TRISTAN AND ISOLDE

The foray of the Met Orchestra under Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin into the concert hall the other night—Carnegie Hall to be specific, during its “Fall of the Weimar” series—was in some ways like a three-part meal that mixed the order of the courses. First came an appetizer (running less than 10 minutes) in the form of Bach’s “Fuga [Ricercata] a 6 voci” from Musical Offering, BWV 1079, a late work by the composer (1747) rethought by Anton Webern in the 20th century. Then there was dessert ...

Another year, another Met season without Jonas Kaufmann. Sigh. What’s a music lover to do? His current set of performances is at the Park Avenue Armory’s Drill Hall--in a staged production by Claud Guth, commissioned by the Armory, of Schubert lieder, under the title DOPPELGANGER. It's an evening of autumnal chill through words and music that were “anxious and heavy,” through a heart “utterly alone.”...

​​​​​​​Wagner's soaring masterpiece Lohengrin returns to the Met stage after 17 years, in a new production by internationally renowned director François Girard. The production runs from February 26th-April 1st....

Canadian bass-baritone John Relyea, who just ended a highly acclaimed run as Boris Ismailov in the Met's production of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, will also be singing the role of the Grand Inquisitor in all of the Met's upcoming performances of Verdi's Don Carlo, which opens on November 3....

The Met has announced the Week 22 schedule for its Nightly Met Opera Streams, a free series of encore Live in HD presentations and classic telecasts streamed on the company website during the coronavirus closure....

The Met has announced the Week 17 schedule for its Nightly Met Opera Streams, a free series of encore Live in HD presentations and classic telecasts streamed on the company website during the coronavirus closure....

Staatsoper Hamburg has suspended most of its performances between September and December....

Some people dream of a White Christmas--or at least an end to the horrors of COVID-19 and a semblance of life returned to normal. I'll drink to that. But high on my list of events I'm hoping to hear in a world turned back on its feet, is the return of Richard Strauss's DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN to the Met....

When New Yorkers last saw a concert performance of Act II of Wagner's TRISTAN UND ISOLDE--in the spring of 2018 with the Boston Symphony under Nelsons--a major singer was trying on one of the title characters for size. That was tenor Jonas Kaufmann. This time, it was Isolde who was ready for her closeup, with soprano Christine Goerke in a can't-wait-for-the-whole-opera performance, under Gianandrea Noseda with the Washington Symphony at Lincoln Center's White Light Festival....

San Francisco Opera presents Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, November 15–December 7....

San Francisco Opera presents Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, November 15–December 7. Last seen on the War Memorial Opera House stage nearly two decades ago, the popular fairy-tale opera returns in an “enchanting” (The Times, UK) new co-production with London's Royal Opera by director and production designer Antony McDonald. Humperdinck's sweeping score will be conducted by Christopher Franklin and sung in English translation by a cast including mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as Hansel, Hei...