
11

M. Butterfly

Huang Ruo · libretto by David Henry Hwang

Explores Orientalism. Reframes and improves the original play. Explodes the Puccini opera.
2022
No commercial recording yet — catch it live when it returns.
12

Lessons in Love and Violence

George Benjamin · libretto by Martin Crimp

A restrained, precise nervous system of sound.
2018
↗ Blu-ray (Royal Opera House)