Two queens; one throne; unfaithfulness; sacrilege. Such a combination can hardly miss on the opera stage. And in a rare revival of Saint- Saëns’s Henri VIII on July 23 at Bard College, it did not. The event was the school’s … » Read

EAST SUSSEX—Based on Ovid, Handel’s Semele was written to an English libretto and originally given in concert form. But with its magical landscapes and fantastical effects, it’s hard not to see it as an opera masquerading in … » Read

The final chapter of the Mostly Mozart Festival, a New York institution since its founding in 1966, began on Tuesday night (July 25) in David Geffen Hall with the world premiere of Dhikra (Remembrance) by the Iraqi-American trumpeter and composer … » Read

One measure of genius is the ability to accomplish great things absent the appearance of effort. “To many listeners,” posits Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim in The Atlantic , “Mozart’s music sounds so natural and self-evident … » Read

That the U.S. remains a vibrant musical melting pot is borne out in these three recent albums. The works are all written for classical symphony orchestra, yet each one is suffused with its composer’s cultural DNA. Avner Dorman was born in … » Read

COOPERSTOWN, NY—For its first ever production of Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet (seen July 15 th ) the Glimmerglass Festival turned to Simon Godwin, artistic director of Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre Company. The Washington … » Read

Bel canto opera has fallen well out of the mainstream of New York’s operatic life. In times gone by, the Met and New York City Opera would regularly mount works by Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini for stars like Beverly Sills and Joan … » Read

LONDON—It may be a typically gray British summer, but at least the BBC Proms are shining brightly. And if anyone needs convincing that classical music can still draw a crowd, they need look no further than this July 18 Prom at … » Read

COOPERSTOWN, NY—The Glimmerglass Festival, located in a decidedly rural area of upstate New York, began rather humbly in 1975 with four performances of La Bohème in a high school auditorium. That opera returned this summer to open … » Read

LONDON—How to fathom the unknowable? Gustav Mahler is one of history’s most complex and contradictory personalities, a man disarmingly naïve, intellectually profound, blunt to the point of rudeness, dictatorial, … » Read