LONDON—Opera Holland Park has a reputation as an operatic lifesaver, resuscitating the neglected, and even at times resurrecting the dead. Its double bill of Delius’s scarcely heard of, let alone heard Margot la Rouge and … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—Charles Jennens’s Biblically based libretto for Handel’s 1745 oratorio Belshazzar stakes out its agenda in straightforward terms. Held captive in Babylon by the title character, the Judeans are freed by Cyrus the … » Read

SEATTLE—A gripping performance of the Verdi Requiem last month not only served as the Seattle Symphony’s (SSO) season finale but drew a double bar over a year marked by turbulent change. Thomas Dausgaard’s abrupt resignation as … » Read

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY—Operatic might-have-beens are a centerpiece of the Bard SummerScape’s annual season, the 2022 entry being Die Schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman) in a brave production that makes an almost-best-possible case … » Read

AIX-EN-PROVENCE—There was a determination on the part of Artistic Director Pierre Audi and the city fathers of Aix to mount a full-on festival in 2022 after the difficulties of the last two years, and they more than delivered on their … » Read

Last weekend at Tanglewood saw “youth in ascendance,” writes Jeremy Eichler in The Boston Globe . Friday night’s star was Karina Canellakis, the young American conductor whose debut last year won rave reviews for “a … » Read

PORTLAND--As part of its “Inspirations & Influences” Summer Festival, Chamber Music Northwest presented composer Andy Akiho’s multimedia 2021 work Seven Pillars to a sold-out crowd at the Alberta Rose Theater, a converted … » Read

Louisa May Alcott was born in 19th-century Massachusetts into a family whose intellectual liberal circle included Whitman, Emerson, and Thoreau. Educated and opinionated, her semi-autobiographical novels, starting with Little Women , were written … » Read

LENOX, MA-- A Standing Witness is a collection of powerful, serious, and important political poems by Pulitzer Prize-winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, composed by Grammy-winner Richard Danielpour. Both attended its performance July … » Read

The one-off concert in Caramoor’s Spanish Courtyard on July 21 was titled for its trio of composer/performers--Caroline Shaw, Angélica Negrón, Raquel Acevedo Klein—but might have more aptly been called “Songs from … » Read