News & Blog

Don't deny yourself pleasure of Fort Worth Opera's 'Lysistrata'
Date: 5/28/2012 By Olin Chism, Star-Telegram

With Mark Adamo's raunchy Lysistrata, the fourth addition to its 2012 festival, the Fort Worth Opera has a hit on its hands.

Saturday night's opening audience in Bass Hall greeted the comedy with loud, sustained laughter and rapt attention each time the laughter died down. It got the ultimate compliment: no coughs and (I know this is hard to believe) no cellphone rings, at least none that I heard.

When Lysistrata was announced as a Bass Hall entry in the Fort Worth Opera schedule, this seemed a miscalculation. Shouldn't it be in the much smaller Scott Theatre? After all, this is a modern opera, less than 10 years old, not Butterfly or Traviata. Who wants to see acres of empty seats?

But Bass Hall held a Butterfly- or Traviata-size audience Saturday night. There would have been many turnaways at Scott Theatre. No miscalculation.

-- Olin Chism, Star-Telegram

Click here for the full Star-Telegram review of Lysistrata.