Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos was the first opera to be performed at the Salzburg Festival, almost exactly 100 years ago. This new production (seen July 31) by Ersan Mondtag, updated the location from the desert island of Naxos to the … » Read

LONDON—As conductor laureate of the Philharmonia as well as of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen was an ideal choice for this August 11 BBC Prom of 20th-century classics bringing together student orchestras from both sides of … » Read

SEATTLE—When Xian Zhang returns for her second season as music director of the Seattle Symphony in September, she will do so amid conspicuous change. Jeremy S. Rothman will be newly installed as president and CEO, the renovated public … » Read

SANTA FE—Seeing all five of Santa Fe Opera’s summer productions in close succession during the first week of August made one of the open-air theater’s peculiarities especially vivid: its magic is inseparable from its … » Read

Two centuries on from its London premiere, Oberon remains Carl Maria von Weber’s most enigmatic opera. Often cited as a forgotten masterpiece, its combination of a notoriously risible libretto and the fact that it was written in English … » Read

At four hours of music and a highly complex score for huge orchestra (120 musicians in this case) and chorus, it’s no wonder that performances of Olivier Messiaen’s monumental Saint François d'Assise a re rare ; it has been … » Read

Despite the Sturm und Drang surrounding the Boston Symphony, the music-making during Andris Nelsons’s last 2026 weekend at Tanglewood did not disappoint. (He exits at the end of next season.) Nor did the audience’s evident commitment … » Read

SALZBURG—Markus Hinterhäuser, recently (and controversially) fired as Salzburg Festival artistic director , based this season’s program on Roland Barthes’s book, A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments , which explores … » Read

SANTA FE—In Tobias Picker and Aryeh Lev Stollman’s Lili Elbe , a marriage changes faster than either partner can comprehend. First staged at Theater St. Gallen in 2023, the opera is receiving its American premiere. James … » Read

LONDON–Back in April the BBC Proms happily launched its 2026 season featuring an extensive celebration of American music to mark 250 years, apparently undaunted by Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the broadcaster. … » Read