Union Avenue Opera / Léirmheasanna

Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" showcases marvelous voices

Union Avenue Opera returned following the 2020 pandemic with an abbreviated schedule of two delightful outdoor productions performed in four days at The Big Top. Given the continuing pandemic situation, Union Avenue Opera devised a clever and ultimately successful method for delivering its 2021 season after being forced to cancel the 2020 summer season. Its artistic director Scott Schoonover and administrative director Emily Stolarski made the temporary move to The Big Top, where the sides were opened to allow breezes to blow into the seating area.

The Union Avenue Opera has opened a splendid production of Falstaff. I'm not a big fan of "re-purposing" classic plays. Poor Shakespeare! He's been subjected to such vandalism over the years with modern "concept" versions of his works. No, I do not want to go to see a trendy lesbian-Hamlet-on-Mars! But when Giuseppe Verdi and Arrigo Boito (his librettist) sat down together in 1890 to adapt three of Shakespeare's plays into one opera, that was something different. The resulting Falstaff is Maestro Verdi's ultimate and final masterpiece--and really quite true to the Bard. The great fat knight from Henry IV (parts one and two) and Merry Wives of Windsor is deliciously recognizable and vigorously alive here in this evening of quite amazing music.