COVENT GARDEN

It’s hard to compete with a dazzling concert hall like Barcelona’s Palau de la Musica Catalana—designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, one of Antonio Gaudi’s contemporaries in the modernista style. Or, with the famed Catalan (yes, not Spanish) diva Victoria de los Angeles, a Met favorite, whose centenary was being celebrated. Nonetheless, Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho did quite impressively in her house debut at the Palau with the Franz Schubert Filharmonia under Tomas Grau....

Maria Callas—or Maria Anna Cecilia Sofia Kalogeropoulos—was born in New York City on December 2, 1923. She was a supernova who blazed across the opera world (and beyond) and it will never be the same. If you need proof, take a listen to the Warner Classes/Erato boxed set, “La Divina: Maria Callas In All Her Roles,” which was issued in September, consisting of 131 CDs of La Callas in all her 74 roles....

Tobias Picker's new opera 'Lili Elbe' will be streaming on OperaVision starting on December 8. Don't miss this captivating production....

An historic recording of golden age tenor Richard Tucker singing “Sound an Alarm” from Handel’s JUDAS MACCABEUS” set the tone for the Richard Tucker Music Foundation’s Gala concert at Carnegie Hall. There was wonderful singing ahead of us—but of a certain kind. Like many other classical organizations, the Tucker Foundation, has found that, as Charles Dickens said in “A Tale of Two Cities,” “It was the best of times, the worst of times.” The “best” is for the quality of the singers that the foun...

​​​​​​​Ivo van Hove, the Tony Award–winning director of Broadway's A View from the Bridge, makes a major Met debut with Mozart's Don Giovanni (May 5–June 2), re-setting the familiar tale of deceit and damnation in an abstract architectural landscape and shining a light into the work's dark corners....

American Ballet Theatre returns to the Metropolitan Opera House with four stories of love for its 2023 Summer season, June 22–July 22. The season will feature the New York Premiere of two-time Tony Award-winner Christopher Wheeldon's Like Water for Chocolate, as well as full-length classics Giselle, Swan Lake, and Romeo and Juliet.  General public on sale for ABT's 2023 Summer season begins on Monday, April 24 at 12:00 P.M. at the Metropolitan Opera House box office. ...

You’ve got to admit that the Met had a lot of guts to dedicate this season’s performances of Vincenzo Bellini’s NORMA (libretto by Felice Romani) to the memory of Maria Callas on the 100th anniversary of her birth. Hers was simply one of the most legendary portrayals of the role, by a fabled singer. Period. But Yoncheva--and her costars--pulled off the performance with aplomb and made the Met audience very happy indeed....