CHICAGO— Hello, Dolly was right: Sometimes, it only takes a moment. Director Matthew Ozawa’s widely traveled production of Madama Butterfly is far from perfect in its arrival at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where Ozawa is the chief … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—In its inspired concept and eerily enchanting realization, Opera Parallèle’s La Belle et la Bête is a triumph of the first order and certainly one of the signal achievements of this resourceful small … » Read

In 2019, the New York Philharmonic presented the premiere of David Lang’s opera prisoner of the state , a Fidelio adaptation that used Beethoven’s scenario to comment on the persistence of political oppression into our own time. The … » Read

LONDON—Like his stagings of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre , Barrie Kosky's new Royal Ballet and Opera Siegfried is rooted in the natural world. But this third instalment—seen at its March 17 premiere—was different. A … » Read

With Anna Netrebko on deck as the tormented Amelia, the recent Paris Opera revival of Gilbert Deflo’s decade-old production of Verdi’s  Un Ballo in Maschera  at the Bastille was bound to be a red-hot … » Read

The much-valued annual presentation of a Handel opera in Carnegie Hall by Harry Bicket and the English Concert on occasion has stretched the genre, but only a touch, by performing an English “dramatic oratorio” as they have come to be … » Read

If Verdi makes your world go round, Riccardo Muti’s your man. Whether at the opera house or in strict concert form (no semi-staged funny business for this maestro), his investigations into Verdi’s many worlds are touchstone events. … » Read

The new production of Tristan und Isolde is the Met’s hottest ticket of the year, and with good reason. The company has not presented Tristan in a decade––far too long, considering the work’s seminal importance. Isolde is … » Read

MILAN—By the midpoint of the first of La Scala’s two full Ring   cycles (March 1-7 and 10-15), it was clear audiences were witnessing something special. As mentioned in the review of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre , the cast … » Read

Each year the Berkeley-based West Edge Opera’s “Snapshot” selects pairs of composers and librettists to workshop new pieces with a team of experienced advisers, a strong cast, and musicians over a two-week period.  This … » Read