Interesting article by Anthony Tommasini on the state of contemporary operas - taking recent West Coast productions/premieres of “The Fly” (LA Opera) and “The Bonesetter’s Daughter” (SF Opera) as examples.

Casting a critical eye over the state of contemporary opera is helpful (to say the least), but I do wish he’d given some examples of modern operas he found successful (although perhaps he’d say there were none). There must be a place for current opera in addition to the epic Wagners, Mozarts, Fancuillas, and crowd pleasing Puccinis.

The only contemporary opera I’ve had the opportunity to see is Lorin Mazel’s “1984” at Covent Garden in Spring 2005 (it was also, in fact, the first opera I saw - a non traditional introduction to say the least).