“Teatro Real opened the 2026-27 season with a new production of Puccini’s juvenile opera “Manon Lescaut” (co-produced with Opera Köln). These are the first stage performances of this title since the theater reopened in 1997, and it has been 102 years since it was last seen at Teatro Real. It delivered a splendid cast with the voices of soprano Sondra Radvanovsky as Manon, tenor Michael Fabiano as Des Grieux, and baritone Lucas Meachem as Lescaut. This core trio were joined by other great artists”
“The Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires continued its 2026 season with a series of concert performances of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” at the Auditorio Nacional of the Palacio Libertad.
The concert hall is a marvelous sight with its sleek wooden aesthetic and capacity for 1,750 audience members. And for the orchestra and chorus, the latter of which is situated at the back of the auditorium in a seated area above the central stage, the acoustics are very fav”
“Lyric lovers who travelled to Strasbourg last year for “Otello” and who made it again to Nancy in late September to see this production again, must have had some reservations before entering the doors of the Nancy-Lauraine Opera House. Its stiffness and lack of sparkle remain fresh in my memories.
Production Details
However, the renewed focus on the acting—as evidenced by Scene three of Act two, during which Iago and Otello finally rise from their chairs”
“When Verdi sat down to write “Simon Boccanegra” in the mid 19th century, what did he want to express? What audience was he trying to reach? What has kept the opera in the background of his more popular operas?
San Francisco Opera’s Claus Guth’s Hamburg production directed by Katherine M. Carter answers these questions. Especially welcome after the labor strike which delayed opening night for nearly a week, SFO’s “Simon Boccanegra” emphasized lust for power and the consequ”
“For its final presentation of the season, the Dutch National Opera brought together a stellar cast under the musical direction of Fabio Luisi, conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra, with stage direction by Jetske Mijnssen for a new production of Verdi’s emotionally and politically complex opera “Simon Boccanegra” in the revised 1881 version with its text by Arrigo Boito. And it did not disappoint!
Mijnssen’s Excellent Staging Spoiled by a Single Unn”
“When a theater’s season announces one of the standard repertory operas, such as “La Traviata,” “Le nozze di Figaro,” or “Rigoletto,” opera lovers are immediately apprehensive about what invention the director will come up with in an attempt to innovate, rather than create yet another production that goes unnoticed, with almost invariably catastrophic results.
When the Teatro Municipale di Piacenza announced that it would present”
“Conductor Ramón Tebar made his Metropolitan Opera debut for this season’s opening night of Puccini’s “La Bohème.” The cast included a surprising addition as well—tenor Freddie De Tommaso as Rodolfo, who is also performing as Macduff in “Macbeth” this season.
Altogether soprano Juliana Grigoryan as Mimì, soprano Rosa Feola as Musetta, baritone Hansung Yoo as Marcello, bass-baritone Le Bu as Colline, baritone Gihoon Kim as Scha”
“The stage action should avoid any suggestion of routine; freedom and spontaneity should not lead to unmotivated running hither and thither – every change of position and indeed bodily movement must be dictated by the events.”
– Richard Wagner, when rehearsing the “Ring”
“An AI image of a tree is in every way a tree, as long as it looks back to us.”
– Aphorism, Anonymous
On this 150th anniversary of performances of Richard Wagner’s operas in his Bayreuth Festspielhaus, one imagines i”
“Richard Wagner’s “Die Walküre” unfolds in a world governed by contracts, power structures, and inherited systems of control. Yet beneath its mythological surface lies a drama about the moment when those systems begin to fail. In John Fulljames’s production, presented at the Forest Opera in Sopot as a co-production of the Royal Danish Theatre and the Greek National Opera, that collapse felt strikingly contemporary.
Opening the fourt”
“The titular character arrives on stage chased by an unruly mob, carrying a convincingly designed and crafted dying swan—the spoils of his hunt. His pursuers are clearly bent on seeking retribution, yet under questioning, he appears to know very little of anything: neither his origins, the world around him, his past, nor even his actual name. “Ich weiß nicht” (I don’t know) is pretty much all he can say to the elder knight, Gurnemanz. It would be perfec”
“Evgeny Titov’s brutal and powerful new staging of Wagner’s final opera explains as little as possible. Christian Gerhaher is a compelling and wild-eyed Amfortas and Jakub Hrůša and the Royal Opera’s orchestra are superb”
“Nina Segal’s revisiting of the Sophoclean story is pleasingly innovative – but not all the ideas work in Jeff James’s fourth-wall breaking production”
“In 1770, Naples’ Teatro San Carlo attempted to commission a new opera from the fourteen-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart while he was touring Italy with his father. Mozart declined, having already accepted a commission from Milan’s Teatro Ducale. The resulting opera, “Mitridate, Re di Ponto,” was never performed at the San Carlo until its 2026–27 season, when the house finally presented a new staging by Claus Guth featuring an international star cast.
Intrigue”
“On the evening of April 21, 1990, the curtain rose at Teatro alla Scala for what could have been yet another “La Traviata” in Italy, an event destined to go largely unnoticed. Instead, it was the then-new production by Liliana Cavani. More than 35 years have passed since that evening, and this now-historic production continues to sell out within the first few minutes after tickets go on sale, regardless of the number of performances scheduled each season.
In fact, it is a well-establ”
“Puccini’s “Turandot” was his final and arguably greatest achievement: a work in which the composer who had perfected the sentimental lyricism of “La bohème,” “Tosca” and “Madama Butterfly” looked decisively toward the 20th century. Its harmonic sophistication, orchestral color and atmosphere were unprecedented in his theater, while its stylized orientalism was not merely decorative but fundamental to its fairy-tale archite”
“Trigger warning: discussions of sexual assault.
The Atlanta Opera (TAO) has given us a new way to stage one of the 21st century’s most performed operas, Puccini’s “Turandot.” Premiering on 25 April 2026, the 100th anniversary of the work’s original premiere, the edits were light. The only significant changes were an excision of most of Franco Alfano’s completion of Act three, and moving Turandot’s monologue “In questa reggia” to follow Liù’s death. Before we discu”
“Jocelyn Bioh’s breakthrough 2017 play about cliques and colorism is just as funny — and devastating — with a sharp ensemble and direction by Whitney White.”
“James Graham’s high-wire writing brings economic theory to life and connects it with art and fulfilment in this polished, ravishingly staged story of John Maynard Keynes”
“In what feels now like a premonition of the climate crisis, Siobhán Redmond is compelling as the everywoman putting on a brave face in an unforgiving landscape”
“A narcotic, orgiastic woodland party clashes with the traditional values of John Major’s Tory party in Justin Audibert and Hannah Joss’s exuberant production”
“Four centuries after William Shakespeare imagined a night-time forest where desires dissolve into illusions, Benjamin Britten transformed that world into one of the most enigmatic operas of the 20th century. Now the work returns to the stage of Teatro Real in a new production by director Deborah Warner under the baton of conductor Ivor Bolton–a duo that has repeatedly shaped Britten’s sound at this theater.
The premiere of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” took place in 1960, and in Britte”
“Phelim McDermott’s vibrant production of Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” gives a striking contemporary interpretation of love’s ups-and-downs over a series of balmy summer nights inspired by NYC’s famous Coney Island boardwalk in the 1950s for Metropolitan Opera’s 2026-27 season.
OperaWire first reviewed this production in 2020, detailing the libretto’s intertwining dramatic highlights and comedic exchanges. As a result, this season’s revival review w”
“In 2020, the Salzburg Festival’s centenary program was reorganized due to restrictions concerning the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, Mozart’s opera “Così fan tutte” – which was not initially planned for that summer – had to be shortened and performed without an intermission. Conductor Joana Mallwitz and director Christof Loy had very little time to decide which cuts to make to the score, a process Mallwitz described as “painful” and under”
“Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s 85-minute monologue and Paul Farnsworth’s immersive set deserve better than a Broadway museum piece text on the Breakfast At Tiffany’s author”
“What exactly is an opera? Karlheinz Stockhausen spent much of the last quarter of the 20th century providing increasingly improbable answers to that question. “Mittwoch aus Licht,” composed between 1995 and 1997, contains a world parliament debating esoteric love, an audition for an orchestra whose musicians are scattered through space, a string quartet performing in four helicopters and, finally, an intergalactic conference involving a camel who runs for presi”
“Back in 2007, the Metropolitan Opera premiered Adrian Noble’s take on Verdi’s “Macbeth,” a grim and dark modern day setting, transforming Shakespeare’s dark thriller into a horror story. It was a visually striking and theatrical production on which some of the company’s most renowned and striking performances, especially Lady Macbeth, took center stage.
To open its 2026-27 season, the Met has brought a brand new production and with it, new expectations. The pr”
“There are operas that survive their period, and others that somehow seem to grow into it. Aribert Reimann’s “Lear,” which received its world premiere at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1978—a performance I attended—belongs emphatically to the latter category. Nearly half a century later, its music has lost none of its capacity to disturb. If anything, the work sounds more formidable now: a study of power casually relinquished, desperately reclaimed a”
“George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” has never fitted comfortably into a single category. Opera, Broadway, jazz, spirituals and popular song coexist in a score whose musical language remains unmistakably Gershwin’s. For its return to Berlin, Cape Town Opera joined forces with the London-based Chineke! Orchestra under Enrique Mazzola for a semi-staged performance at the Philharmonie, with Magdalene Minnaar directing.
Berlin has a notable history with the work.”
“On December 2, 2025, the Metropolitan Opera delivered a ray of sunshine with a jubilant opening of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.” Last seen on the Met stage in their 2021 season, this year’s run featured new and returning artists who all came together for something as uplifting as it was exciting.
In regard to James Robinson’s production, many of my thoughts remain from my previous experience. The rather minimal set does well to evoke what it needs to of the surroundings of”
“Tiago Rodrigues’s play has incensed audiences abroad with one character’s hellfire rightwing invective. But its combination of boredom and shocks ultimately feels confusing”
“Natalie Abrahami and Michael Levine’s imaginative production is brilliantly creepy and insightful. A first-rate cast of adults and children do not put a foot wrong”
“<strong>Athenaeum II, Melbourne<br></strong>With a top notch-cast, this Australian Shakespeare Company production never strains for relevance; it lets the audience do the work”
“Orchestral discipline was tight and solo contributions distinguished in Kazuki Yamada and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s finely judged interpretation of Mahler’s transcendent Resurrection Symphony”
“Daniel Bailey’s dynamic production fizzes with jazz and moments of possibility amid taut scenes of thwarted ambition and harsh realities in 1950s America”
“Opera lovers who came to Paris this mid-September were able to enjoy the return of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” this time under the baton of Italian conductor Jader Bignamini. It’s not the first time Damiano Michieletto’s staging of this opera has taken place in the Opera Bastille; indeed, it closed out last season. So, does it stand the test of time? Let’s see.
Production Details
From the very opening, the first thing that caught my ear was the conductor’s”
“Director Daniele Menghini returned to the Macerata Opera Festival (MOF) for this season’s revival of the 2022 production of Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia.” Dedicated to Director Graham Vick, this beloved and contemporary production tells the entertaining story of Italy’s modern man through the perspective of social media’s delusional gaze.
Conductor Jacopo Brusa led the FORM-Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, Coro Lirico Marchigiano “Vincenzo”
“Despite a book by the original screenwriter, this stage adaptation doesn’t have the depth – or the songs – worthy of the era-defining feminist parable. And where’s the car?”
“This revival of Richard Jones and Antony McDonald’s 2022 staging has kept most of its excellent original cast Lisette Oropesa is imperious and gleaming as the enchantress Alcina”
“Händel’s “Alcina,” first performed in London in 1735 and based on episodes from Ariosto’s “Orlando Furioso” (1532), ranks among the composer’s supreme achievements. Far more than a succession of dazzling da capo arias, it is a profound meditation on love’s capacity to delude, possess and ultimately destroy. On the enchanted island of the sorceress Alcina, men who succumb to her charms are discarded and transformed into animals, plants or stone once their novelty has faded. Only”
“Few operas blur the line between theatrical fiction and real-world tragedy quite as dramatically as Francesco Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur.” Premiered in 1902 at the height of Italian verismo, the work dramatizes the glamorous life and mysterious, poison-laced death of the historic 18th-century Comédie-Française actress. Driven by a lush score rich in soaring melodies, Cilea transforms a story of backstage rivalry, aristocratic intrigue, an”
“Composed in 1832, “L’Elisir d’Amore” was born under particularly rushed circumstances. The impresario Alessandro Lanari, who had taken over the management of Milan’s Teatro della Canobbiana, asked Gaetano Donizetti to compose a new comic opera for the current season and, faced with a shortage of time, suggested that he work from an already existing French libretto: “Le Philtre” by Eugène Scribe, written for an opéra-comique b”
“I’ve been fortunate to review many operas from the most prestigious houses in the world but nothing engages me more than getting to see performances staged in provincial areas, far away from any major theaters, by those who wish to bring the wonderful world of opera to the masses, perpetrating the glorious art for those unable to get to mainstream venues.
Cumbria Opera Group
Described as “Truly a Hidden Gem,” the Cumbria Opera Group is celebrating ten years since its incep”
“Carmen” is one of the most perfect operas in the repertoire. It features an inspired setting, a marvelous orchestration, spirited vocal parts, and most of all, intense drama. It was highly admired by no less than Gustav Mahler, who championed the work while Director of the Vienna Court Opera. It’s thought of as an indestructible work, a glorious stage success, no matter how it’s served: a mezzo or a soprano Carmen; spoken dialogue or sung recitatives; set in”
“Technically classified as an opera buffo, or a comic opera, both Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte formally assigned it on the printed score as a dramma giocoso, which translates literally to “drama with jokes” or “joking drama.”
Without giving away the entire plot, “Don Giovanni” tells the dramatic tale of an unrepentant, narcissistic nobleman whose insatiable pursuit of women leads to his ultimate downfall. Originally set”
“Kaspar Holten’s revival of his 2014 staging puts the focus on the Don’s psychology. Aigul Akhmetshina’s Elvira is a standout performance in a strong cast”
“Franz Joseph Haydn’s “L’isola disabitata” (1779) runs for just eighty minutes, making it a uniquely compact chamber opera. The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century production at Oldenburg State Theater fully embraced this inherent brevity by adopting a minimal stage design. During the overture, a simple grey backdrop was manually raised, coming alive as lighting cues cast shifting hues across its textured fabric. Visually, the canvas evoked the turbulent s”
Various (based on Leah Purcell's adaptation of Henry Lawson's short story)
OperaWireGuardian
62
OperaWireOperaWire · Sep 2026
“George Palmer and Leah Purcell’s “The Drover’s Wife” had its world premiere in Brisbane in May and saw its first Sydney performance on August 7. In the program booklet, Opera Australia CEO Alex Budd says it is Opera Australia’s first First Nations work at the Sydney Opera House. In the words of the work’s co-librettist, director, and instigator Purcell, “Opera has allowed me to expand this world in a way that feels both natural and powerful. The form itself invites scale: emotional, visual, and”
“Purcell’s play-turned-book-turned-film is now also an opera, a form that allows for a more expansive story and a deeper sense of First Nations culture”
“It is typical for humans to spur their creations without boundaries,
but when AI advances too far, the way back to true harmony is obscured.”
AI interpretation of a Confucian thought
“An abundance of new experiences or images may unsettle our realities;
perception and intuition alone will bring us to surpassing their cosmic illusions.”
Aphorism, Anonymous
It has always been assumed that a confrontation with images brings us into the recesses of our unconscious minds. As today’s children may fol”
“With its aquatic opening, magic tricks and grand procession across a rainbow bridge, Charlie Edwards’s production manages to remain clear-sighted despite modest budgets”
“San Francisco Ballet brings a spectacular collision of dance, music and digital wizardry to the Edinburgh international festival in this bold reimagining of Pandora’s box”
“In this semi-open-air staging in the Hudson Valley, the musical conjures Paris’s seedy cobblestone streets with an adept Jean Valjean leading the charge.”
“Making the most of a huge orchestra, conductor Karina Canellakis treated the dissonant score with relish, but the evening belonged to the singers, with even the tiniest role superbly realised”
“Agamemnon! Agamemnon!” The words and tones rang in my ears still, as I emerged from the powerful rendering of San Francisco Opera’s Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s “Elektra.” The sunshine on the street did not turn it down. The 95 piece orchestra, conducted by San Francisco Orchestra Music Director, Eun Sun Kim, and the powerful voices of this ensemble cast, resonated into the June air, all the way home. Forty-five minutes later, they resounded as I fac”
“The phenomenon that is super tenor Andreas Schager tore the house down on August 19 performance of Wagner’s third, and rarely performed opera Rienzi.
Athletic is Schager’s signature acting style, but on this night he outdid even himself (in any of his Wagnerian incarnations, from Siegfried to Parsifal). And the fabled voice somehow lasted throughout over three-and-a-half hours of non-stop singing. Yes, he relied upon his insistent, high decibel superpower and yet there were moments o”
“Alexandra Szemerédy and Magdolna Parditka’s production swaps 14th-century Rome for an abstract near future in an over-busy staging . Jennifer Holloway’s Adriano is a standout in a strong cast”
“The Journey to Reims” occupies a singular place in Gioachino Rossini’s catalogue today: few could have imagined that a work conceived as a circumstantial celebration of the coronation of Charles X would, two centuries later, become one of the most emblematic titles of the Rossini Opera Festival (ROF) in Pesaro and a veritable testing ground for new generations of bel canto singers.
Composed in 1825 to a libretto by Luigi Balocchi, the opera was concei”
“The Wexford Factory Academy is a program offering young singers the opportunity to take part in workshops, masterclasses and performances in the weeks leading up to and during the festival. The highlight of the program is a fully staged production on the festival’s main stage, in which all the roles are performed by the Factory singers.
The opera selected for this year’s festival was Rossini’s 1825 comic opera “Il Viaggio a Reims,” which, with”
“The night, replete with artistry on all sides, belonged to the Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian, who spun a brilliant column of sound throughout her fiercely emotional storytelling. Vocal pyrotechnics were amplified by Grigorian’s astonishing physical dexterity, her restless, near-gymnastic body language.
Her interpretation of the role of Senta, daughter of influential villager Daland, unleashed a rebellion against the men who sought to dominate her. Destined, by”
“On November 2nd the Opéra de Monte Carlo opened its 2025–26 season with a single, semi-staged performance of Wagner’s “Der Fliegende Holländer” starring Bryn Terfel in the title role. One of Cecilia Bartoli’s distinctive innovations as Artistic Director has been to introduce more of these productions mises en espace—performances that are acted onstage without full sets and costumes—instead of purely concert versions. Past examples have included visits from the Wiene”
“At the Edinburgh international festival, the Narcos star and director Christiane Jatahy transform the 1882 classic into a resonant, fourth wall-breaking event”
Helen Shaw and Sara KrulwichThe New York Times · Apr 2026
“For their 10th life, the cats strut and duckwalk in a reappraisal of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1981 musical, which has shifted to the queer ballroom scene.”
“There’s a new narration delivered by Tamsin Greig and the crack forces of the Monteverdi Choir, the ORR and world-class singers, all led by Mark Elder, but the 200-year-old piece remains a strange hybrid”
“The much-loved musical has a fresh update, with rich characters and dialled-in performances, especially when it comes to the portrayal of Fiddler’s women”
“To close out its run of “Il Trovatore,” the Teatro Real de Madrid presented a cast featuring Saioa Hernández, Celso Albelo and Artur Ruciński (Marina Rebeka was originally scheduled but cancelled).
Celso Albelo who took charge of the title role has an exceptional, unique voice. High voices are lighter and smaller, their middle range is usually weak but with an extensive high register. While heavier voices are potent, with a solid middle register but with a l”
“Macerata Opera Festival’s 62nd season opening weekend concluded with a legendary revival of Verdi’s “Il trovatore.” Director Francisco Negrin’s previously staged 2013 and 2016 production features a minimal stage design with dramatic red, black and LED lighting, pyrotechnics, and hidden trap stage doors where the cast appears and disappears in the blink of an eye.
The chorus is also a major part of the stage design as they stand in strong, long lines of”
“The second cast of “Salvator Rosa” presented a slightly different take on the opera, often trying to find a certain form of introspection. It is not an easy thing. “Salvator” is a Melodrama with a capital “M;” the illusion of interiority seems to challenge the genre, which seeks to make everything explicit and visible. In any case, the attempt to do so often leads to more gains than losses: it elevates the drama and the music. The major problem, however, is the voices.”
“It is always worth seeing the opera “Salvator Rosa” by Antonio Carlos Gomes and Antonio Ghislanzoni. Gomes’ most popularesque incursion into the genre of grand opera, “Salvator” contains some of his catchiest tunes. Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro’s production was energetic and historically important. For the first time in roughly a century, the audience was presented with the opera in its entirety, through a new critical edition. The problem is that, despite all t”
“(Phot0: Bregenz Festival / Daniel Ammann)
Leoš Janáček’s “The Excursions of Mr. Brouček” has long been overshadowed by “Jenůfa,” “Káťa Kabanová,” “The Cunning Little Vixen” and “The Makropulos Affair.” This curious, episodic satire has never fully secured its place in the repertoire, perhaps because it occupies an awkward territory between affectionate comedy, political allegory and biting social critique. Yet it fitted Bregenz’s admirable commitment to neglected masterpieces perfectly, and unde”
“This performance proved an excellent revival of “Der Freischütz” for the summer Festival. First seen five years ago, Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production strips away any Romantic origins the piece has and replaces them with a cool and calculated tale for our time: be warned, spoiler alerts follow.
Production Details
During the Overture a film shows the main protagonists and explains that Agathe, a headstrong young woman, has turned her back on her incredibly wealt”
“For the festival’s 150th anniversary, the creative team have turned to AI to generate visuals reflecting Wagner’s tetralogy’s past, present – and future. The hyperactive result is a dismal, mindless mess”
“Captured live in concert performances, Fabio Luisi’s clear-sighted command and strong orchestral playing make this Wagner set frequently impressive, with Mark Delavan an authorative Wotan”
“Martin Kušej’s 2010 production of “Rusalka” at the Bayerische Staatsoper has become a modern classic. It made a star of Kristine Opolais and in one way took the torch from David Pountney’s 1986 production at ENO, which revolutionized our view of Dvořák’s opera. Out went the traditional fairy tale and in came a psychoanalytic exploration of a young girl’s journey into burgeoning womanhood, sexuality and self-awareness.
Production Detail”
“The Opéra National de Paris is in the midst of a revival of Robert Carson’s incredible production of “Rusalka.”
Coming-of-Age
The production itself is minimalist in its set design. The opening scene features a mirror effect with a bed hanging over the stage. On ground level, there’s a central pool and we see four figures asleep alongside it. Sleep becomes a major motif throughout the production. Sleep is both a literal manifestation of our consciousness’ ignorance t”
“An acted prelude by Jane Mitchell teased out the composer’s motivations for his engrossing First Symphony before the orchestra assayed the work from memory”
“Among Rossini’s early Venetian farse, “L’occasione fa il ladro” remains one of the most irresistibly entertaining. Written when the composer was barely twenty, it already displays the dramatic flair, melodic abundance and astonishing theatrical instinct that would soon make him Europe’s dominant operatic voice. The libretto’s improbable chain of exchanged identities may stretch credulity, but Rossini’s exuberant score transforms its absurdities into an evening of ir”
“Liam Steel relocates Johann Strauss’s operetta to London 1929 to create the feel of a Noël Coward-style farce. Rebecca Bottone, Olivia Carrell and Clare Presland shine amid a strong cast.”
“Stunning performances and engrossing acting kept the Wolf Trap audience involved and thrilled with “Eugene Onegin’s” presentation at the Barns. Alexander Pushkin’s revered Russian novel in verse, “Eugene Onegin,” is considered by many the greatest Russian classic. This book is the literary source that inspired Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Konstantin Shilovsky to write the libretto, and that inspired Tchaikovsky to compose one of the great”
“Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” is one of the most intimate experiences one can have at an opera house. It’s a story of regret that comes with throwing away the only people that ever loved you. It’s got some of the most heart-piercing music in the canon and an impeccable pacing throughout. It’s a work that almost plays itself.
Which is why the Met Opera’s revival of Deborah Warner’s production is such a frustration. Despite a”
“Six singers put not only their vocal cords but their bodies on the line in a physically demanding performance of Liza Lim’s aurally challenging opera”
“Apparently in the early years of the 20th century, Gustav and Alma Mahler, the master symphonist and his composer-wife, unable to remember exactly one of the numbers from “The Merry Widow” which they had just seen, went to the trouble of visiting Doblinger’s music store in Vienna to refresh their memories. Gustav distracted the staff while Alma checked the relevant passage in the score.
I was reminded of this story, perhaps apocryphal, during the intervals of Opera Australi”
“Any disappointments from the previous two nights were completely swept away in this grand finale. The final evening of the festival wrapped up with a performance full of genuine dramatic tension, keeping the audience completely hooked throughout. This revival of Bartoli’s Salzburg 2023 production is based on Gluck’s 1769 Parma version. Originally compressed into a single act for a royal wedding celebration, Parma version removes the repetitive pastoral choruses at the st”
“On January 28, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo presented a rare semi-staged performance of Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice” in the version he prepared in 1769 for Parma. Written for the wedding celebrations of Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, and Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, this revision substantially reworked the original 1762 Vienna score. Gluck compressed the opera’s three acts into a single, uninterrupted “Atto d’Orfeo,” which formed the final portion of the triple bill “Le feste d’Apollo.” The Parma”
Irvine Welsh (book and songs with Stephen McGuinness)
Guardian
20
Arifa AkbarThe Guardian · Jul 2026
“<strong>Theatre Royal Haymarket, London<br></strong>The chopped-up story means this ends up feeling like a weak impersonation of Danny Boyle’s classic film”
“<strong>Swan Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon<br></strong>Tamara Harvey’s production of Chekhov’s final play can seem woolly in meaning and soft-edged tone mutes its force”
“It was deeply gratifying that the Bavarian State Opera continued to preserve Jürgen Rose’s magnificent production (seen July 17), first unveiled in 2006 and now deservedly regarded as one of Munich’s exemplary repertory stagings. At a time when “Norma” has too often fallen victim to directorial concepts eager to relocate ancient Gaul to psychiatric institutions, corporate boardrooms or anonymous dystopias, Rose’s interpretation remains a model of intelligent fidelity. Serving”
“I first heard Vasilisa Berzhanskaya as Rosina in a 2022 Florence production of “Il barbiere di Siviglia.” For the first time, I wasn’t sure if it was the standard version with a mezzo Rosina, or the less frequently performed soprano version. While the timbre was distinctly mezzo, the dazzling coloratura was more soprano than mezzo.
Fast forward to the 2024-25 season. Berzhanskaya was Preziosilla in “La forza del destino,” the opening night opera of the Teatro alla Scala, a”
“The director hits perfectly all the comic marks of Strauss’s opera about an opera, but there’s few insights in a work that should be moving as well as frothy and fun.”
“Macerata Opera Festival’s (MOF) 62nd season opened with a new production of Verdi’s “Nabucco” featuring videos of natural aesthetics that illuminated Sferisterio Arena’s historical grounds and Macerata, Italy’s rich and vibrant culture. Belgian Stage Director Paul-Émile Fourny made his MOF debut and conductor Fabrizio Maria Carminati led a stellar cast including Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar as Nabucco, Alessandro Scotto di Luzio as Ismaele, Alberto Comes”
“After “Il Turco in Italia” premiered in New York in 1826, the work has rarely been performed with some productions at the New York City Opera and the Juilliard School. However, in Europe it has been revived to great acclaim at many of the most prestigious theaters in the world including the Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House, and Teatro Real, bringing some of the great sopranos to conquer the role of Fiorilla.
In 2026, 200 years after its New York premiere, Teatro Nuovo brought the”
“In 1753, Niccolò Jommelli moved to Stuttgart under Duke Karl Eugen. Collaborating with court poet Mattia Verazi, Jommelli modified Pietro Metastasio’s famous libretto to pioneer bold dramatic reforms. Utilizing the city’s elite singers and virtuosic orchestra, this creative hub culminated in the February 1763 Stuttgart premiere of Jommelli’s third version of “Didone abbandonata.”
It is clear that choosing this Stuttgart opera as the flagship project for this year’”
“A celebration of the cartoonist’s sexual awakening and queer identity as well as an investigation of darker family dynamics, this soulful show wears its heart on its sleeve”
“Gerald Barry’s take on Wilde’s comedy is even wittier and zanier in Jack Furness’s hyperactive staging – complete with a grand piano on stilts, a herd of cows and a kangaroo that meets a grisly end”
“Gaetano Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment,” first perfomed in 1840, was something of a near disaster. On opening night, the lead tenor was frequently off pitch and when it premiered in Italy, shortly after, it was labelled as “worthless” and closed after just six performances. Fortunately for Donizetti, (and everyone else), it quickly turned round and became a success.
A significant part of its eventual success was down to why it also proved to be a re”
“When Gaetano Donizetti arrived in Paris in October 1838, he was already one of the great figures of bel canto. Yet what he sought in the French capital was professional stability and institutional recognition–something Italy had not always granted him. Within a few months he had conquered, along with the French language itself, the Parisian stage, dominating the billboards of the city’s leading theaters.
In that feverish context of activity, Donize”
“There are operas that survive on the strength of their plot, and then there are those that survive because the music transforms the improbable into the inevitable. “Samson et Dalila” belongs decidedly to the latter camp. Saint-Saëns fashioned a score of extraordinary sensuality around a drama whose biblical certainties had long ceased to compel.
Production Details
Argentine director Damián Szifron, whose 2014 film “Relatos salvajes” was nominated for the “Palme d’Or” at Ca”
“I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t again mention this year that opera should always be more about the music and the singing than the staging. Alas, I find myself having to break that promise after sitting through the revival of Richard Jones’s 2022 production of “Samson et Dalila” at the Royal Ballet and Opera.
Given that composer Saint-Saëns intended it to be an oratorio, rather than a staged opera, it was always going to present problems for any di”
“Lucia di Lammermoor” remains one of the supreme achievements of Romantic opera, capable of transforming inner conflict into pure musical expression. Premiered at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples in 1835, Gaetano Donizetti’s masterpiece transcends the conventional sentimental tragedy to offer one of the most complex female psychological portraits of the nineteenth century. Based on Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), the opera elevates this tragedy to an unprecedented psy”
“<strong>Sydney Theatre Company</strong><br>Reid elicits gasps as a charming priest suspected of having an inappropriate relationship with a child – but this production rarely lets us linger in discomfort”
“Spitalfields music festival opened, by chance, with this beautifully performed and dramatic revival of baroque cantatas by Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre”
“Hunger and TB, as much as imperialism, are triggers for the assassination that precipitated the first world war in Rajiv Joseph’s tragicomic reimagining of the plotters’ progress”
“The new production of Mozart’s “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” (“The Abduction from the Seraglio”) at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, in coproduction with Opéra Grand Avignon and Insula Orchestra, attempts to philosophize the stereotypical bias and harm of Mozart’s farcical Singspiel about Orientalism.
In the program notes Stage Director Florent Siaud explains, “The imaginary presence of the Orient is so fundamental to the structure”
“The Wiener Staatsoper’s “Il Trittico” (seen June 21) was a frustrating experience due to the disparity between the excellent singers and the mediocrity of the staging. “Il Trittico” is one of Puccini’s best works both musically and dramatically. Tatjana Gürbaca’s production does not present Puccini’s three one-act operas as a sampler of contrasting styles–one slice of verismo noir, one serving of devotional melodrama, one comic dessert–but as a single”
“Music Director and Conductor Gianandrea Noseda of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) took to Carnegie Hall’s infamous podium on Sunday, May 3, 2026 for an enlightening and entertaining evening featuring Giacomo Puccini’s “Il trittico.” The all-star cast included soprano Erika Grimaldi, soprano Meryl Dominguez, mezzo-soprano Agnieszka Rehlis, tenor Hakeem Henderson, tenor Gregory Kunde, baritone Roman Burdenko and the Washington Chorus with direct”
“Richard Wagner wrote the libretto of “Tannhäuser” drawing on medieval German mythology, although its protagonist was probably inspired by a real person who lived in the thirteenth century. Mythology functions as a mechanism of psychological externalization: it takes the abstract, often chaotic dynamics of the human subconscious—our conflicting impulses, fears, and cultural values—and projects them into tangible narratives, transforming internal psychological crises into e”
“According to a diary entry by Richard Wagner’s wife Cosima, in January 1883 – three weeks before his death – the composer thought he still owed his “Tannhäuser” to the world. To his mind, this “große romantische Oper,” first performed in Dresden in 1845, had never acquired a definitive form.
The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb has owed “Tannhäuser” to its audience since October 1931, when the final performance of the 1930 production took place. In all”
“At the Princeton Festival’s June 12 “Madama Butterfly” staged at Morven—the former governor’s mansion in Princeton, New Jersey—the Cio-Cio-San the audience watched was not the Cio-Cio-San it heard. The headliner, Toni Marie Palmertree, sidelined by a vocal infection, acted the role onstage while Brenna Markey sang it amplified from behind the set through speakers. Ironically, the staging presented two stories at once: the one written by Puccini and an allegory of today’s America.
Pre”
“The Metropolitan Opera is in the midst of a revival of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” in the acclaimed production by Anthony Minghella.
The opera has one of the most complex soprano roles in the repertory, a role that requires stamina as well as vocal agility to shift from lyrical lines to intense dramatic passages.
Luckily for this revival the company has brought in one of the leading Puccini sopranos in the world, Ailyn Pérez. Her performance was beyond”
“David Alden’s blackly comic Kafkaesque production has a strong cast whose lively performances were not always matched by the Early Opera Company in the pit”
“If Edward Said had written Orientalism today, then David Alden’s production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare for the Grange Festival could be cited as Exhibit A for evidence of the West’s condescending attitude to the Middle East. It’s true that Putin’s overawing tactics are satirised in Caesar and Ptolemy’s (Tolomeo) conference during Caesar’s aria of suspicion ‘Va tacito’, which is staged as a game of musical chairs. As ruler of Egypt, Ptolemy presides at one end of a r”
“At the heart of “Romeo and Juliet” lies an archetypal story rooted in antiquity, Ovid’s tale of Pyramus and Thisbe from the “Metamorphoses.” A fatal misunderstanding, a false report of death, and a double suicide beside a tomb: Shakespeare transferred this ancient mechanism of tragedy onto the stage, making youth itself hostage to the feuds of an older world.
When Charles Gounod turned to the story in 1867, Europe was living through a very different age. Paris, transforme”
“Teatro Real presented a new production of Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette,” with Nadine Sierra and Javier Camarena as the “star-cross’d lovers” under the expert baton of Carlo Rizzi.
It is a coproduction with Paris Opera and that helps make sense of the sets, which include the famous marble staircase of Garnier’s temple to Parisian opera. After plague doctors, wearing the infamous bird-beaked masks, had collected dead bodies from the street, the chorus appeared for the first time,”
“Arguably the most heavyweight highlight of the entire festival, this performance of Händel’s “Ariodante” assembled a stellar cast that uniquely included two laureates of the prestigious Halle Handel Prize, Magdalena Kožená and Andrea Marcon. Adding to the evening’s historical significance was the rare opportunity to hear the 1735 London version ending.
However, the acoustic condition of Concert Hall Ulrichskirche posed a formidable challeng”
“Following a very disappointing production of Mozart’s “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” the day before, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées presented a one-night-only concert version of Handel’s “Ariodante” on June 7, conducted by Andrea Marcon.
To begin with, it must be acknowledged that the La Cetra Barockorchester Basel performed Handel’s highly melodious, harmonious, and expressive score very well. A sense of joy in performing this work even seemed to emerge at”
“The vivid characters and the infectious melodies of the 1983 musical prove remarkably durable in Barrie Kosky’s madcap production at Komische Oper Berlin.”
“The 2026 Händel-Festspiele presented a unique double-feature of Handel’s breakout 1711 masterpiece, “Rinaldo.” By showcasing two radically different formats—traditional Italian puppetry and a metatheatrical re-contextualization at Oper Halle—the festival offered audiences a rare opportunity to compare two staged productions. While one production embraced the “primitive” theatrical tools of the past to unlock the opera’s raw, historical energy, the oth”
“Patrick Marber’s perplexing revival of the salesmen classic amps up the comedy and the performance of masculinity but veers into Bugsy Malone territory”
“The production of “Ercole amante” at the Paris Opera represents both an artistic and a musicological event. The opera was composed in 1707 by Antonia Bembo, never performed during her lifetime and long presumed lost until it resurfaced in 1937 at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Its rediscovery eventually led to a concert performance in Stuttgart in 2023, followed by a staged production later that year at the ODC Theater in San Francisco. The work now”
“A visual whirlwind accompanies charismatic and stylish performances in William Kentridge’s new staging. In the pit, Jonathan Cohen and the OAE add light and shade”
“Leonardo García Alarcón has already established an impressive track record in early North Italian opera, with his acclaimed “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria” at the 2024 Aix-en-Provence Festival and his masterful Cavalli’s “Pompeo Magno” at Bayreuth in 2025. His interpretation with Cappella Mediterranea and the Chœur de Chambre de Namur was imbued with the freshness and vitality of a sunrise; under his baton, this first great masterpiece”
“This year’s Aldeburgh festival opened with a stripped-back concert staging by Rory Kinnear with Ryan Wigglesworth conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra”
“Opera sings too much” provocatively declared a barely thirty-year-old Claude Debussy shortly before revolutionizing the concept of lyric theater in France with what would become his only operatic work: “Pelléas et Mélisande.” A work built upon silences, allusions, and a circular sense of time: a fable situated outside reality. The result was not what many had expected, as often happens with masterpieces, misunderstood in their own time. Contemp”
“The idea of this abridged “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” (seen June 5) may alarm some opera lovers, yet this two-hour, intermission-free version proved surprisingly convincing. The cuts were mostly judicious, streamlining secondary material without seriously damaging the dramatic flow, though the absence of the Venetian septet “Hélas! mon cœur s’égare encore!” remained a real loss.
Production Details
In Philipp Himmelmann’s imaginative staging, Hoffmann be”
“Tom Morris’s staged take on Mahler’s first symphony is valiantly performed by Stephanie Childress and Sinfonia Smith Square, but the result feels more like R&D than a finished product”
“La Cenerentola,” which premiered in Rome in 1817, was famously composed by Gioachino Rossini in record time — legend has it in just three weeks — and remains one of the finest examples of opera buffa in his oeuvre. Alongside its comic situations and eccentric characters, the score contains an undercurrent of melancholy and pathos that earned it the designation of dramma giocoso.
La Cenerentola: Humanity Without Magic
The story is based on Perrault’s f”
“Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” (1817) is quite different from the familiar children’s tale most of us grew up with. Librettist Jacopo Ferretti (1784-1852) opted for a more realistic Italian view of the fairy tale. His Cinderella is bereft of fairy godmother, magic carriage or glass slippers. Some attribute this rational approach to the Enlightenment, while others believe it is due to Italian culture. Mediterranean children’s tales traditionally inculcate valor, hono”
“San Francisco Opera kicked off its Summer Season with Rossini’s popular “Il Barbier di Siviglia.” With nine principals, 36 choristers, and eight dancers, the production was a revival of the 2013 staging by Emilio Sagi and is a co-production between San Francisco and Lithuanian National Opera.
Sagi aimed to bring the past into the present, emphasizing this by moving progressively from black and white to color in sets by Llorenç Corbella. The production accomplished this, eliciting laughs fr”
“The company ABAO-Bilbao Opera closed its 2025-26 season with Giordano’s masterpiece “Andrea Chénier.” A luxury cast was led by opera star Michael Fabiano, alongside the rising Spanish soprano Saioa Hernández and the extraordinary baritone Juan Jesús Rodríguez.
A co-production between ABAO and the Festival de Peralada, it presented beautiful and meaningful sets and costumes designed by Ricardo Sánchez Cuerda and Gabriella Salaverri, respectively. The staging maintained essential”
“Giordano’s “Andrea Chénier” is a glorious opera. Full of lush melodies, an elegant libretto, tense dramatic set pieces, and a propulsive pace it always baffles me how little attention it has gotten at the Metropolitan Opera in recent years.
Since premiering in 1921, it has had 186 performances with the most recent prior to the 2025-26 season being in 2014. The reasons for its infrequency might seem obvious: the main three characters need to be”
“Sinéad O’Neill’s production of Handel’s Orlando, a study in love-induced derangement adapted from Ariosto’s famous poetic epic, paradoxically refrains from replicating the title character’s mania in any frantic choreography and is more engaging for it. Instead, it takes inspiration from the opera’s 18th century origins in the often leisurely, ritualised pace of its choreography and in the underlying style of the costumes. Psychoanalysis and Symbolism, even perha”
“Sinéad O’Neill’s production is persuasive and Beth Taylor’s performace as Orlando is extraordinary in this tale of unrequited love, madness and magic”
“Deutsche Oper’s Ring Cycle started promisingly with an original staging of “Das Rheingold,” with provocative ideas, irreverence and even humor. However, unfortunately it continued with a constant rehashing of ideas, which proved inadequate for the gigantic enterprise that is Wagner’s “Ring.” After a vocally satisfactory but scenically uninspired “Die Walküre,” matters deteriorated considerably on May 29 with the worst staging of “Siegfried” I have ever see”
“Despite the numerous positive accounts of Barrie Kosky’s “Siegfried” that gave me hope for a rich and nuanced performance, I found the singing, acting and stage design to be flat, unconvincing and shallow.
As a devoted Wagnerite, I do not feel that most of the performers truly understood the vast musical work that they were performing.
The quality of the cast’s performances did not feel worthy of being called world-class, and this severely inhibited”
“A touring show was quite a challenge for the opera star’s first directorial gig, but dynamic singing, charismatic orchestral play and clever stage jokes pull it off brilliantly”
“Deutsche Oper am Rhein prides itself on having the largest permanent ensemble of soloists in the world. This is no exaggeration: the German opera house is renowned for maintaining one of the most substantial fixed ensembles internationally, with approximately 47 singers under permanent contract –excluding the chorus and its collaborations with two orchestras – thus covering the artistic needs of two different cities, Düsseldorf and Duisburg, and sustaining more than 280 per”
“This stage version of Ian McEwan’s devastating class novel shows inspiring touches and the cast play adeptly, yet the tale’s emotional sweep feels underpowered”
“After a disappointing “Die Walküre” and a terrible “Siegfried,” my hopes for a stimulating ending of Stefan Herheim’s production of Deutsche Oper Berlin’s “Ring” were near non-existent. Fortunately, life is full of surprises; what started as a provocative, irreverent take on Wagner’s tetralogy in a first-rate staging of “Das Rheingold” and deteriorated into tedious attempts at humor marred by an obsession with denuding the entire cast down to their underga”
“Susanna Kaysen’s retelling of her time in a psychiatric hospital in the 60s became an Oscar-winning movie in the 90s and now it’s an elegant, if limited, play”
“With a refreshingly organic approach, the US pianist and her string ensemble revitalise the modern minimalist master’s score for The Hours and his Tirol Concerto”
“Anyone fortunate enough to have been present at La Monnaie for the world premiere of Iain Bell and Lydia Steier’s “Medusa” would have left the theater with little doubt that communing with the gods of Ancient Greece is something that should be avoided at all costs. To say that they are an egotistical, self-serving bunch of hedonists that views anyone or anything else as a mere plaything is an understatement. In this telling of the Medusa myth, the gods”
“The Frick Collection’s new Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium concert season 2025-26 featured the much anticipated debut of Les Talens Lyriques ensemble led by Christophe Rousset and world-renowned countertenor Key’mon W. Murrah on May 22, 2026. This final concert was well worth the wait and might just be my favorite collaboration of the year.
Les Talens Lyriques
Christophe Rousset’s love for Handel’s works began during his harpsi”
“A dark chapter in Giuseppe Verdi’s life came to an end with the success of “Nabucodonosor” at La Scala in 1842. During the preceding decade, between 1832 and 1842, Verdi had been rejected by the Milan Conservatory; his sister Giuseppa died, followed by his daughter Virginia just fourteen months old, his son Icilio eighteen months old, and finally his wife Margherita Barezzi. Added to these personal tragedies was the failure of his first two opera”
“A volatile world of sonic storms, earthquakes, and lightning flashes (forces of nature tightly bound to dangerous political subversion) was completely locked away when Jean-Philippe Rameau’s last opera, “Les Boréades,” was abruptly shelved in 1763. Paranoid of the libretto’s Masonic undercurrents, French royal censorship chose to suppress an extraordinary amount of musical energy. The score’s modern resurrection had to wait until the late 20th century”
“This stripped-down show with a maudlin set of songs makes for the most reluctant of musicals, but this is a production that has the confidence to be silent or stately”
“Martin Lloyd-Evans’s credible production roots the action in time and place. Amanda Echalaz is a richly drawn and touching Minnie and conductor Matthew Kofi Waldren adds colour and drama”
“Premiered in 1863, “Les Pêcheurs de perles” is one of Georges Bizet’s earliest operas, composed more than a decade before his masterpiece “Carmen.” Set on the exoticized shores of ancient Ceylon, it combines lush lyricism with themes of friendship, desire, and betrayal. Though initially overshadowed by Bizet’s later success, the opera has gradually earned recognition for its brilliant orchestration and emotionally charg”
“French operas of the nineteenth century were once among the most popular works in the repertoire, but in the last half century, they’ve fallen out of fashion. One reason is the loss of national singing schools, especially the French, in a now globalized opera world. Without an understanding of the French style, and without the required elegance and clear diction, for the audience these operas are a painful exercise in dated mannerisms or more commonly, sadly generic piece”
“I first heard Samoan tenor Pene Pati a year ago in Munich in “La bohème,” an opera I’ve seen so often that I make every effort to avoid it. But this time was different; I was completely disarmed by this beautiful lyric tenor’s voice, his charm and his authenticity. Endowed with brilliant high notes, a beautiful timbre, perfect diction, and most of all sincerity in his portrayal of Rodolfo. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance. I was almost reconciled with “La bohème”
“Created in just a week with a cast of rising stars and amateur singers, Mid Wales Opera’s production – and its heart-wrenching ending – is a remarkable achievement”
“Caitlin Gotimer’s Tosca goes from 0-60 in mere moments while the London Philharmonic unlock the barely contained violence in Ted Huffman’s long-awaited exceptional staging”
“Lindsay Posner’s precise revival flies highest in its most intense moments of beastliness as a psychiatrist sets about ridding a teenage boy of his demons”
“Forgoing Brecht’s usual distanciation, Anna Jordan’s new translation and Michelle Terry’s lovable performance bring out the humanity of a woman doing what’s necessary to keep herself and her family alive”
“On May 14, the Metropolitan Opera showcased the New York premiere of “El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego” by Gabriela Lena Frank and Nilo Cruz. The opera, which had its world premiere in 2022 at the San Diego Opera, has been a staple at many U.S. company’s over the past years including LA, San Francisco and Chicago.
Now it was time for the Met to show the third Spanish-language opera in Peter Gelb’s tenure, and like the other two, “Flor”
“If you have ever visited to the Suffolk seaside town of Aldeburgh, where Benjamin Britten lived, and which inspired his 1945 opera “Peter Grimes” – based on George Crabbe’s poem “The Borough” – then you will surely remember the remarkable views from the sea front: vast, empty skies, sunlight blazing on the water like a purifying fire, and a bleak, flat countryside, punctuated by marsh, inlet, and reedbed. “I am rooted here”, the eponymous (anti)hero of”
“Soloist Veronika Eberle brought sweet, pure tone tone to Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, with Jorg Widmann’s new cadenzas complementing the work perfectly. Music by George Benjamin and Strauss further revealed orchestra and conductor in their element”
“First performed in 1846, “La Damnation de Faust” remains one of Hector Berlioz’s most audacious and elusive works: neither fully opera nor oratorio, but a hybrid “dramatic legend” that defies conventional staging and genre. Drawing on Goehte’s “Faust” while filtering the story through Berlioz’s intensely Romantic imagination, the piece moves with feverish speed from pastoral lyricism to infernal spectacle, demanding considerable forces and emotional range from perf”
“From November 3 to 15, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées presented Berlioz’s “La Damnation de Faust” with the Orchestre Les Siècle—formerly conducted by François-Xavier Roth and now under the baton of Jakob Lehmann—in a production by Silvia Costa. Staging is perhaps a big word, given the minimal effort that went into it. Whether in terms of set design, direction of the actors, or even simply costumes and props, the audience was left with little to sustain”
“Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote “La clemenza di Tito” in 1791, the year of his death, to celebrate the coronation of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, as King of Bohemia. The libretto, adapted from Metastasio, celebrates the Roman Emperor Tito as a magnanimous and forgiving ruler; this was particularly apt for the enlightened monarch Leopold, who governed through compromise and applied several principles of the Enlightenment, abolishing torture, confiscation of proper”
“Venice’s Teatro La Fenice opened its 2025-26 season with a new production of “La Clemenza di Tito,” widely considered to be the least popular of Mozart’s mature operas. Its premiere in 1791 at the Estates Theatre in Prague received a lukewarm reception, with the Empress herself complaining that “nearly all of us fell asleep.” Albert Einstein’s assessment was that Tito “is nothing but a mere puppet representing magnanimity”
“Some operas carry the weight of national myth—and that weight can obstruct a purely musical experience. Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride” is very much one of them. When it was first performed in Prague in 1866, the Czech nation had no state of its own, and this first opera in the Czech language became something far greater than entertainment or musical theatre: it was a declaration, a self-presentation to the world. Its exuberance, humor, peasant cunning,”
“Irish National Opera‘s (INO) recent tour of Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride” took in a number of small venues across Ireland that rarely, if ever, get featured in its normal schedule. Included were towns such as Birr, Monaghan and Manorhamilton, situated in the rural hinterlands, far distant from the Dublin metropolis and the smaller urban areas of Galway, Cork and Limerick. Presenting a fully staged opera that requires a large performance space, one”
“<strong>Melbourne Theatre Company, Southbank Theatre<br></strong>While Alison Whyte is never less than compelling, director Mark Wilson encourages a buffoonery from the cast that is fatal to this play’s melancholic drift”
Helen Shaw and Sara KrulwichThe New York Times · Apr 2026
“A Broadway musical adaptation of the 1987 movie gets a lot of mileage from ’80s rocker aesthetics and over-the-top spectacle — until its second half.”
“Incredible physical facility is married to expressive lyricism in this triple bill by the Royal Ballet’s ever adventurous resident choreographer. You never know what’s coming next”
“Tap, waacking, jookin’, footwork and jit are among the street and club styles that come together as Michelle Dorrance showcases a startling array of forms and talent”
“The Bear star and Don Cheadle are lost in a new take on David Auburn’s family drama but a standout performance from the two-time Tony winner does some heavy lifting”
“Jack Furness’s unconventional staging for Welsh National Opera sees the orchestra play up a storm under Tomáš Hanus in Wagner’s legend of the man condemned to sail the oceans for eternity”
“When Richard Wagner completed “Der fliegende Holländer” almost two centuries ago, he stood at a threshold in his artistic life. Within its turbulent orchestral sea there is already the sense of the psychological obsessions that would later culminate in “Tristan” and “The Ring.” The work’s themes —eternal wandering, obsessive love, redemption imagined or denied — are unusually adaptable to mo”
“Directed with gangsterish overtones by Mark Ravenhill, the tempered musical weight of this lean production of the Strauss classic brings greater focus on the roles’ contrasting dramas”
“Salome” undoubtedly stands as one of the most significant works in the history of German opera. The elements Wagner outlined in his works reached Strauss as a direct torrent of influence, and it is precisely in “Salome” where Strauss finally finds—after “Guntram” and “Feuersnot”—a personal, absolute, and unmistakably original musical language. I have always perceived in “Salome” a spirit closely akin to the exoticism”
“<strong>Arts Centre Melbourne, then touring Australia<br></strong>This candy coloured musical has a bombastic pop-rock score and great stage design, but it erases the grey that made Heathers such a strange and compelling film”
“The “Zürich Barock” Festival at the Zurich Opera House presents a rarity: “Scylla et Glaucus” by Jean-Marie Leclair, a composer best known for instrumental music, especially for the violin, which he himself played with great virtuosity. The opera premiered in 1746 and enjoyed moderate success, but soon disappeared from the repertoire. Its first modern performance took place in London in 1979, yet the work remains largely unknown despite its undeniable qual”
“Trigger Warning: This review includes discussion of school shootings.
If you walked up to Lincoln Center from Broadway on Monday evening, you might have seen a line of people dressed in white holding up images of people. Underneath the images were their names, who they were, and the senseless event that took their lives. Sandy Hook. Parkland. These are but two such events that carry major significance.
According to K-12 School Shooting database there have alread”
“Comedy infuses Winsome Pinnock’s disarming but ebullient drama about two Black academics who are given the job of authenticating the diaries of an enslaver”
“Amy Gavin’s production amps up the dangerous dance of desire and violence between these troubled ex-spouses but loses the delicate balance between comedy and malice”
“There’s a storm brewing…it’s going to get darker,” observes assassin Sparafucile. How right he is! Moments later, he’s stuffing the pure and innocent, murdered Gilda into a body bag downstairs while his sister is gyrating on top of the dastardly Duke of Mantua upstairs; pretty much as dark as it gets.
‘Manosphere’ and ‘Toxic Masculinity’ are the buzzwords of the moment, and there’s plenty of material in Oliver Mear’s production of Verdi’s”
“There is a touch of the Tony Sopranos about George Petean’s Rigoletto, in Oliver Mears’ 2021 staging that evokes a world of privilege, misogyny and abuse. Aida Garifullina is a convincing and elegant Gilda”
“The title role of Verdi’s “Otello” is one of the hardest roles ever written for a tenor in the Italian repertoire. Luciano Pavarotti simply recorded it while Carlo Bergonzi (who was considered a Verdi expert) and Franco Corelli always refused to sing it. On the other hand, Plácido Domingo debuted the role when he was 34 years old, and though he was scarcely criticised for being too young and too lyrical, many critics did expect that this role would ruin his voice. Domingo went”
“From October 29 to November 9, the Strasbourg Opera will be performing Verdi’s “Otello.” As always with the Strasbourg Opera, the Filature in Mulhouse will be staging this production as well on, November 16 and 18.
The staging has been given to the director Ted Huffman, who employs a highly effective minimalist approach, focusing the drama on the characters. Master lighting designer Bertrand Couderc makes particular use of lighting, with flashes for the in”
“Orpha Phelan’s fun but confusing staging for the London Handel festival aligns the opera’s characters with recognisable famous figures. Fine singers and players led by Laurence Cummings ensure consistent musical excellence”
“On March 21, the Washington National Opera opened “The Crucible,” its second production of the spring season at the Lisner Auditorium. The Washington National Opera’s decision to showcase this work spotlights the importance of art’s resilience in times where where institutions like the John. F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts are being taken over by regimes and being used for propaganda.
Revival
For this staging, the company brought back Fran”
“Those accustomed to the grandeur of larger houses like the Metropolitan Opera might approach a performance at the Virginia Opera with moderated expectations, but the company proves such caution unnecessary. While the scale may be smaller and simpler, Virginia Opera consistently delivers excellent vocal talents and imaginative stagings that make the most of their admittedly limited budget. This season’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida” is no exception.
The production had r”
“Nineteenth-century verismo becomes 21st-century psychodrama, as English Touring Opera dramatise this tawdry tale of jealousy and violence with a keen eye for the dramatic image”
“Director<strong> </strong>Kate Wasserberg emphasises the fantasy and supernatural elements of the poet’s ‘play for voices’ in an entertaining and inclusive production”
“The hit one-man show about depression suffers from plain and often corny writing yet is saved by an exuberant turn from the Tony-winning Harry Potter star”
“In his book, “A New Philosophy of Opera,” director Yuval Sharon notes that “Tristan und Isolde,” alongside “Pelléas et Mélisande” are not only two of the most difficult operas to stage, but “seem like a losing proposition” for any director to take on. He reflects on how oftentimes, director’s attempt to “find physical form for what the music expresses” results in to more traditional staging approaches. The s”
“Tristan und Isolde” is a colossal work, not only for its length (five hours, including two 30-minute intermissions), or for the influence of the famous Tristan chord on Western music, but also for the symbolism it represents. Wagner was hugely influenced by Schopenhauer’s philosophy when he wrote this masterpiece, while conducting an affair with Mathilde, the wife of his benefactor, Swiss businessman Otto von Wesendonck.
Arguably the apex of opera, “Tristan”
“American Ballet Theater opened a short spring season at Lincoln Center with a full-length work by Lar Lubovitch from 1997. Time hasn’t freshened it up.”
“On March 8, the Washington National Opera (WNO) presented its first opera, “Treemonisha,” after having broken ties with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
For the occasion, the company returned to Lisner Auditorium, the venue where it started 70 years ago and a noticeably smaller one when compared to the opera house at the Kennedy Center. As such, it was clear that this would be an adjustment for the WNO.
Upon entering the space, however, it was safe to say that the”
“Jordan Fein’s revival finds hypnotic power in Miller’s 1994 play, as Pearl Chanda and Eli Gelb bring haunting emotional force to a story of paralysis and denial”
“Ponchielli’s masterpiece, “La Gioconda,” was presented at the Gran Teatre del Liceu with a double cast of stellar singers and a beautiful production.
Production Details
The sets by Étienne Pluss were beautiful and meaningful. The stage was surrounded by walls of stone and wooden beams. There were realistic elements for each scene, including a big marble staircase in the first act, a boat in the second, and chandeliers in the third. It was a very pleasant experience to be able to reco”
“Irish National Opera’s production of Janacek’s “The Cunning Little Vixen” proved to be a valid, yet commonplace, sentimental, child-centered reading, which unfortunately failed to delve below the surface narrative, although this was not the intention of its director, Sophie Motley.
The Director’s Ideas Fail to Translate into Practice
In her program notes, Motley explained that her aim was to portray the life cycle of the vixen so that her”
“Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie is not an opera house, yet it regularly presents high-calibre concert performances of opera and oratorio—projects that inevitably place artistic and operational pressure on the city’s Hamburg State Opera. This Bellini evening continued that pattern. With Ensemble Resonanz returning after their previous notable “Norma,” the hall again became a theatre of the imagination. In its enveloping acoustic, Vincenzo Bellini’s “I Capuleti e i”
“Luisa Miller” by Giuseppe Verdi is a tragic tale of love destroyed by social hierarchy and political intrigue. The young peasant Luisa Miller is in love with Rodolfo, who is in fact the son of the powerful nobleman Count Walter, though he has been living in disguise. Their relationship is opposed by Rodolfo’s father, who intends him to marry the Duchess Federica for political advantage, and by the scheming courtier Wurm, who desires Luisa for himself.”
“After a book, a film and a Ted Talk, William Kamkwamba’s heroically inventive response to floods, drought and starvation is now delivered with energetic songs and dancing”
“Though “Benvenuto Cellini” (1838) was Berlioz’s first opera, premiering five years before Wagner’s “Der fliegende Holländer” (1843), thirteen years before Verdi’s “Rigoletto” (1851), and two decades before Gounod’s “Faust” (1859), the work sounds positively avant-garde compared to contemporaneous works and even compared to those written long after it. The most astounding innovation was Berlioz’s use of syncopation, especially in his incredible “harmonious diss”
“In recent years, Madrid’s Teatro Real has programmed many “operas in concert.” Sometimes they’re well-known, such as “Orfeo ed Euridice,” “Idomeneo,” or “Die Fledermaus” that I attended at the venerable theatre over the last three seasons. On occasion, they present more obscure works, such as Verdi’s early opera “I masnadieri”(1847). In the past, a touring production was employed, with conductor and cast performing in several European cities. For”
“The 1985 play’s first run took place off-Broadway in the middle of the Aids crisis. Much has changed – but Dean Bryant’s production speaks to a new era of protest and unrest”
“Lully’s “Atys” is said to have been Louis XIV’s favorite opera. Using a libretto by Philippe Quinault (1635-1688), “Atys” is based on the story of Attis from Ovid’s “Metamorphoses.” In the original story, Atys/Attis is a handsome Phrygian youth beloved by the goddess Cybèle. She demands his absolute fidelity but he betrays her with a nymph. As punishment, she drove him mad and he castrated himself under a pine tree. In Quinault’s libretto, the story is embellished, makin”
“In 1968, as Buenos Aires was going through a difficult political and social period, Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer brought to life a work destined to defy any clear definition: “María de Buenos Aires.” It is neither a lyric opera in the traditional sense nor a simple tango show; rather, as its own creators defined it, it is an operita tanguera, suspended between poetry, urban ritual, and metaphysical nightmare. Curiously, the work adopts the structure of a”
“Editor’s Note by David Salazar, Editor-in Chief: A previous version of this review misrepresented the genders of two artists and mentioned that a trans performer in several roles was “cliché.” This is offensive, unacceptable, and should never have been published. We apologize for this and will work to ensure this never happens again. The review has been modified.
With the opera house still undergoing renovations, Piazzola and Horatio Ferr”
“Freiburg Theater’s current production of John Adams’ “Doctor Atomic” is a must-see event! Even opera-goers who find contemporary works difficult or off-putting would struggle to deny the brilliance of this presentation. It succeeds on every level: musically, dramatically, visually and intellectually. And in doing so, confirmed the opera’s reputation as an early 21st century masterpiece.
The opera is set in 1945 in the lead-up to the first t”
“In a bloody, brilliant, full circle Rupert Goold bows out as artistic director of the Almeida with a timely revival of the musical he first staged here in 2013”
“Co-produced by the Opéra National de Normandie, where it was first staged, Francis Poulenc’s opera Les Dialogues des Carmélites (The Carmelites dialogs) is now being performed in Nancy from Jan. 25 to 31. This production is nearly a complete success.
Tiphaine Raffier’s realistic staging lends rawness and extra humanity to certain scenes in the opera, such as the death of the Mother Superior, but this does not prevent her from creating certain tableaux”
“Thornton Wilder’s classic American play is transposed for this company’s inaugural production. The result is heartfelt, though its emotional bite can seem uncertain”
“<strong>Samuel J Friedman Theatre, New York</strong>The White Lotus and Gilded Age actor takes on her real-life husband Tracy Letts’ 1996 thriller, which could have afforded some modern-day tweaks”
“Less is more!
That was what Sandro Sequi did well in his traditional 1976 production of “I Puritani” at the Metropolitan Opera. Originally staged for Joan Sutherland, the production was a vehicle for the great divas of the Bel Canto repertoire. And while it was admittedly a product of its time, the last three times it was revived, each of the divas assigned to the production transformed the old-fashioned production into something modern, fresh and unpr”
“Although “I Puritani” is an Italian opera through and through, it was conceived in Paris, at the height of the grand opéra tradition. Bellini studied Meyerbeer and Halévy in great detail, noting in his personal papers certain orchestral “effects” he wished to emulate and others he intended to avoid. As a result, the score, especially in the third act, features orchestral passages unusually rich for him, with a climactic structure closer to Pari”
“Comedy’s upper-class antics are transposed to 1920s Bath and bring a crowd-pleasing mix of anarchic spirit and silliness, though it slackens occasionally”
“Ernani” (1844), Verdi’s fifth opera, is possibly the finest of his early period. More than any of his preceding works, it marks a drastic change from bel canto operas of the time in two respects. Firstly, the libretto, until then of secondary importance, was pivotal, as bel canto was mostly about beautiful voices, especially the soprano’s. An astute man in tune with changing public taste, Verdi was aware that a decent play had a good chance o”
“When “Stiffelio” premiered in 1850, Giuseppe Verdi was going through a period of transition: he had left behind his so-called “galley years” yet had not fully reached artistic maturity. It is precisely in this phase that “Stiffelio” emerged, revealing itself as a bold experiment: deeply modern in its approach to human conflict and, at the same time, dangerously provocative for the moral and political climate of the Italian Risorgimento.
The confl”
“Every year, the Met Opera ushers in the holidays with its abridged, English-language production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” delighting children and adults alike. This season was no exception. If anything, the 90-minute performance offered a welcome reprieve from a world that seems to have lost its bearings—and, oddly, slid back toward the superstition and ignorance Mozart’s fairy tale confronted when it premiered in 1791, at the height of the”
“In Priestley’s shenanigan-filled 1934 comedy, three couples discover they are not married after all – meaning the men lose authority and the women gain freedoms”
“This Christmas season, the Strasbourg Opera is staging Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera “Hänsel und Gretel.” Based on the eponymous fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, which premiered in Weimar on December 23 in 1893, it is the ultimate Christmas opera.
Exciting Production Details
The production, featured December 7 to 17, gets off to a wonderful start. It is set in present day and in a poor wasteland, where the children Hansel and Gretel try to distract themselv”
“Arriving from Broadway with much fanfare, Cole Escola’s play about Mary Todd Lincoln is loaded with obvious jokes and squanders the talents of its cast”
“Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors” has become a staple of the Christmas holiday ever since it premiered on TV in 1951. While it was the first opera specifically composed for television, the work has since become a holiday staple for many of the major opera houses across the United States of America.
This year, for the first time, Lincoln Center Theater is presenting the work in association with the Metropolitan Opera, hoping to bring”
“In his notes on the work, Erin Helyard, conductor of Pinchgut Opera’s recent “Messiah,” states that there are “about 10 identifiably different versions of ‘Messiah’ that Händel appears to have approved, developed, or tolerated following its composition in 1741.”
“Why perform the first version,” he asked, posing a question by which to judge this, Pinchgut’s final offering for 2025, at Sydney’s City Recital Hall, Angel Place.
Of Helyard’s two ans”
“Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera opened its season with “Lohengrin,” last heard at the Teatro Costanzi a half century ago, in 1975. Once Wagner’s most popular opera in this country, it fell out of favor with the new dogma of presenting operas in their original language. Between 1933 and 1966, it was performed on average every other season. Then it appeared once in 1975 under the baton of the legendary Giuseppe Patanè.
“Lohengrin” is back in the Italian c”
“The tenor Piotr Beczala sings with uncanny serenity and command in the title role of Wagner’s opera, directed by François Girard with little subtlety.”
“
Florida Grand Opera (FGO) opened its 85th season with a heartfelt reminder that opera can be community-driven, emotional, musically accessible, and relevant to the present moment. The atrium was pleasantly crowded before the opening performance of “Silent Night” by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell; a wide spectrum of glamorous attendees sipped drinks from the bar and watched singers from FGO’s CANTO training program as they serenaded everyone with operatic hits. Ambassadors from the Br”
“For the November installment of the Ravenna Festival, it was decided to present a Händel trilogy, comprising two fully staged operas, “Orlando” and “Alcina,” and a concert performance of his oratorio “The Messiah.”
First up was the composer’s 1733 composition, “Orlando,” written to a libretto by Carlo Sigismondo Capece, which premiered at London’s King’s Theatre and ran for ten performances. Like many of Hände”
“The beloved Chinese hero, Monkey, landed in San Francisco Friday night, complete with an entourage of dancers, singers, acrobats, and antics that came from an ancient story revisited, along with video-games and comics, among others. In the Lobby, before the performance, a group of young drummers from Grant High School, Sacramento and dancers from the Chinese American International School with drums, gongs, and bells, performed to bring us right into the field of Chinese performance art. It was m”
“It’s been 11 years since the Metropolitan Opera presented Strauss’ “Arabella,” one of the composer’s most beautiful and charming works, and his last collaboration with Hofmannsthal.
The work has been championed by many great sopranos and baritones throughout history. While originally scheduled for Lise Davidsen, the Met was able to find a soprano in Rachel Willis-Sorensen to meet the challenges of the work and assemble a stellar cast”
“As well as its featured operas, the Wexford Opera Festival also puts on an array of other events, including performances of its “pocket operas,” that is, short works or abridged versions of larger works, sung to a piano accompaniment, presented in the smaller Jerome Hynes Theatre, rather than on the theatre’s main stage.
One of the “pocket operas” on offer at this year’s festival was a production of Alexander Zemlinsky’s one-act wo”
“Gioachino Rossini’s “Cendrillon,” the French language version of “La Cenerentola,” tells the story of Cinderella in real-life and not fairytale. The French translation, by Louis-Ernest Crevel de Charlemagne (1868), brings to life Jacopo Ferretti’s libretto, which follows the story of a young woman abused by her stepfather, Don Magnifico, and two stepsisters, Eléonore and Isabelle. Cinderella’s real name is Angelina and she person”
“La Forza del Destino” has always been considered a transitional work in Giuseppe Verdi’s output, bridging the purely romantic operas of his early period and the mature works where his musical language became more dramatic, direct, and personal. It was composed on a commission from the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg, where it premiered in 1862.
The plot, based on a Spanish drama, is set around the 1740s during the War of the Austrian Succession.”
“From October 13 to 25, the Lyon Opera House staged Modest Mussorgsky’s big opera “Boris Godunov.” An opera of Shakespearean proportions, the murder tsar resembles Richard III, with the added burden of a guilty conscience and, in spirit, certain historical operas such as Verdi’s “Don Carlo” or Meyerbeer’s. Its strength lies largely in the interplay of its different dimensions— psychological in the historical, historical in th”
“The Salle Cortot was built in 1929 by architect Auguste Perret and is adjacent to the École Normale de Musique de Paris, founded by Alfred Cortot in 1919. The performance hall is dedicated to teaching French music to local and international students. It hosts intimate concerts and recitals for approximately 400 audience members and is located in the 17th arrondissement, just a 12-minute walk from the Arc de Triomphe.
Perret is well-known for his innovative use of”
“Opéra Royal Château de Versailles celebrated their 2025-26 season opening with Händel’s “Theodora” in the Chapelle Royale to a sold out crowd of locals and internationals.
The Chapelle Royale was completed in 1710 under the reign of King Louis XIV. It was the last chapel built at Château de Versailles and features Gothic architecture with dramatic illustrated narratives in honor of Saint Louis and the Holy Trinity. The chapel also includes a Clicquot-designed organ that adds ex”
“After making history as the Metropolitan Opera’s first work by a Black composer, Terence Blanchard’s “Fire” is back — with its showstopping step dance.”
476 reviews pending catalog matching — shown in full, linked as matches are resolved.
OperaWire
OperaWire · Oct 2026
78
“Carnegie Hall opened its 2026-27 season with a performance headlined by the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko.
The concert, which ran approximately 75 minutes was dedicated to Italian music with opera alternating with two Respighi classics.
Petrenko opened the concert with the famed overture from “La Forza del Destino,” the potent, borderline overwhelming opening chords, setting the tone for the entire performance. The tempi were a bit on the slower sid”
“<strong>Melbourne Theatre Company</strong><br>While the cast is excellent, Eliza lacks real emotion – a play that sends us back to AI’s genesis moment should feel more human than this”
“In the beautifully preserved, neo-colonial revivalist architectural gem that is New York City’s All Soul’s church, early career opera singers from the United States and Spain shared the stage for a robust recital titled “Rising Stars.” It was brimming over with vocal talent as well as a roster of favorite works from across several centuries and continents.
The 10 emerging artists were brought together from The Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and Madrid’s Tea”
“An interrogater tries to get to the bottom of a surreal scandal while green screen actors meddle with the story in Jess and Morgs’ inventive production”
“With musical ideas spanning mariachi and motorik beats, and lyrics with Kneecap-grade rage, this brilliant collective evolve tradition with stinging, joyful songs”
“The Maryland singer-songwriter’s third album has an impressive sense of scale compared to last year’s breakout Burnover, but is less immediately appealing”
“In the jazz-soul singer’s ‘expression of queer liberation’, stars from Chaka Khan to Bill Callahan to Cynthia Erivo duet on equally varied songs from Cher to the Human League and beyond”
“The<strong> </strong>Scottish mezzo-soprano makes this programme of sea-themed songs gleam and shimmer. Her account of Elgar’s Sea Pictures holds its own against classic accounts by Janet Baker and Sarah Connolly.”
“First announced in 2019 and now launching with just three of the original lineup, the Dolls whip up a whirlwind of hair-flipping and put on a decent spectacle”
“Fictionalising the true story of John Darwin, Alison Carr’s gripping two-hander follows the unexpected consequences of its antihero’s bid to escape debts”
“Arguably the most famous opera singer of the 18th century and one of the most famous singers in the history of opera was the castrato soprano Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, more commonly known as Farinelli. Showered with honors, jewels, and other riches during his lifetime, he was fated by the rich and powerful across Europe, appearing on the stages of the continent’s greatest opera houses and in the courts of dukes, princes, kings, and emperors. He was, in”
“Homosexuality, unfortunately, remains a taboo subject. It is less noticeable in large cities, but in small towns it is still very much in evidence. The love affair between composer Benjamin Britten and tenor Peter Pears, on the other hand, was no secret. They treated their relationship with such naturalness that Britten practically reserved his finest musical ideas for the tenor voice, naturally thinking of his life partner as the one w”
“Gaspare Spontini’s “La Vestale” occupies a curious position in operatic history: once enormously successful and today rarely performed. Premiered at the Paris Opéra in 1807, to a French libretto by Étienne de Jouy, the three-act tragédie lyrique became Spontini’s international breakthrough. Dedicated to Empress Joséphine, it emerged directly from Napoleonic France, and its combination of monumental choral writing, orchestral color, ceremonial spectacle and private passion”