Heartbeat Opera, known for its streamlined, freewheeling mountings of familiar works, has swerved somewhat into esoteric territory in its current production of Vanessa . Although the 1958 Samuel Barber/Gian Carlo Menotti opera has lately been … » Read

LONDON—While celebrations of American culture go on all around the world, it’s perhaps surprising that composer Brent Michael Davids’s Requiem for America should receive its May 17 world premiere not in a major U.S. city but in … » Read

With no slight intended to composer Laura Kaminsky, librettist Elaine Sexton, or director Kevin Newbury, the Biggest Name associated with American Opera Project’s latest reveal is its set designer. The titular location of The Post Office, … » Read

MANCHESTER, UK—The second word of its name had long been a bone of contention until Arts Council England obliged English National Opera to live up to its brand and get out of London. After faltering first steps towards Manchester in 2025, … » Read

KALAMAZOO, MI—Shy. Private. Self-deprecating. Van Cliburn wasn’t exactly your typical divo. As the subject of American Sputnik , however, an unusual new monodrama by composer Evan Mack and librettist Mark Campbell, the legendary … » Read

LONDON—This May 16 Wigmore Hall concert saw London’s premiere chamber music venue hosting Ensemble intercontemporain, the Parisian new music collective founded 50 years ago by Pierre Boulez. In a nod to another significant … » Read

The much-anticipated appearance of Herbert Blomstedt with the San Francisco Symphony, the orchestra he led from 1985 to 1995, last weekend had its ups and downs. About to turn 99 in July, the maestro has maintained an impressive number of guest … » Read

MILWAUKEE—The same company that churned out the well-traveled Chevalier and Secret Byrd in recent seasons is back with Copland/Twain , which debuted at the Milwaukee Symphony’s Bradley Center May 8 to 10. The semi-staged production … » Read

Composer Gabriela Lena Frank scored a triumph at the May 14 Met Opera premiere of her 2022 work El Ú ltimo Sue ño de Frida y Diego. The two-act work, with a Spanish-language libretto by Nilo Cruz, is born aloft by Frank’s … » Read

BRUSSELS—Medusa sulks among stone bodies of men. Around her, the world has hardened into a mausoleum: gray walls, dead air, her lamenting gorgon sisters, and fate approaching in the form of Perseus. This is the bleak territory of Iain Bell … » Read