On June 30 Marin Alsop, director of the National Orchestral Institute + Festival Philharmonic, combined her assemblage of musicians just beginning their careers with the Heritage Signature Chorale for a sold-out performance at the Washington … » Read

LONDON —Orlando is one of Handel’s finest Italian operas, full of good tunes and with a refreshingly simple plot offering excellent opportunities for five-star singers. Written in 1733 for the King's Theatre in London, a venue in … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—With the symphony’s season clouded by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen’s startling decision to depart in the middle of next year, at the conclusion of his five-year contract, this June 28 concert at Davies Hall … » Read

Innocence is not only the standout of San Francisco Opera’s summer season [see Monday's review] but one of the most significant achievements of the company in recent years—and a highlight of this past season overall. Were it not for … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—A year after Kaija Saariaho’s death at the age of 70, her final opera, Innocence , received its much-anticipated American debut this month at San Francisco Opera. The work’s reputation as a harrowing and innovative … » Read

LONDON—Grange Park Opera is one of the more accessible and idyllic venues on the U.K.’s country house opera circuit. Comprising a purpose-built brick auditorium with excellent acoustics, surrounded by gorgeous formal gardens, and … » Read

The world premiere of The Comet / Poppea on June 21 at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Los Angeles demonstrated once again that Yuval Sharon is one of opera’s most imaginative directors. The 80-minute production melded a new score by … » Read

When John Adams’s Girls of the Golden West  premiered in November 2017, a great deal of ink was spilt arguing about form and function. Did Peter Sellars’s libretto, culled from diaries, letters, newspaper articles, and mining … » Read

LONDON—Garsington Opera has been snapping at the artistic heels of Glyndebourne Festival of late, delivering an impressive string of hits, many of them daring rarities . This year saw the completion of phase one of the £14.5 million … » Read

LONDON—While Bernstein’s Candide (1956) is a musical that aspires to be an operetta, Franz Léhar’s Die Lustige Witwe (1905) looks in the opposite direction. Operetta, musical… what’s in a name? It’s a … » Read