LONDON--After years of relative neglect, Baroque opera has made a triumphant return to the Royal Opera House with two very different new shows opening within days of each other. Katie Mitchell’s spectacular interpretation of Handel’s … » Read

LONDON--Ever since Peter Sellars’s ground-breaking 1996 Glyndebourne production of Handel’s Theodora , it has been clear that the 65-year-old composer’s penultimate oratorio is not only a viable stage work but a gift to the … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO--When the COVID-19 crisis hit in 2020, musicians, like the rest of us, responded in various, ever-shifting ways. Some holed up in relative silence. Others took to online platforms. Depending on where they were, some ventured out and … » Read

LONDON--It’s rare to find more contemporary than traditional repertoire on a mainstream orchestra’s program, but that was the case with this anticipated January 28 BBC Symphony Orchestra concert at London’s Barbican Theater. … » Read

Opera, at its best, can take a simple story and lend it complexity and nuance. But with The Garden of the Finzi-Continis , which premiered on January 27 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan, composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist … » Read

Serbian composer Ana Sokolovic wrote Svadba , an opera for six female voices, back in 2011 for Toronto-based Queen of Puddings Music Theater. Two years later, Opera Philadelphia gave it a second staging as part of its cutting-edge Opera in the … » Read

MILAN--Teatro Massimo’s opening night on January 20 kicked off an entire season commemorating the 30th anniversary of a local tragedy: In May 1992, the Sicilian Mafia murdered Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone, leaders in the recently … » Read

LONDON--Thanks to a friendly media buzz there was goodwill aplenty ahead of Opera North’s new Rigoletto , but Femi Elufowoju Jr.’s ill-focused production failed to repay it. For a concept whose selling point is its contemporary … » Read

While live music making remains perilous, there’s still plenty to sink your teeth into on disc, much of it either newly minted or freshly rediscovered. For those seeking a little originality in artistically straitened times, here are four … » Read

Nobody was expecting a swan-song masterpiece at the January 23 rd New York premiere of Penelope , the quasi-opera by the late composer André Previn (he died on February 28, 2019) and playwright Tom Stoppard. Unlike their 1977 … » Read