LONDON--The anglicized title gives it away: this is Wagner performed in English, as is the custom at London’s second opera house. On November 19 the company launched its new Ring cycle not with Das Rheingold but with its audience-pleasing … » Read

All eyes were focused on stage right at Davies Symphony Hall on Friday, November 12. As Michael Tilson Thomas entered, a full-throated cheer of the sort more likely to be heard at Oracle Park, where the San Francisco Giants play, rang out. The … » Read

SEATTLE — An unexpectedly last-minute round of musical chairs reshuffled the lineup for one of the most unusual and original programs of the Seattle Symphony season. As a double harp concerto, Hannah Lash’s The Peril of Dreams , an … » Read

Maybe it’s an after effect of the Trump era, but more orchestras and conductors than ever seem to be making programs that reflect on America and what it means to be American, as demonstrated by four new orchestral recordings. Perhaps the … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO --Harriet’s Spirit , a 50-minute opera rooted in the legacy of the Black abolitionist Harriet Tubman, received its first professional performances on November 13 and 14 at the Bayview Opera House, an Opera Parallèle … » Read

Admirers of Baroque opera don’t have much to choose from in New York, which makes Juilliard Opera’s excursions into the repertory highly valued. Productions in recent years have included Cavalli’s  La Calisto  and … » Read

LONDON--Whether it was the inclusion of Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending —a work that recently topped the U.K.’s Classic FM Hall of Fame for the 11th year in a row—or the star power of American violinist Hilary Hahn, … » Read

LONDON--In opera, directorial “concepts” can sometimes be frustrating, distorting or even overwhelming a composer’s intentions. That Daisy Evans’s powerful re-imagining of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle as … » Read

MILAN--While 17th- and 18th-century opera has been a staple of European theaters for the last several decades, it is relatively uncommon among Italy’s opera houses. La Scala has been attempting to change that, scheduling a string of … » Read

Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s Vista had its belated-due-to-the-pandemic world premiere last May at the Helsinki Philharmonic before making the rounds to the Berlin and Oslo philharmonics. Susanna Mälkki conducted them all, so it … » Read