Opera Philadelphia’s Unconventional Festival Wins Best With Conventional

So “none of this old tired stuff done in the same way” could really be the festival’s motto. But this year’s installment, O18, which began on Thursday and runs through Sunday, is most successful when it’s most traditional. Two of the four shows I saw over the weekend were proscenium productions with orchestras in the pit: opera as you imagine it. These were far more satisfying than the pair of out-of-the-box entries.