CHICAGO—Ah, the Grant Park Music Festival. These days, its name is something of a misnomer: Its orchestra and chorus have performed at Millennium Park, north of Grant Park, since that downtown attraction opened to the public 20 years ago … » Read

The considerable riches of the so-called bel canto (early 19th-century) era of Italian opera have been searched out for decades, yet it is still possible to discover high-quality work that has never had a modern revival. Teatro Nuovo demonstrated … » Read

Mostly Mozart is gone, but its orchestra lives on. It has returned as the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center, which made its official debut on July 23—the start of three-week residency (12 concerts) at David Geffen Hall. The … » Read

LONDON—Every year, the program for the BBC Proms seems to trigger an acrimonious debate. Are the powers that be dumbing down? Where’s the risk taking? And in the case of this year’s ‘’Disco Prom,’’ what … » Read

Pelléas et Mélisande and Salome are big-house works, most often tackled by companies with larger stages and budgets than Des Moines Metro Opera. But the company more than justified the presence of both pieces on its 2024 … » Read

AIX-EN-PROVENCE—Under its three most recent artistic directors, the Aix-en-Provence Festival has built a reputation for commissioning new music, reviving experimental works, and bundling them in among the season’s more high-profile … » Read

The centerpiece of Des Moines Metro Opera’s 2024 season was the world premiere of the Damian Geter/Lila Palmer opera American Apollo , a chronicle of the years-long relationship between John Singer Sargent and his Black model, Thomas … » Read

On July 18 the Cincinnati Opera premiered the first of four fully-staged presentations of Sir Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio . Commissioned by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society for its 150 th anniversary, the 90-minute work by … » Read

CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Ca.—The venerable Carmel Bach Festival has been operating more-or-less continuously since 1935, going dark only during World War II (1942-1945) and the COVID pandemic (2020). This cool, foggy outpost on the Pacific Rim … » Read

A recent weekend afforded the rare opportunity to hear two Stephen Sondheim scores back-to-back, both orchestrated by his longtime colleague, Jonathan Tunick. With the same composer and orchestrator at their creative cores, you would think the … » Read