John Relyea

English National Opera closes its troubled, but successful, 2023-24 season with Bartok's curious compelling slice of psychodrama beautifully played by its orchestra

The final five programs of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2023–2024 season, led by BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons, celebrate the commissioning legacy of Serge Koussevitzky, highlight some of the greatest living composers of our time, and bring acclaimed soloists back to Symphony Hall, including Yuja Wang and Hilary Hahn.  

It’s odd to watch an opera where the actual opera is an afterthought. At least that’s how it feels watching Simon McBurney’s The Magic Flute. His revival production sizzles with circus spectacle, high tech pageantry, and boundary breaking chutzpah. But underneath it all you’ll be hard pressed to find the warmth of a beating heart.

The 2024–25 Season includes six mainstage opera productions along with concert presentations including a one-night-only performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on October 26, honoring the work's 200th anniversary and, in the summer of 2025, a special Pride Concert celebrating San Francisco's LGBTQIA+ community.

Closing the 2023/24 Season, the English National Opera will present a semi-staged concert performance of Béla Bartók’s psychodrama Duke Bluebeard’s Castle on 21 and 23 March at the London Coliseum.

The Royal Opera has announced full casting details for their upcoming tour in Japan in 2024. Find out who will be performing in this highly anticipated event. Find out who is in the cast of the company's upcoming productions!

San Francisco Opera Center Artistic Director Carrie-Ann Matheson and General Manager Markus Beam announced today the 11 recipients of the 2024 San Francisco Opera Adler Fellowship.

The Metropolitan Opera’s 2023 Summer HD Festival, an annual New York pastime, returns to Lincoln Center Plaza Saturday, August 26 through Monday, September 4.

The Metropolitan Opera has named bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green the winner of the 2023 Beverly Sills Artist Award, the second time that Green has received this honor. Previously, Green shared the award with four other artists in 2021, the season that had been canceled due to the pandemic.

Tenor Javier Camarena will be making his Met role debut as the Duke of Mantua in tonight’s final performance of Verdi’s Rigoletto, replacing Stephen Costello, who has withdrawn due to illness.

Last season, the company gave its first presentation of the French version (that’s the one called DON CARLOS, with a final S to his first name), in the five-act version that lasted almost 5 hours. This year, we’re back to Italian, under Carlo Rizzi’s firm baton, in one of a number of versions (this one running about 4 hours) of DON CARLO, which uses shortcuts to tell the story elements deleted with the excision of the first act (usually referred to as “the Fontainebleau scene”).

Tenor Benjamin Bernheim, one of Europe’s most sought-after tenors, will make his highly anticipated company debut when Verdi’s Rigoletto returns to the Met for 14 performances beginning November 10.

Verdi’s sweeping historical tragedy Don Carlo will return to the Metropolitan Opera for nine performances of the four-act Italian version November 3–December 3, 2022,  following the successful company premiere of the five-act French version last season.

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.

Afraid of Shostakovich? Don’t be. LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK is a glory to behold, in Graham Vick’s knockout production, designed and costumed by Paul Brown, staged this time by Paula Suozzi, with Ron Howell’s choreography. And there were times when the music, with the Met orchestra under the firm, smart baton of Keri-Lynn Wilson, almost sounded like, yes, Puccini, while it was clearly expressionist as well.

Yulia Matochkina will make her Met role debut as Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo, replacing Anita Rachvelishvili. Russian mezzo-soprano Yulia Matochkina, who made her Met debut last season as Maddalena in Verdi's Rigoletto, has previously sung Eboli at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, and the New National Theatre in Tokyo.

Maestro Keri-Lynn Wilson, following a triumphant tour leading the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra last summer, makes her Metropolitan Opera debut conducting Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for six performances beginning September 29.

Svetlana Sozdateleva will make her Met debut singing Katerina Ismailova in all performances of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, replacing Eva-Maria Westbroek.

Carlo Rizzi will return to The Metropolitan Opera to open the 2022/23 season, marking his 30th anniversary year with the Company.

Is there another Shakespearean drama filled with as many quotable quotes as “Hamlet” (even when they’re used out of context and given a foreign meaning)? But “To be or not to be” is surely the most referenced and, certainly, in the new operatic HAMLET currently at the Met by Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn, in Neil Armfield’s thoughtful, urgent production, it's given the best showcase. Indeed, it helps shed a different light on the hero of the story.