"Keep it pretty, keep it shallow, keep it moving" is the stated credo of drag artist Justin Vivian Bond at the start of Only an Octave Apart , a cabaret collaboration with countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn … » Read

LONDON--“All things fall and are built again, and those that build them again are gay.” The words, from W.B. Yeats’s poem Lapis Lazuli , were borrowed by Michael Tippett to conclude his audacious first opera The Midsummer … » Read

LOS ANGELES – “Breathe easy” reads the Los Angeles Opera’s program book. The reference is to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion’s new air filtration system, which earned the first UL “healthy building” rating … » Read

In his review of the Ojai Music Festival, Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed sees very little lost in its move this year from June to September, necessitated by the pandemic and, as he puts it, “The damn Delta variant.” Otherwise, the … » Read

CHICAGO—Opera is probably the most gender-fluid performing art. Yes, Sarah Bernhardt played Hamlet in 1899, and a few years ago Glenda Jackson tackled King Lear. Male swans fill the stage in choreographer Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake . … » Read

CHICAGO—After 18 months of no live performances Friday night’s opening of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2021-22 season would have been a gala event in its own right. But Verdi’s Macbeth held even more resonance. It was the … » Read

LONDON -- Oliver Mears succeeded Kasper Holten as the Royal Opera’s director of opera in 2017, but advance scheduling and the pandemic has delayed his mainstage directorial debut with the company until now. With Covent Garden reopening to … » Read

Is it a day at the beach? A ship of fools? The end of the world? All such answers—and more—are appropriate to Sun & Sea , the category-defying installation (for lack of a better word) in which 13 singers lounge on … » Read

MILAN--Italy has organized an array of initiatives to mark the ongoing 700th anniversary year of Dante Alighieri’s death, but one stands out for its originality. In Padua’s lavishly frescoed Salone del Palazzo della Ragione, Il … » Read

CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK: I’ve spent the last several months editing reviews by critics who have been lucky enough to get back into the concert hall. One after another—London, Los Angeles, Paris--each reported the joy of the return, of being … » Read