Prokofiev’s SemÎn Kotko Lands in Sardinia

The Teatro Lirico di Cagliari is a sparkling comparatively new building in what used to be a blighted area near to the city center.

Jen?fa at the Bavarian State Opera

The Bavarian State Opera’s new production of Leos Janacek’s Jenufa is a feather in the cap of intendant Nikolaus Bachler.

Die Entf¸hrung aus dem Serail at Chicago Lyric

In its new production of Mozart’s Die Entf¸hrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) Lyric Opera of Chicago has achieved a fusion of eighteenth-century sensibilities with a modern adaptation of traditional dramatic and stage techniques.

Cavalli’s La Didone at St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn

Perhaps I’d better just describe what I experienced, Captain.

Die Walk¸re at Los Angeles Opera

The Los Angeles Opera audiences seem to have decided that no matter how they may really feel about Achim Freyer’s “performance art” staging of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, the singers and musicians are giving them at long last a chance to hear these monumental works at the Dorothy Chandler.

Die tote Stadt: The Dead City Livens Up Palermo

Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s music drama Die tote Stadt has had a rather erratic life in major opera houses.

Shagimuratova steals show in HGO’s Rigoletto

On a stormy evening in Houston (both in and outside of the house), Houston Grand Opera’s opening night production of Verdi’s Rigoletto went off with a thunderous bang.

John Mark Ainsley Sings Schubert at Jerwood Hall, London

Schubert’s music ‘suggests a rippling movement and by the side of the rippling a flowering: it has the variety and unsurprising naturalness of moving water and springing herb’ (Capell) and this same naturalness and sense of flowing ease are the very qualities which make John Mark Ainsley such a special interpreter of this composer.

IphigÈnie en Aulide at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

Rome’s opera house was built in 1880, in the explosion of building that followed the unification of Italy with Rome as its capital.

Rigoletto at the MET with Diana Damrau as Gilda

Rigoletto is the ideal first opera: a taut tale, comprehensible characters, terrific tunes, and not an ounce of fat anywhere.