CINCINNATI—“Singing is back,” posters for the May Festival exclaimed—a sentiment echoed by conductor Robert Porco on stage Friday evening. After cancelling all activities in 2020, the country’s oldest choral festival … » Read

CHICAGO--The concert was short, but savoring the moment could not have been sweeter. Last weekend, for the first time in more than 14 months, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was back onstage at Symphony Center playing for a live audience. Given … » Read

LONDON--Considering the logistical nightmares of the U.K.’s current public health legislation, all kudos to Glyndebourne Festival for pulling off its second new staging in three days. Il Turco in Italia might not be Rossini’s greatest … » Read

Hard on the heels of Covent Garden’s May 17 return to live performance came U.K. opera’s second big event: the May 20 re-start of Glyndebourne headed by Damiano Michieletto’s penetrating new staging of Janácek’s … » Read

LONDON--Anticipation was certainly running high for this May 17 performance of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito , the first full staging at the Royal Opera House in front of a live audience since the onset of the global pandemic. While the work … » Read

Composer Scott Wheeler’s Naga (“snake,” in Chinese), is one of the three operas, each by a different composer, that form a cycle about a mercurial figure named Madame White Snake. She is an immortal demon, reincarnated as human … » Read

LOS ANGELES—We didn’t expect it so soon: a return to live performances by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the merry month of May. We didn’t expect to be reunited with old friends and colleagues in the … » Read

One unintended consequence of the pandemic was the “found” time it offered to those unable to pursue their normal duties. Hence someone as busy as Nicholas Kenyon, managing director of London’s Barbican Centre, and former … » Read

Contemporary music can be a prickly affair, but for those driven by the pleasure principle it’s nice to know there are some seriously thoughtful composers out there offering new music to listeners looking for a good time. That’s … » Read

The Vienna State Opera plans to open to live, if limited audiences on May 19. In the meantime, its COVID-era policy of presenting premieres to an empty auditorium continues with this April 29 streaming of Frank Castorf’s intriguing, … » Read