Tristan und Isolde, Metropolitan Opera, New York

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a9ce8f8a-bfbf-11dd-9222-0000779fd18c.html

Porgy through a glass lightly

It was, of course, coincidence. When the Chicago Lyric Opera scheduled George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess for the current season, not even the preludes to the 2008 presidential election had begun.

Munich’s Christmas Treasures: Massenet and Handel

Not all of Munich’s holiday delights are to be found at the just-opened annual Christmas Market filling the Marienplatz and environs.

Carmen at the Washington National Opera

From the director’s point of view, there are two ways to approach staging an opera.

Verdi’s Aida at La Scala

Can this truly be the production of Verdi’s Aida that earned world-wide headlines in December 2007?

PUCCINI: La Fanciulla del West — La Scala 1956

La Fanciulla del West: Opera in three acts.

GIORDANO: Marcella

Alberto Cant˘’s booklet essay for the Dynamic release of Umberto Giordano’s rare one-act opera Marcella quotes a review from the day after the 1907 premiere, which indicates that the premiere’s audience’s expectations of “greater originality of melodic invention” went unmet.