Aida, an opera that requires at least five fine Verdi voices, has fallen on hard times. Still, the cast announced for last Saturday’s performance at the Bayerische Staatsoper, headed by…
Author: Andrew Moravcsik
Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Princeton University. Also appointments at Technical University of Munich (Germany) and European University Institute (Italy).
Verdi, La traviata in Venice
The opening reception of the Biennale had ended early, Teatro La Fenice was dark, and I found myself with an unexpectedly free evening in Venice. Musica a Palazzo is one…
A Shot of Coffee in New York
Johann Sebastian Bach composed some of the most sublime religious music in the Western canon, yet in everyday life he was an earthy fellow. With his long-time collaborator Christian Henrici,…
Chornobyldorf: An Archaeological Opera in Seven Novels
For two weeks in January each year, the Prototype Festival brings small-scale and experimental musical theater to New York. The focus is on new works that draw not so much…
Médée at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s lyric tragedy Médée premiered in 1694 with its dedicatee, Louis XIV, in attendance. The five-act libretto adapted by Thomas Corneille from Euripides’ play retells one of the most…
L’amore dei tre re at La Scala, Milan
Following its 1913 world premiere at the Teatro alla Scala, Italo Montemezzi’s L’amore dei tre re (The Love of Three Kings) immediately entered the standard repertory both in Italy and…
Salome at the Staatsoper Hamburg
The recent production of Richard Strauss’s Salome at the Staatsoper Hamburg, one of Germany’s major companies, has received rapturous reviews. Its main virtue is the assumption of the title role…
Die Frau ohne Schatten at Neuköllner Oper
One often hears that Berlin has three opera houses. In fact, it has many more. Among the most engaging is the Neuköllner Oper. Situated in a funky Berlin neighborhood, it…
Eslon Hindundu’s Chief Hijangua in Berlin
Eslon Hindundu’s new opera Chief Hijangua, the first ever composed by a Namibian, premiered in Windhoek last fall. Last weekend, I attended the third performance of its European premiere at…
Das Rheingold at Ravello Festival
The 150th anniversary of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen will arrive in 2026. Perhaps the most intriguing commemorative initiative is an effort to reconstruct the precise playing, singing and staging…