FRANCE & SPAIN--The Ravel Festival’s three weeks of late summer offerings took place in a range of Basque Country locales—in a farmhouse in the Spanish resort town of San Sebastian, on September 3 [see The Ravel Festival, Part I … » Read

FRANCE & SPAIN— Almost as old as the Pyrenees Mountains that loom above it, the Basque community nestles in the crook where southwest France meets the north coast of Spain. The Basques are fiercely proud and protective of their ancient … » Read

HONG KONG – Jaap van Zweden’s season-opening program with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra last weekend, intended to celebrate the music director’s first appearance here since September 2021, lost much of its thunder due … » Read

It was Nietzsche who suggested that Bayreuth was a werkstatt , or workshop. And in the past few decades, the festival has been transformed into a laboratory for experimental productions featuring highly advanced forms of  Regietheater, where … » Read

LONDON—The announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II caused the Royal Opera House to cancel its September 8 performance of Don Giovanni with the audience already seated. On September 9 it was determined to go ahead with a revival of … » Read

CHICAGO—Once the curtain goes up, most opera lovers have little trouble suspending belief. A change of heart by a ruthless king who suddenly decides to pardon a gang of assassins gathered to kill him? Check. After heaping scorn on unwelcome … » Read

Last year Michael Spyres appeared in New York with another tenor of notable bel canto accomplishment, Lawrence Brownlee, in a dazzling, even over-the-top display of vocal acrobatics by each. The event had the added attraction of revealing … » Read

BAYREUTH—As described  yesterday in Part I, the first two operas of the Bayreuth Festspiele’s new Ring Cycle unfolded as a mix of a few powerful ideas brought down by silly, outlandish gestures, the entire cycle reimagined as … » Read

PORTLAND, OR—Philip Glass’s The Fall of the House of Usher , based on the classic horror story by Edgar Allen Poe, received a fresh interpretation that successfully blurred the lines of repressed sexuality in a new production for … » Read

BAYREUTH—Richard Wagner created this festival and designed its festspielehaus, specifically for his Ring cycle. Always been run by the composer’s descendants (currently his great-granddaughter Katarina), the venerable event has … » Read