Review: 'JOSEPHINE' & 'PAGLIACCI' at Union Avenue Opera
A powerful double-bill.
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Review: Out Damned Spot—But Hello to Teatro Nuovo’s Unusual MACBETH!
I must admit that I was a little disappointed when I read that this season’s offerings from Will Crutchfield’s Teatro Nuovo featured a couple of familiar titles: Verdi’s MACBETH and Bellini’s LA SONNAMBULA, particularly the former, which one doesn’t think of in the domain of bel canto, the
Review: LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, Opera Holland Park
Jennifer France gives everything in a role demanding bel canto singing and bloody revenge
Review: LA TRAVIATA, Opera Holland Park
Now on its third revival, Rodula Gaitanou's heart-stopping version of Verdi's tragic La Traviata is as affecting as ever.
Review: FALSTAFF, Glyndebourne Festival
Adapted from Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, director Richard Jones’s glorious Falstaff makes a welcome return to Glyndebourne, losing none of its charm or deft comedy.
Review: SEMELE, Royal Ballet And Opera
Forget Arcadian landscapes and Corinthian columns.
Review: LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Glyndebourne Festival
You could be forgiven for thinking that there isn’t much more to be said about Le nozze di Figaro, the most performed opera in Glyndebourne’s history.
Review: TRIAL BY JURY/A MATTER OF MISCONDUCT!, Opera Holland Park
A thoughtfully selected double bill making up the operetta segment of Opera Holland Park’s summer season shows the genre at its technical best, but also illuminates its troubling shortcomings.
Review: Old Meets New at Lincoln Center, Mixing George Lewis and Monteverdi in THE COMET/POPPEA
The recent New York premiere of Yuval Sharon’s production of THE COMET/POPPEA at Lincoln Center kicked off the summer’s 5-week residency of the American Modern Opera Company (cheekily known as AMOC, after its penchant for taking a somewhat wild and crazy approach to the art form).
Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at Opera Theatre Of Saint Louis
Opera Theatre of St.
Review: MAZEPPA, Grange Park Opera
Even ardent opera fans may struggle to recall the story or the score for Mazeppa.
Review: Puccini’s TRITTICO Storms the Bastille, Giving Asmik Grigorian Three Times the Showcase
One of the operas at the top of my list for next season at the Met is the Deborah Warner staging of Tchaikovsky’s EUGENE ONEGIN that brings back soprano Asmik Grigorian for the first time since her 2024 debut in MADAMA BUTTERFLY.
Review: DON PASQUALE at Opera Theatre of St. Louis
Susanne Burgess sings Norina, the quintessential bel canto soprano role.
Review: SAUL, Glyndebourne Festival
Just how much fun can you have at an oratorio about a Old Testament tale of jealousy, madness and death? Well, quite a lot as it happens at the return of Barry Kosky's remarkable production of Handel's Saul.
Review: MADAMA BUTTERFLY, Grange Park Opera
Grange Park Opera has opened its new season with a crowd-pleaser.
Review: ITCH, Opera Holland Park
Opera Holland Park has never shied away from audacious programming, and with Jonathan Dove’s Itch, it plunges boldly into radioactive territory—literally.
Review: THIS HOUSE at Opera Theatre Of St. Louis
'This House', a world premiere opera at Opera Theatre of St.
Review: QUEEN OF SPADES at Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera's revival of Tchaikovsky’s *The Queen of Spades*, which opened on Friday, May 23, 2025, offered a visually opulent and musically ambitious evening, though not without its challenges.
Review: THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, Opera Holland Park
Stormy weather and an enthusiastic audience mark Julia Burbach’s The Flying Dutchman as it proves a smashing success to open the 2025 season of Opera Holland Park.
Review: DIE FLEDERMAUS at Opera Theatre Of St. Louis
For nearly half a century the Opera Theatre of St.
Review: PORGY AND BESS at Kennedy Center
The pivotal and star-crossed main characters and the Catfish Row community come alive in the highly influential, thought-provoking, and engrossing opera Porgy and Bess.
Review: FAUST, Royal Ballet And Opera
Celebrating its sixth revival, David McVicar’s critically acclaimed production of Faust is a spectacular success with stunning sets and costumes, a magnificent cast, and some of Gounod’s greatest music.
Review: Kevin Puts Has Georgia (and Alfred) on His Mind in BRIGHTNESS at NY Philharmonic
This past weekend, composer Kevin Puts’s BRIGHTNESS OF LIGHT, based on the long, abundant correspondence of artist Georgia O’Keeffe and photographer/gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, had its long overdue New York premiere, with the New York Philharmonic under debuting conductor Brett Mitchell, and sop
Review: New Cast, Great Fun at Met’s BARBIERE
When mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina stepped on stage in the Met’s new production of CARMEN, back on New Year’s Eve of 2023, it was hard to imagine her in any other role because of the way she completely inhabited it.
Review: IL BARBIÈRE DI SIVIGLIA, Glyndebourne Festival
Opera buffa is an ever-popular genre of the art, and more than two centuries after its composition, Rossini's Il barbière di Siviglia remains one this genre's most often staged operas.
