On June 20, the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus—best known as Greece’s preeminent venue for classical Greek tragedies—dipped a toe into Western opera for the first time in 65 years, recreating a landmark production of Medea … » Read

SEATTLE AND SAN FRANCISCO—Last week, two West Coast orchestras wound their seasons down with Beethoven’s choral symphony, a reminder that this familiar ritual need not be merely routine. In the Pacific Northwest, it marked the close … » Read

CHICAGO—Haymarket Opera Company, Chicago’s resident purveyor of Baroque opera, usually works its magic in fully staged period productions. With exquisite costumes and hand-painted flats depicting serene gardens or imposing throne … » Read

LOS ANGELES – The ovation for James Conlon at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was loud and long as he slipped into the pit to conduct Mozart’s The Magic Flute on June 21. That it was louder for Conlon than it would be for any of his … » Read

LONDON—In 1876, all the world and his wife flocked to Bayreuth to marvel at the premiere staging of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen . One hundred and fifty years on and the global appetite appears undimmed for this four-opera … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—The murder weapon is already on display before it actually gets used in Keith Warner’s Elektra . Initially seen at San Francisco Opera in 2017 and revived by Anja Kühnhold, Warner’s riveting production sets … » Read

John Adams’s presence as a composer at Ojai 2026 was as pervasive as music director Esa-Pekka Salonen’s throughout much of the weekend. Indeed, one each of Adams’s screwball “trickster” pieces closed three … » Read

LONDON—As with London buses, so with the operas of Monteverdi. You wait ages to catch one and then two come along at once. A pair of them hit England’s summer festival stages over the same June weekend in a clash of diaries (as well … » Read

The June 12 Lincoln Center premiere of Glenn Branca’s Symphony No. 13 ( Hallucination City ) for 100 Guitars was haunted by the ghost of a New York City that no longer exists. Branca emerged in the experimental scene of early 1980s … » Read

OJAI, CA – Like Brigadoon, the small California town of Ojai comes to life once a year on a single weekend in June with an improbably durable, world-class music festival. This time, it was observing its 80th year, part of a continuous … » Read