Les Troyens in San Francisco

Berlioz’ Les Troyens is in two massive parts — La prise de Troy and Troyens ‡ Carthage.

Fedora in Genoa

It is not an everyday opera. It is an opera that illuminates a larger verismo history.

Tosca in Marseille

Rarely, very rarely does a Tosca come around that you can get excited about. Sure, sometimes there is good singing, less often good conducting but rarely is there a mise en scËne that goes beyond stock opera vocabulary.

Die Meistersinger and The Indian Queen
at the ENO

It has been a cold and gray winter in the south of France (where I live) made splendid by some really good opera, followed just now by splendid sunshine at Trafalgar Square and two exquisite productions at English National Opera.

Eine florentinische Tragˆdie and I pagliacci in Monte-Carlo

An evening of strange-bedfellow one-acts in high-concept stagings, mindbogglingly delightful.

Idomeneo in Lyon

You might believe you could go to an opera and take in what you see at face value. But if you did that just now in Lyon you would have had no idea what was going on.

IphigÈnie en Tauride in Geneva

Hopefully this brilliant new production of IphigÈnie en Tauride from the Grand ThÈ‚tre de GenËve will find its way to the new world now that Gluck’s masterpiece has been introduced to American audiences.

Tristan et Isolde in Toulouse

Tristan first appeared on the stage of the ThȂtre du Capitole in 1928, sung in French, the same language that served its 1942 production even with Wehrmacht tanks parked in front of the opera house.

Katia Kabanova in Toulon

K·?a Kabanov· is, they say, Jan·?ek’s first mature opera — it comes a mere 20 years after his masterpiece, Jen?fa.

Peter Grimes in Nice

Nice’s golden winter light is not that of England’s North Sea coast. Nonetheless the OpÈra de Nice’s new production of Peter Grimes did much to take us there.