For the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, the spring season in the New York State Theater typically begins with a run of a musical theater work. This year’s selection was Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, which I heard on March 11th. The piece contains some of Sondheim’s more persuasive music and verse; still, I have never been especially fond of it. At heart it’s a Grand Guignol horror show for the pre-adolescent mind, a second cousin of the “slasher” film genre. Yet it has its odd appeal and has not wanted for performances or audiences. Mark Delavan, a genuine operatic baritone, made a huge (albeit amplified) sound as Todd; Elaine Page struggled, with some success, to skirt the immense shadow of Angela Lansbury’s Mrs. Lovett. All in all, the production played cleanly, conducted by the company’s music director, George Manahan.

On March 30th I heard a revival of Stephen Wadsworth’s ...

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