For opera to retain its relevance today it needs to be either timely or timeless. Alban Berg’s Wozzeck (1925), based on Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck , one of the most ahead-of-its-time plays ever written, happens to be both. An … » Read

For those tired of the seasonal same old, same old, The Crossing’s Christmas offering might not have looked that festive on paper, but it certainly gave pause for thought. For its December 21 concert in the atmospheric surrounds of the … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO--Much like those of past eras, today’s opera composers often concern themselves with themes of injustice and the abuse of power. Mila , a new chamber opera by composer Eli Marshall and librettist Candace Chong, depicts the … » Read

Der Rosenkavalier  returned to the Metropolitan Opera on Friday evening (Dec. 13) bringing with it two World War I-vintage cannons implausibly positioned in the reception hall of a Viennese townhouse. It was producer Robert Carsen’s … » Read

Mozart was five when he started composing and for a decade his works were firmly in the style of contemporaries like Johann Christian Bach. At the other end of the spectrum is Erich Wolfgang Korngold whose compositional fingerprints were pretty … » Read

Anyone skeptical of overnight celebrity should bear in mind that before he was catapulted to fame and fortune in 2018 as “The Royal Wedding Cellist,” Sheku Kanneh-Mason had already become the first black artist to win the 2016 BBC … » Read

CHICAGO—Two years ago, when conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya signed on as music director for Chicago Opera Theater, she made her plans for the company very clear. A major goal was introducing audiences to new contemporary operas and neglected … » Read

MILAN—St. Ambrose’s Day stands solidly on Europe’s cultural, social, and political calendar, marking the feast day of Milan’s patron saint, and the annual opening the city’s venerated opera house. Historically, the … » Read

Now in its sixth season, Heartbeat Opera has gained a reputation for radical adaptations and rearrangements that have sometimes boiled down standard works to around 90 minutes, in an effort to get closer to the essence of what they are about. To … » Read

A film director, dressed in jeans, a hoody, and a blazer, paces the stage. The wings are exposed. Freestanding lights frame the dancers, posed in a tableau. The director circles the group, opening and closing a clapperboard. With each click, a … » Read