LONDON—Renowned as a showcase for a coloratura superstar, Vincenzo Bellini’s final opera hasn’t been seen at Covent Garden since the early 1990s. Richard Jones’s unconventional new staging for the Royal Ballet and Opera … » Read

LONDON—Michael Grandage’s 2010 staging of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd made a welcome return to Glyndebourne June 28 with a consistently fine cast and Allan Clayton making an anticipated role debut as the conflicted Captain … » Read

MUNICH—Wagner operas are not usually occasions for merriment. They are more often received in rapt concentration, as if sitting in church and staying silent until the end of sermon. That was not the case at the Bayerische Staatsoper on June … » Read

CHICAGO—The Grant Park Music Festival is used to rolling with the punches. On June 24, a severe downpour and flood warning forced the free outdoor series to cut a concert short just before its marquee offering: Peter Boyer’s Ellis … » Read

LONDON—Davóne Tines’s residency at the Barbican Centre has been an opportunity for the American bass-baritone to spread his curatorial wings and a chance for U.K. audiences to experience his charismatic voice and eclectic but … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—The stars lined up in June at Davies Symphony Hall, as one San Francisco Symphony program after another formed a constellation of connections. It began on June 6, when Elim Chan, the orchestra’s music director designate, … » Read

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

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

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