MILAN-- Damiano Michieletto's new staging of Salome has been a long time coming. The production was due to open in March 2020 at La Scala, with Music Director Riccardo Chailly conducting. After the pandemic shuttered Italy’s performance … » Read

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. –  When Palm Beach Opera was organizing its outdoor festival, which continues through Feb. 27 at the iTHINK Financial Amphitheater, it found—due to the Covid-19 lockdown—a ready supply of top-level … » Read

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.  –  After almost a year of not experiencing opera live and in person because of the coronavirus pandemic, to hear stars like Michael Fabiano, Latonia Moore, and Isabel Leonard in a semi-staged concert of La … » Read

It’s over 20 years since Calixto Bieito outraged the British tabloids with his staging of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Mas c hera at English National Opera . Reports of 14 men sitting on the John in transparent cubicles had opera lovers … » Read

If you’re lucky enough to have sisters, prepare to be shaken by Houston Grand Opera’s newest digital offering: Songs for Murdered Sisters. Composed by Jake Heggie, it is set to eight poems by acclaimed Canadian author Margaret Atwood. … » Read

Bigger is not necessarily better for opera companies dealing with a global pandemic. Since mid-March, when the Covid-19 coronavirus stopped the performing arts in their tracks, small, already innovative companies like NYC’s Heartbeat Opera … » Read

LOS ANGELES—We all know what to expect at gala concerts, those swanky affairs with premium ticket prices, celebrity guest soloists, safe repertoire, and grand dining to follow. So how do you translate that in COVID times, without a dressy … » Read

When the Metropolitan Opera announced its Met Stars Live in Concert recitals back in July 2020, the series was expected to have been done and dusted by Christmas. As it turned out, a series of cancellations and postponements, the combination of … » Read

Among the slew of recent choral albums and vocal recitals, many of them featuring new music, three in particular stand out for imaginative programming, virtuoso performances, and having something to say about the times in which we live. The … » Read

Contemporary chamber music seems to have thrived during the pandemic—at least if recorded output is anything to go by—and here are two of the most interesting. Mirrors is a diverse and strikingly inventive collection of 21st-century … » Read