David Shengold is a free lance professional opera critic, based in Philadelphia. He has has written for Opera News, Opera (UK), Opéra Magazine (France), Musical America Online, Playbill and Time Out New York among other venues. He has contributed program essays to the Metropolitan, New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Covent Garden and Wexford Festival programs and lectured for the Glimmerglass Festival and Philadelphia’s Wilma Theatre. He has taught courses on opera, literature and cultural history at Oberlin, Mount Holyoke and Williams Colleges. He trained and performed with Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA and has been a Guest Critic at the Chautauqua Festival. For articles by David Shengold see: http://classical-scene.com/author/sheldonian/