CHICAGO—In June 2011 Riccardo Muti closed his first season as Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director with a riveting concert version of Verdi’s Otello . I still remember cowering in my seat during the opening storm scene, fearful … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—The flames are already flickering as the overture begins in the new production of Don Giovanni directed by Michael Cavanagh at San Francisco Opera. Set and projection designer Erhard Rom’s accompanying visuals establish … » Read

LONDON--Ten years have passed since the current boss of Garsington Opera took over and transformed it from a middling country house festival into a plausible pretender to the Glyndebourne throne. During his tenure, the charismatic Scottish … » Read

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine gave this year’s edition of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition a distinctively political dimension. After organizers agreed to welcome the 15 (out of 72) Russian-born contenders to the U.S for … » Read

Edvard Grieg’s widely popular Peer Gynt is most often performed in one of the composer’s two orchestral suites (written in 1888 and 1893), derived from the incidental music he wrote for Heinrik Ibsen’s 1876 play of the same … » Read

CHICAGO—Haymarket Opera Company, a small Chicago troupe presenting Baroque opera on period instruments, doesn’t shy away from big challenges. Last year, in the middle of the pandemic, the company celebrated its tenth anniversary with … » Read

It’s best not to look too closely at the plots of classical ballets. Rather than try to reason through the unrequited relationships, fairies, and blurred lines between animals and humans, it’s better to just let the stories be what … » Read

For 75 years, the Ojai Music Festival, located in the Ojai Valley north of Los Angeles, has presented a three-day weekend packed full of performances curated by a music director chosen for a one-year term. More often than not, an individual has … » Read

LONDON--With its quaint local color and swirling cinematic dramaturgy, The Adventures of Mr. Broucek is the trickiest of Janácek’s operas to pull off. Get it wrong and it comes across as a rambling bit of folkish whimsy, or worse, an … » Read

Before Awakenings was a new opera by Tobias Picker, premiering at Opera Theater of St. Louis last week, it was a ballet, with a score also by Picker (completely different from the opera), as well as a 1990 film starring Robert DeNiro, and the … » Read