Author: john_y

I had never personally imagined mythical Hercules as a WWF Wrestler-cum-Caveman but damn if Dutch National Opera’s staging of Francesco Cavalli’s Ercole Amante didn’t almost persuade me it could be so.

Like Seville’s peripatetic barber, Gran Teatro del Liceu’s new Marriage of Figaro is rather all over the place.

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

Marlis Petersen, the much lauded “Lulu-du-jour,” brought her well-traveled portrayal of Berg’s complex heroine to Chicago Lyric Opera and she alone was almost worth the price of admission.