Maria Padilla

Gaetano Donizetti

March 2005 - Minnesota

"EMERGING TALENT… Minnesota Opera is presenting a major emerging talent in director Jose Maria Condemi, a thoughtful man whose creative vision is at the service of opera and audience"

William Randall for MINNEAPOLIS/SAINT PAUL MAGAZINE, May, 1, 2005

"MINNESOTA OPERA SHINES… Maria Padilla may be rarely performed but it's equally rare to have a creative team bring its vision to life with such success as this"

Rob Hubbard for Pioneer Press, Minneapolis, May, 1, 2005

"DELECTABLE RARITY… Jose Maria Condemi's direction was efficient and particularly effective in the handling of the large chorus, which had and ominously military precision of movement, all contributing to a thoroughly enjoyable evening&auot;

Heidi Waleson for the WALL STREET JOURNAL, May, 1, 2005

"OPERATIC TREASURE… Minnesota Opera has found operatic treasure with its new production of Donizetti's Maria Padilla… Stage director Jose Maria Condemi's movement told the story clearly"

Michael Anthony for the STAR TRIBUNE, May, 1, 2005

"Stage director Jose Maria Condemi took a rather old fashioned story and made it come alive with an excursion into the psychology of a troubled mind in symbolic setting containing cages and picture frames that represented the inability of the characters to break out of their habitual ways of thinking"

Maria Nockin for OPERA JAPONICA, May, 1, 2005