Die Liebe der Danae in Munich

For what continues to be considered an ill-fated rarity, Die Liebe der Danae has had several outings over the past couple of decades or so. I have seen three productions…

Plenty of Variety from the First Night of the Proms

The Proms season began with a curious mélange that was neither a bang nor a whimper. Its festive spirit was duly acknowledged with the Birthday Fanfare for Sir Henry Wood…

Rusalka by Opera Australia  

Instantly absorbing and continually moving, Opera Australia’s (AO) new production of Rusalka, directed by Sarah Giles, showcases Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s tragic fairy tale spectacularly in all its visual, musical and…

Canto Virginia 2025 Kicks Off With A Powerhouse Masterclass

Two days after a cohort of 20 select local and international singers arrived for this three-week program, Canto Virginia held its first event of their Midsummer Opera Dream festival on…

A Tremendous Salome Closes Pappano’s First Season with the LSO

Mahler, Ravel and Schoenberg all agreed that Richard Strauss’s Salome was amongst his greatest works and in a performance as compelling as this one it would have been almost convincing…

The Nine Jewelled Deer in Aix

Or was it ten? One lost count. But that was early in the evening of the telling of this sort of parable with accompanying instrumental improvisation by six earnest musicians. …

Charlottesville Opera’s The Pirates of Penzance: The Way Gilbert and Sullivan Should Be

In the charming city of Charlottesville in central Virginia lies a gem of an opera company that performs at the wonderful Paramount Theater nestled in a lovely square. The venue…

Shakespeare Opera Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet: Sumptuous Romance in the heart of Northern Virginia

Over the past ten years, Shakespeare Opera Theatre has made a name for itself by combining Shakespeare’s plays with operatic adaptations of his work. Managing director Dr. Lori Lind’s encyclopedic…

La Calisto in Aix

Dutch stage director Jetske Mijnssen transferred Francesco Cavalli’s whimsical 1651 comedy La Calisto from its native Venice to France, one hundred years later — 1751, where the arts of an…

DMMO’s Dutch Treat

It proved to be smooth sailing as Des Moines Metro Opera thrillingly met the substantial challenges of Wagner’s seminal work, The Flying Dutchman. They started by assembling a nonpareil cast…