Gőtterd‰mmerung in Venice and Kőln — Sex and Politics Behind the Berlin Wall

With Gˆtterd‰mmerung, a co-production with the Kˆln Opera House created by Robert Carsen (stage direction), Patrick Kinmonth (sets and costumes) and
Jeffrey Tate (conductor), La Fenice approaches completion of the
Ring cycle.

La Traviata at Royal Opera House

Four years have passed since the most celebrated American soprano of recent times, RenÈe Fleming, graced the stage at Covent Garden, in Elijah Moshinsky’s classic production of Otello.

Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre shocks Rome but only mildly

Le Grand Macabre is the only opera of Gyˆrgy LigÈti, one of the
major composers of the 20th century.

La Traviata in San Francisco

Much ink has been spilled over the failed Marta Domingo production of La
Traviata
that San Francisco Opera inexplicably imported for its blatantly
audience baiting summer season (Traviata, Tosca, Porgy and Bess).

A Masked Ball by Brooklyn Repertory Opera

Amato Opera went to the netherworld of expired extravaganzas this spring, a
one-man operation whose one man was weary. As New York’s oldest
down-the-block and semi-pro company, it’s loss was regrettable —
though it’s many years since Amato gave up doing interesting repertory.

Saint Louis: Reliably Excellent

It is quite possible that Opera Theatre of Saint Louis is the leading summer opera destination in the United States.

Schwanengesang at Wigmore Hall

A performance of sublime authority from Goerne and Eschenbach

Madam Butterfly – English National Opera, London Coliseum

Following the death of the American film director Anthony Minghella, ENO were left with a gap in the season vacated by the new production which he had been engaged to direct, and what better way to do so than by bringing back his immensely popular 2005 staging of Madam Butterfly? Minghella’s widow, Carolyn Choa (who has worked on the production from its original conception) was charged with resurrecting the production in tribute.

Madame Says Farewell

Last week (May 27), “without further a-don’t,” as she adorably puts it, Madame Vera Galupe-Borszkh, the world’s reigning traumatic soprano
— lately, she says, more of a soprano “spento” — bade a
last, lingering, loving farewell to her adoring public in a sold-out concert at
the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Alceste by The Collegiate Chorale

The Collegiate Chorale (ably supported by the orchestra of the New York City
Opera under George Manahan) chose Gluck’s Alceste, last heard in
New York at the City Opera in 1982, for its annual spring concert opera —
an excellent choice for a chorus eager to show its stuff.