Tricks and Treats, New World Symphony

If this generation were to stake a claim to its own classical vocal music “Golden Age,” Christine Brewer presents a strong case.

Eugene Onegin, ENO

Deborah Warner’s new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is an evocative and lyrical depiction of elegiac passion.

Dark Sisters, New York

They’re no longer just door-to-door missionaries with a science fiction theology and strange underwear! What with a presidential candidacy and a hit Broadway musical, the Mormons are having their breakout season in New York.

Carmen in San Francisco

DÈja vu. Well, sort of. Last time around (2006) there was a Carmen and then another who canceled leaving San Francisco Opera in the lurch.

Adriana Lecouvreur, Carnegie Hall

What could be more appropriate for the Samhain season than a return from
near-death?

Tales of Hoffmann, Chicago

For its first production of the new season, Jacques Offenbach’s
Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Lyric Opera of Chicago assembled a
distinguished roster of soloists with the Lyric Opera Orchestra under the direction of Emmanuel Villaume.

RomÈo et Juliette, LA

Love and gloom at the Los Angeles Opera.

La sonnambula, Royal Opera

Bellini’s La sonnambula does not have the most gripping or
convincing of opera plots: a young girl sleepwalks into a stranger’s room, where she is discovered by her fiancÈ; disbelieving her pleas of innocence, he jilts her and plans to wed another; but, she is vindicated when she is spied on a nocturnal wander, and the lovers are reconciled.

Bluebeard’s Castle, Royal Festival Hall

BartÛk’s only opera, a masterpiece to rank with other sole works in
the genre such as Fidelio and PellÈas et MÈlisande, was
chosen for the climax of the Philharmonia’s year-long series,
‘Infernal Dance: Inside the World of BÈla BartÛk’.

Wily Wexford Stays the Course

Wexford Festival Opera made a boldly calculated choice sixty years ago when it eschewed bread-and-butter titles, and instead raided the dusty closet where forgotten pieces by some famous (and mostly non-) composers were (at best) consigned to history.