SAN FRANCISCO—When Elim Chan was formally introduced as the next Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony in May of this year, she met the moment with a mixture of pomp and circumstance and spontaneity. After descending the grand … » Read

LOS ANGELES—Last week’s brief California tour by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra—or Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal—was a long-awaited return. The orchestra was last spotted around these parts at the Hollywood … » Read

October was Steve Reich Month in New York. The composer turned 90 on October 3; to mark the occasion, his native city presented several commemorative concerts. In the middle of the month, the Park Avenue Armory offered a marathon of three … » Read

LONDON—There were only two items on the ticket for the London Symphony Orchestra’s October 25 Barbican Hall concert, yet perhaps surprisingly it was the new work that left the stronger impression despite the tumultuous spiritual … » Read

SEATTLE—Near the end of Samuel Adams’s No Such Spring , pianist Conor Hanick’s hands climbed in successive leaps toward the extreme treble. Against a hushed bed of sustained brass and string chords, he reached beyond the last … » Read

LONDON—The London Philharmonic Orchestra likes to play to a theme and this October 23 concert at Royal Festival Hall was no exception. The subject was transformations, as represented by Dorothy Howell’s Lamia , a symphonic poem about … » Read

CHICAGO—Lyric Opera of Chicago co-commissioned Omar , an opera by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, along with the Spoleto Festival USA, Carolina Performing Arts, San Francisco Opera , Los Angeles Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, and Detroit … » Read

Verdi’s sixth opera Alzira has been an object of neglect almost from its 1845 premiere at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, a potential candidate to duplicate the wild popularity won by Ernani at La Scala the year prior. It flopped, and Verdi … » Read

You can understand Lincoln in the Bardo ’s appeal as a subject for an opera. George Saunders’s 2017 novel takes the form of an oral history, the primary narrators being a crowd of ghosts. They haunt the cemetery outside the mausoleum … » Read

LONDON—Alongside the national and country house opera companies, the U.K. has a thriving amateur or semi-professional circuit, ranging from local Gilbert and Sullivan societies to more ambitious outfits with a healthy interest in eclectic … » Read