CHICAGO—Among the many things the pandemic taught us is that Chicago Symphony musicians can assemble a mean program. When Orchestra Hall shut down, like so many orchestras, the CSO pivoted to chamber music, handsomely recorded and streamed … » Read

LONDON—Alban Berg’s Wozzeck is one of the bleaker evenings in the opera house. A scathing exposé of a societal system that exploits those at the very bottom of the heap by treating them as barely paid menials, canon-fodder, or … » Read

By any estimation, Canadian singer and conductor Barbara Hannigan was an excellent choice as Musical America’s Artist of the Year 2025 . But she has long been an elusive figure for American audiences, especially in opera, the scene of her … » Read

CHICAGO—When audiences walk into safronia at the Harris Theater, the first thing they see onstage is an urn. Inside is the family patriarch who set this Lyric Opera commission, written and composed by poet avery r. young (who prefers to … » Read

LONDON—The inaugural Southbank Centre Multitudes festival turned out to be one of London’s 2025 cultural highlights. The idea of pairing each of the venue’s resident orchestras with practitioners from other disciplines threw up … » Read

Soprano Asmik Grigorian has fashioned a portrayal of Tchaikovsky’s Tatiana that is hers and hers alone. The Lithuanian singer, starring in the Met’s current Eugene Onegin , never falls into routine; her performance brings surprises … » Read

LOS ANGELES—Approaching the final months of his 20-year tenure as Los Angeles Opera’s music director, James Conlon dearly wanted to conduct Verdi’s Falstaff one more time. His first professional conducting gig was Falstaff , and … » Read

The novelty at this year’s Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival has been the first engagement of an orchestra in residence. Such a title may seem a touch grandiose for a three-night gig, particularly since one of these was a chamber recital that … » Read

LONDON—It has been 12 years since British cellist Julian Lloyd Webber put his cello back in its case for the last time, a herniated disc in his neck having brought a premature end to a career that had begun in 1972 with the first London … » Read

LONDON—Bastard Assignments, a collective in the thriving British experimental music scene, has received positive notices in the past (“one of the most exciting forces in contemporary music,” as quoted from the Financial Times in … » Read