"Bea (soprano Sara Jakubiak, a terrific singing actress) and Charlie (Matthew Worth, a robust-voiced baritone with superb diction). 'Real life is messy,' Bea remarks wryly.

"The star [Von Stade] received exemplary support from Worth and Jakubiak, fine young performers you could really believe were siblings. They delivered the show's most touching number -- brother and sister reminiscing about their childhood as they strolled amid wisps of fog along the Golden Gate Bridge. And they pulled out all the stops in a funny, Broadway-style show-stopper about their mom's addiction to buying shoes."

Stephen Hartke's The Greater Good was commissioned by Glimmerglass Opera, and is a strikingly original contribution to the operatic repertory. Based on an iconic short story by Maupassant set during the immediate aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, The Greater Good is notable for its sure-footed dramatic pacing and astute use of different techniques and subtle references to a variety of musical styles in order to portray the characters in a variety of moods and situations. This is the opera's...