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Arts writing by Thomas May

August 19, 2026 • 12:41 am 0

A Less-Familiar ‘Madama Butterfly’ at Santa Fe Opera

Jarrett Ott (Sharpless), Karen Chia-ling Ho (Cio-Cio-San), Stephen Costello (Pinkerton) and ensemble; © Bronwen Sharp for the Santa Fe Opera

Here’s the fifth of my individual reviews of the 2026 Santa Fe Opera season, covering all five productions this year:

Madama Butterfly did not spring fully formed into the world as the repertory staple we know today. Bachtrack’s 2024 statistics ranked it the third most performed opera, yet Puccini’s convoluted revision history means that even this most familiar of works survives in markedly different forms. Musical and dramatic details, character relationships and even aspects of Cio-Cio-San herself changed across those revisions, until the 1907 Paris version emerged as the standard…

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Filed under: conductors, Puccini, review, Santa Fe Opera

August 14, 2026 • 11:15 am 0

Portrait of an Artist, Evolving: ‘Lili Elbe’ at Santa Fe Opera

Lucia Lucas (Lili Elbe), The Santa Fe Opera Chorus, by Bronwen Sharp for the Santa Fe Opera

My review of Tobias Picker’s Lili Elbe, which is receiving its American premiere this summer at Santa Fe Opera, is now up at Musical America Worldwide. Picker’s opera, with a libretto by Aryeh Lev Stollman, tells the story of the Danish painter Lili Elbe, one of the first people known to have undergone gender-affirming surgery, while placing her relationship with the artist Gerda Wegener at the heart of the drama.

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Filed under: American opera, new opera, review, Santa Fe Opera, Tobias Picker

August 13, 2026 • 11:41 pm 0

‘Rodelinda’ at Santa Fe Opera

Rodelinda at Santa Fe Opera (Photo: Bronwen Sharp)

Another highlight of my week at Santa Fe Opera: the R.B. Schlather production of Handel’s Rodelinda, featuring a fantastic cast and led brilliantly by Harry Bicket. My review for Opera Now:

R.B. Schlather’s first-rate Santa Fe Opera production of Handel’s Rodelinda makes the opera’s imposing succession of da capo arias feel anything but static. The political ground keeps moving beneath the characters, while Rodelinda’s devotion to Bertarido remains fixed –Fidelio is just around the corner. Schlather treats the arias as windows into each character’s private world, filling them with telling gestures and reactions while simultaneously often keeping other characters active.

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Filed under: Handel, Opera Now, review, Santa Fe Opera

August 6, 2026 • 8:40 am 0

‘The Magic Flute’ Re-enchanted

Santa Fe Opera’s joyous new production of Mozart’s beloved opera restores its sense of wonder and sheer fun. My review for Opera Now:

Being so familiar and beloved makes The Magic Flute unusually difficult to encounter free of the clichés and received ideas that have accumulated around it. The real magic of Christopher Luscombe’s new production at Santa Fe Opera lies in how effectively it recovers what makes the opera special in the first place. 

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Filed under: directors, Mozart, review, Santa Fe Opera

July 29, 2026 • 10:12 am 0

A Fresh ‘Appalachian Spring’ Closes Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Party

James Ehnes and colleagues in Appalachian Spring; photo © Jena Poppe

And thus ends what Seattle Chamber Music Society bills as “the world’s largest chamber music party” – some thoughts for Bachtrack on the final concert of the 2026 Summer Festival:

The final concert of Seattle Chamber Music Society’s 2026 Summer Festival capped an unusually eventful stretch. Owing to summer renovations at Benaroya Hall, its usual venue, the organisation found a number of alternate spaces to perform in, while also expanding its reach through free events in parks and other public spaces across the region…


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Filed under: Aaron Copland, James Ehnes, review, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Shostakovich, Shostakovich chamber music

July 13, 2026 • 2:34 pm Comments Off on Four Hands, 32 Strings, and Shared Fire at Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Opener

Four Hands, 32 Strings, and Shared Fire at Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Opener

James Ehnes leads Mendelssohn’s Octet; photo: Jenna Poppe

My review of Seattle Chamber Music Society’s opening concert of the 2026 Summer Festival for Bachtrack:

Seattle Chamber Music Society’s month-long summer ritual began in the familiar place – the intimate, 536-seat Nordstrom Recital Hall inside downtown Seattle’s Benaroya Hall. Also familiar was the air of anticipation in the packed room, filled with listeners eager for the kind of high-level chamber music-making that violinist and artistic director James Ehnes continues to assemble in Seattle.

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Filed under: George Gershwin, James Ehnes, Mendelssohn, review, Seattle Chamber Music Society

June 30, 2026 • 8:25 am Comments Off on Two West Coast Orchestras Put the Ninth to the Test

Two West Coast Orchestras Put the Ninth to the Test

Xian Zhang, Seattle Symphony, and soloists; photo (c) James Holt

My Musical America review of Xian Zhang/Seattle Symphony and James Gaffigan/San Francisco Symphony in two very different West Coast encounters with the choral symphony:


SEATTLE AND SAN FRANCISCO—Call it the Ninth, times two. Last week, two major West Coast orchestras ended their seasons with Beethoven’s choral symphony, reminding us that this familiar ritual need not be merely routine. 


In the Pacific Northwest, it marked the close of Xian Zhang’s inaugural season as music director of the Seattle Symphony, preceded by onstage tributes to three longtime orchestra members whose retirements were announced. At the San Francisco Symphony, the season-ending program unexpectedly acquired a memorial charge following Michael Tilson Thomas’s recent death, with musicians wearing blue ribbons—MTT’s favorite color—as a token of remembrance….

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Filed under: Beethoven, Musical America, review, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Xian Zhang

June 27, 2026 • 4:24 pm Comments Off on A Night at the Opera, a Nightmare at the Museum

A Night at the Opera, a Nightmare at the Museum

Elena Pankratova as Elektra and Elza van den Heever as Chrysothemis in Strauss’ “Elektra.” Photo- Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

The first of my reports for Musical America on last weekend’s visit to San Francisco:

Elektra-eview-perfomance 19 June 2026Download

Filed under: Musical America, review, Richard Strauss, San Francisco Opera

June 12, 2026 • 2:17 pm Comments Off on Mahler ‘Resurrection’ Gets Personal Spin By Singer Turned Maestro

Mahler ‘Resurrection’ Gets Personal Spin By Singer Turned Maestro

Nathalie Stutzmann’s reading of Mahler’s Second Symphony was charged above all by a layered sense of anticipation. (Photos by Adam Hagy, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra)

Along with Atlanta Opera, my evening at the Woodruff Arts Center provided another memorable experience during last weekend’s annual Music Critics Association of North America conference. Here’s my review of the season-closing ATLANTA — Even before the funeral drama had been established, the opening violin-viola tremolos in Nathalie Stutzmann’s account of Mahler’s Second Symphony seethed with a fearsome intensity, as if the music were running for its life. The echo of Die Walküre’s Prelude, with its life-and-death urgency, was unmistakable: a crisis already in motion.
Mahler Second performed by Nathalie Stutzmann and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus….

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Filed under: Atlanta Symphony, Mahler, Nathalie Stutzmann, review

May 13, 2026 • 12:51 pm Comments Off on Sasha Cooke Brings Sharp Intelligence to Seattle Opera’s Caribbean-Tinged ‘Carmen’

Sasha Cooke Brings Sharp Intelligence to Seattle Opera’s Caribbean-Tinged ‘Carmen’

Sasha Cooke (Carmen) with Matthew Cairns (Don José) in Carmen at Seattle Opera. Photo: Sunny Martini.

Sasha Cooke is making her role debut in Seattle Opera’s revival of its Carmen production. Some thoughts for Bachtrack:

For its season-closing revival of Paul Curran’s production of Carmen, Seattle Opera is presenting alternating casts headed by Sasha Cooke and J’Nai Bridges in the title role. Cooke’s much-anticipated role debut reveals an intelligent, tightly controlled interpretation that resists many familiar clichés surrounding the character while never fully igniting the opera’s destructive energies.

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Filed under: Georges Bizet, review, Seattle Opera

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