Review: SAUL, Glyndebourne Festival
by Aliya Al-Hassan - Jun 9, 2025
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. This staging is opera at its most theatrical, with severed heads, a breast-feeding witch, a gay subplot and more twerking than a Beyoncé concert.
Winner: World Premiere Recording of Kaija Saariaho's ARIANA MATER under Salonen Wins Opera Grammy
by Richard Sasanow - Feb 4, 2025
ARIANA MATER, the opera by Kaija Saariaho, who died last summer at 70, won this year's Grammy for Best Opera Recording, for the Deutsche Grammophon recording issued last August. With its libretto by Amin Maalouf, the production by Peter Sellars features the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus under Esa-Pekka Salonen and mezzo Fleur Barron in the title role.
THE LITTLE BIG THINGS Leads our Top Ten London Shows for September
by Aliya Al-Hassan - Sep 1, 2023
The nights are getting shorter, the swimming trunks are being packed away and you probably have bought some new pens and pencils. September is here and promises some amazing theatre to come. Check out our top ten recommendations for theatre in London this month.
Royal Opera House Reveals 2023/24 International Cinema Season
by Stephi Wild - May 24, 2023
The Royal Opera House has announced that its next Cinema Season will comprise of 13 productions, eight of which will be broadcast to screens across the globe. The programme offers audiences the best seat in the house – sharing the joy of live performance, and the beauty of world class art, with cinema goers in more than 50 countries around the world.
The Royal Opera House Reveals 2023/24 Season
by Stephi Wild - Apr 26, 2023
The Royal Opera House has announced its 2023/24 Season, unveiling a bold programme of thrilling new work, UK premieres and much-loved revivals, alongside the biggest national learning programme in our history, exciting new regional partnerships, and a host of daytime events, behind the scenes tours, exhibitions and artistic Insights at our home in the heart of Covent Garden.
LA Opera Announces 2019/20 Season
by Stephi Wild - Jan 27, 2019
Placido Domingo has announced the company's 2019/20 season. The season will include six mainstage operas, one musical, one recital and one concert presented at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with additional performances presented in other venues through the company's Off Grand initiative.
Houston Grand Opera's 2019-20 Season Features A Lineup Of Seven Productions Never Before Seen By Houston Audiences
by A.A. Cristi - Jan 21, 2019
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its 2019-20 season with a broad repertoire of operas in productions that have never been seen by Houston audiences. The 65th season will open October 18, 2019, with Verdi's classic Rigoletto. Tomer Zvulun returns to direct the season opener after successfully opening the 2018-19 season with his production of The Flying Dutchman. American baritone Brian Mulligan sings his first Rigoletto leading an outstanding cast filled with renowned HGO Studio alumni, including Mexican tenor Arturo Chacon-Cruz as the Duke of Mantua and Armenian soprano Mane Galoyan as Gilda. Paired with Rigoletto is the North American premiere of the dramatic oratorio Saul in a much-lauded and imaginative production by Barrie Kosky. Christopher Purves returns to the title role after his celebrated performance at the Glyndebourne Festival and is joined by countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen and Korean soprano Pureum Jo, both HGO Studio alumni.
Norfolk & Norwich Festival Announces Full 2018 Programme
by Stephi Wild - Mar 1, 2018
Norfolk & Norwich Festival has today announced the full programme for its 2018 Festival (11 - 27 May). The programme, which spans performance, theatre, music, visual arts, literature, circus, outdoor and family events, includes world and UK premieres, one-off spectaculars, and a host of free events across the Festival. The Festival will showcase renowned international artists from across the globe and countries as widespread as Syria, Australia and India, alongside the best local Norfolk and UK talent presented across the county, from Norwich city centre and Great Yarmouth to Wells-next-the-Sea.
BWW Review: There's 'GOLD in Them Thar Hills as NY Philharmonic and Gilbert Take on Wagner's Gods
by Richard Sasanow - Jun 5, 2017
Just after hearing the wonderfully well sung, semi-staged DAS RHEINGOLD at the NY Philharmonic, under departing Music Director Alan Gilbert, I saw the current Broadway revival of THE LITTLE FOXES. It seemed Richard Wagner's gods and Lillian Hellman's Hubbards had lots in common: The small-minded, self-serving gods of this production, at least, could have been friends and neighbors of the mendacious, corrupt Southerners in Hellman's play (or even of a would-be-royal family in Washington, DC).