Operatic bel canto and the passion and treachery of Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor meet in Donizetti’s masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor. Miami Lyric Opera’s new production on Saturday night at the Moss Cultural Arts Center in Cutler Bay does justice to this mixture of inspired melodies and Scottish tragedy. With a cast of gifted singers, a star performance in the title role and theatrically informed staging, this Lucia is one of the company’s best offerings in its two-decade history.

The tale of rival Scottish clans and a heroine forced into an arranged marriage by her evil brother (for his political advantage), leading to madness and murder, is the stuff of operatic melodramas in excelsis. Director Raffaele Cardone fielded a strong cast that was up to Donizetti’s considerable vocal demands…

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Miami Lyric Opera is celebrating its 20th anniversary this season, and on Saturday evening the hardy company took the stage at South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center with Georges Bizet’s Carmen.

Bizet was convinced that his opera was a failure after the critical reception at its premiere in March of 1875. Carmen’s libretto may have been too realistic in its depiction of folk life in Seville, perhaps too provocative in its musical exoticism, or maybe too harsh in its refusal to reward virtue at the end.

What the libretto and music provide though, is a tangible tale of a strong, albeit at times manipulative woman whose charms madden the men in her life. To take the deepest fall and ultimately take her life as well, is corporal Don José whose blinding love for Carmen can’t allow her to be with anyone else.

A well-prepared number was the smuggler’s quintet “Nous avons en tête une affaire” from Act II, a moment in the plot which has Carmen pushing Don José to choose between his love for her and his duty as soldier. Aguado, joined by Elizabeth DiFronzo (Mercédès) and Samantha Riling-Lopez (Frasquita), tenor Rolando Valdez (Remendado), and baritone Gabriel Menendez (Dancaire) handled the quick passages and playful ensemble singing with conviction.

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“Eglise Gutierrez starred in Miami Lyric Opera’s “La Traviata” Saturday night.

It has been 22 months since any pillar of the Italian operatic repertoire has been performed in Miami. (The last such production was Florida Grand Opera’s Madama Butterfly in January, 2020.)

On Saturday night, Miami Lyric Opera took a big step toward remedying that lyric drought with a semi-concert presentation of Verdi’s La Traviata. A nearly full house at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center in Cutler Bay greeted the company’s one-night return enthusiastically.

Billed as a concert version, the performance was considerably more. The small orchestra and chorus were onstage but the principal singers enacted their roles, none reading from a score. The men wore formal attire while the female singers were dressed in colorful costumes…”

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“Charles Perrault’s classic fairy tale Cinderella has inspired numerous theatrical, operatic and dance adaptations but few versions can match the comedic verve and bubbly profusion of inspired melodies that Gioacchino Rossini created in his 1817 opera buffa, La Cenerentola. On Saturday night Miami Lyric Opera brought this heady confection to the stage of the South Miami Dade Cultural Arts Center in Cutler Bay. The wonderfully zany production was matched by a gifted cast that fully met Rossini’s difficult vocal demands.”

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