At 26, Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, who made his New York Philharmonic debut last week, is a year older than Leonard Bernstein was when he first appeared with the orchestra, as a replacement for Bruno Walter in a broadcast … » Read

MILAN--Given the tragic war in Ukraine, the choice of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov to open the season of Italy’s leading opera house would seem unfortunate. But opera bookings are made years in advance; not even a moving plea from … » Read

LONDON--Given its recent woes, it was heartening to feel the love for English National Opera at this December 8 concert performance of Benjamin Britten’s Gloriana . Not only did the company receive several rounds of applause before the … » Read

MILAN--Francesco Cavalli composed Eliogabalo in 1667, intending to premiere it during the Venetian Carnival  the following year. That never happened. In fact, it would take over 300 years for the opera to first see the light of day, in 1999 … » Read

MILAN—On Nov. 26, Naples’s famed the Teatro di San Carlo was due to open its season with a highly anticipated new production of Don Carlo , staged by Claus Guth before an illustrious audience including Italy’s foreign and … » Read

Rafael Payare, a conductor on the rise, made his debut with the New York Philharmonic last week and brought with him a work never before played by the orchestra. This in itself would not be particularly unusual, except that the work was a … » Read

LONDON—John Wilson and his resurrected Sinfonia of London have been gathering numerous plaudits over the four brief years of their existence, albeit mostly for work on disc. This December 2 live outing at London’s Barbican Center was … » Read

A second outing on disc for a contemporary opera is cause enough for celebration, but a new recording of Anthony Davis’s game changing X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X is surely a red-letter day. Premiered in 1985, X tells the life story … » Read

LONDON--Ralph Vaughan Williams and Michael Tippett might seem odd bedfellows, yet both men were committed socialists who devoted much time to community music-making. Not only that, despite Vaughan Williams’s committed service during World … » Read

When Renée Fleming bid a fond farewell to the Met Opera in 2017, singing her final Marschallin in Rosenkavalier , she did say that she might return one day should the right project come along. That it has, in the form of The Hours , Kevin … » Read