Alice Coote stars in the First Night of the BBC Proms 2009

The Proms reach people all over the world, bringing them together for a kind of international street party, celebrating a shared love of music. If the arts make us more human and humane, then the BBC Proms are a force for good.

Festival Aix-en-Provence by StÈphan Lissner

The Aix Festival imagines itself one of Europe’s great festivals, defining itself as the crossroads of European culture.

Gˆtterd‰mmerung at Aix-en-Provence — A Human Symphony

This year’s program at the Aix-en-Provence Festival includes
Gˆtterd‰mmerung, the much-anticipated final installment of the
Ring co-sponsored by Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Osterfestspiele Salzburg.

Mozart Mistreated at Aix-en-Provence Festival

At the festival of Aix-en-Provence, now in its sixty-first year, the final installment of Wagner’s “Ring,” with Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, has hogged the spotlight.

Prom 2 — Haydn: The Creation

‘I never left a theatre more contented, and all night I dreamed of The Creation of the world.’ — the view of one of those at the first performance of The Creation in 1799.

Amsterdam: Old Wine in New Bull Rings

A roster of exciting young artists supported by the Concertgebouw Orchestra
in the pit, ensured that Amsterdam’s Carmen worked its
usual spell.

Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Covent Garden

Music-masters, singing lessons and serenading bands all abound in
Rossini’s comic masterpiece, Il Barbiere di Sivilglia, but at
this performance it was the medical rather than the musical puns which drew the
loudest laughs.

Tosca at Royal Opera House

This revival of Jonathan Kent’s 2006 production of Tosca brings to an end the ROH’s ‘Italian Season’ in fine style.

Saariaho’s sumptuous L’amour de loin at the ENO, London

Absence of plot is by no means an impediment in opera.

The Ravenna Festival: La scuola napoletana?

Ravenna once served as the capital of the Roman Empire in the 5th and 6th centuries C.E.