LONDON—Bucolic and genteel, the Glyndebourne Festival is synonymous with picnic hampers and champagne corks popping lazily in the sun. It’s seen as the playground of the idle rich but the truth lies deeper than that, for this elegant … » Read

LONDON—Founded in 1996, Opera Holland Park (OHP) is one of British opera’s success stories. The company’s 1,000-seat canopied auditorium abuts Holland House, a once bomb-damaged Jacobean mansion located in open parkland in the … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—Critical appreciation for Kaija Saariaho’s second opera, Adriana Mate r (and for her next two operas, as well) has lagged behind that for her first ( L’Amour de loin , 2000) and last (Innocence, 2018). But Adriana … » Read

LONDON--The Hallé has an unrivalled relationship with the music of Edward Elgar, and with The Dream of Gerontius in particular. Not only was the oratorio’s (notoriously underprepared) 1900 premiere led by the orchestra’s then … » Read

ATHENS – The Greek National Opera (GNO) opened the annual  Athens-Epidaurus Festival   on June 1 in the 5,000-seat Odeon of Herodes Atticus, an 1,800-year-old open-air performance space at the base of the Acropolis. An annual … » Read

LONDON—The years 1851-53 found Verdi in a hot vein of inspiration. Rigoletto and La traviata are indelible masterpieces in which Bel Canto and ardent romance merge into a potent mode of operatic expression; but what of Il trovatore ? Once … » Read

LONDON—Founded in 1989 by impresario Leonard Ingrams, Garsington Opera has a well-earned reputation as one of the U.K.’s savviest summer opera festivals. Relocating in 2011 to the grounds of Wormsley Park in the lush Oxfordshire … » Read

On May 16, at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, the Choir of Men and Boys (accompanied by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s) premiered its alumnus Trevor Weston’s American Lamentations , a 12-movement, 40-minute concert work confronting … » Read

GLYNDEBOURNE, East Sussex—Glyndebourne’s new Don Giovanni has divided the London critics and to be frank it has divided this critic too. Recent history is partly to blame: too many sub-par productions of an opera that has been dubbed … » Read

CHICAGO—In his final concerts as music director, Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra are sampling the best of all possible orchestral worlds. True, he won’t be ending his 13-year tenure in late June with a Verdi opera; … » Read