SAN FRANCISCO—As part of its cost-saving regimen, the San Francisco Symphony has said it will commission fewer new works in the future. But one that was already in the pipeline, Xavier Muzik’s Strange Beasts , received its world … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—What do you do when your audience can’t get enough of Yuja Wang? Feature her twice, on a single program. Marathon performances like the one on Feb. 16 at Davies Symphony Hall are nothing new for Wang. But her … » Read

LOS ANGELES—For Armenian-American composer Mary Kouyoumdjian, the prospect of transforming Atom Egoyan’s 2008 film Adoration into an opera—her first—must have seemed predestined. How could she resist? One of the main … » Read

LONDON—In recent years the U.K. has seen a steady rise in micro- Rings , pared back versions of Wagner’s epic four-parter delivered by increasingly smaller orchestral forces. Graham Vick and Jonathan Dove's boiled down ten-hour cycle … » Read

LONDON—Copland’s Third Symphony and Barber’s Violin Concerto may get regular outings in the U.S. but over here they count as rarities. This February 13 BBC Symphony Orchestra concert at London’s Barbican Centre was a … » Read

CHICAGO— Love was on Sondra Radvanovsky’s mind during a Valentine’s Day Eve recital— and not just because it was an all-Puccini program. It was more personal than that, she told a well-sold Lyric Opera house. Originally … » Read

CHICAGO—Somewhere, Pierre Boulez is turning in his grave. The Chicago Symphony enjoyed a long association with the conductor–composer, culminating in an appointment as conductor emeritus from 2006 to 2010. But in what would have … » Read

LONDON—Where to begin with Festen , the explosive new opera by Mark-Anthony Turnage? At the end, perhaps, when a dazed first-night audience staggered to its collective feet to applaud a tour de force? Or the moment in the 100-minute evening … » Read

LONDON—First staged in 1977, just four years after Death in Venice , Thea Musgrave’s Mary, Queen of Scots has had to wait 48 years for its London premiere. A commission from Scottish Opera, the original Edinburgh production was … » Read

LONDON—With the country’s premiere opera company officially changing its name to the Royal Ballet and Opera, a cross-artform collaboration seems apposite. This double bill, dubbed Phaedra + Minotaur and seen February 7 in their … » Read