There’s a deconstructed vibe to Arcola Theatre’s Studio 1 – raw brick, concrete, wood and metal predominate – and, in answer to this, Marcio da Silva’s production of Don Giovanni…
Category: Staged Operas
Norma at Gstaad
Bellini’s Norma is one of the great operas; it is far more than just ‘Casta Diva’. And those UK readers who attended Chelsea Opera Group’s presentation of the same composer’s…
Zelmira, La cambiale di matrimonio, L’italiana in Algeri in Pesaro
The last of the Neapolitan tragic masterpieces, the very first farce, and the first of the famous comedies. The 2025 Rossini Opera Festival was of limited success. The success limited…
Wolf Trap Opera’s Carmen: Getting The Best Of Fate?
It felt appropriate walking up to Wolf Trap’s Filene Center on a sweaty August night for this one-night-only performance, considering that Bizet’s Carmen takes place in southern Spain. It’s a…
Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade’s Scenes from Under Milk Wood – Presteigne Festival
Established in 1983, the Presteigne Festival is renowned for the diversity and quality of its programming and, like previous seasons, continues its immersion in contemporary music. Within the Welsh border…
Giulio Cesare in Salzburg
Stage director Dimitri Tcherniakov sets Handel’s most performed opera in an air raid shelter (where else these days?), wittily deploying a direct hit on the shelter to announce Cleopatra’s scorching…
One Morning Turns into an Eternity in Salzburg
A concoction imagined by American stage director Peter Sellars and Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. It is three orchestral masterpieces, fused, that host an abstract theater action — a body bag…
The Barber of Seville at Cape Town
There is no more remote place on earth than Cape Town to experience opera. At the juncture of two vast Oceans and over 8,000 km south of the nearest opera…
Pocket-sized Wagner: Grimeborn Opera’s Tristan und Isolde
Much has been written about Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and for various reasons. It is one of the most compelling love stories of all time, with roots stretching back to…
Mango Street Under Construction at Glimmerglass
For its landmark Fiftieth Anniversary Season, the Glimmerglass Festival is to be heartily commended for commissioning a bold new work, The House on Mango Street, by composer Derek Bermel, who also…