Alfred Walker News

Opera Philadelphia announced its 2026-2027 season, featuring five new productions including works by Mozart, Verdi, and the Gershwins, plus world and Philadelphia premieres of new operas.

The Dallas Opera (TDO) will release select operas from past seasons for free, on-demand viewing via its YouTube channel. Productions were recorded live at the Winspear Opera House, and each will be available for one month from May through August 2026.

The American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and the Bard Festival Chorale perform a seldom-heard presentation of Hector Berlioz's 1841 version of Carl Maria von Weber's Romantic opera Der Freischütz at Carnegie Hall.

When I read that the Met, in the program notes for James Robinson’s production of PORGY AND BESS, called it “a supremely American operatic masterpiece” I couldn’t help but think of Stephen Sondheim’s answer (perhaps apocryphal) when he was asked whether SWEENEY TODD was an opera or a musical: “If it’s done in a theatre, it’s a musical; if it’s in an opera house, it’s an opera.”

The Metropolitan Opera has released first look videos of their new production of Porgy & Bess. Conducted by Kwamé Ryan, the Gershwins’ great American classic returns to the Met, featuring electrifying choreography by Camille A. Brown.

Lyric Opera of Chicago launches its 71st season with the company premiere of Luigi Cherubini’s Medea, opening Saturday, October 11, 2025, at the Lyric Opera House.

Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2025/26 Season will kick off with a searing tale of vengeance and betrayal: Cherubini’s Medea. Learn more and see how to purchase tickets here!

Though Bedrich Smetana’s DALIBOR—seen this week at Bard SummmerStage in a wonderful production by Jean-Romain Vesperini, with an ingenious set design by Bruno de Lavenere, a fine cast and the American Symphony Orchestra in impeccable form under Leon Botstein—was reputedly the composer’s favorite among his eight operas, it was a failure at its opening in Prague in 1868. There was never a fully staged production in this country until this current one. (I saw the July 30 matinee.)

Cincinnati Opera has unveiled the full lineup for its 2026 Summer Festival, running June 18 through August 2 at Cincinnati Music Hall. The announcement was made live from the Music Hall stage by Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director Evans Mirageas.

There’s an old expression, “A lawyer who defends himself has a fool for a client.” While John Adams didn’t decide to take on the libretto for his latest opera, Monday night’s Met premiere, ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, all on his own, I wonder whether he might have bypassed the one resource that might have been most useful: Arrigo Boito.

Saratoga Performing Arts Center has announced the return of The Philadelphia Orchestra to its summer home in Saratoga for a three-week residency from August 6–August 23.

Palm Beach Opera has revealed the casts for its 2025 season with Gounod's ROMÉO ET JULIETTE, and more featuring acclaimed artists and debuts at the Kravis Center. See full programming and learn how to purchase tickets.

The Bard Music Festival will present a celebration of French Romantic composer Berlioz with 11 themed concerts, 5 livestreams, and more, starting August 9.

Meyerbeer’s LE PROPHÈTE will return to the U.S. stage for the first time in 47 years with a new treatment by Christian Räth at Bard SummerScape. Learn how to purchase tickets.

The Metropolitan Opera’s Summer HD Festival will return to Lincoln Center Plaza this August. See full programming and learn how to attend!

Experience the magic of the MET's 2024 Live in HD Summer Encores, set to begin on Wednesday, July 24. Learn how to purchase tickets!

This August, the Bard Music Festival returns for its 34th season with an intensive two-week exploration of “Berlioz and His World.” In eleven themed concert programs, the festival examines the life and times of visionary French composer Hector Berlioz, whose grand-scale works, startling sonorities, and advanced literary leanings helped redefine musical Romanticism.

As a highlight of the 2024 Bard SummerScapefestival, the Fisher Center at Bard presents the first new American production in almost five decades of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Le prophète, an all-too-topical grand opera in which religion, politics, and power collide.

Watch as Soprano Janai Brugger gives us a taste of Cherubini’s heady score for MADEA, exquisitely brought to life in this excerpt from her Act I aria “O Amore, vieni a me!'

The first night of the Met’s revival of Puccini’s LA RONDINE (THE SWALLOW) was filled with surprises of one sort or another, under the baton of that smart conductor, Speranza Scappucci. She knows her way around Puccini and deserves to be heard more frequently at the house. The production had glamour through Art Deco-ish scenic design by Ezio Frigerio, with lighting by Duana Schuler and costumes by Franca Squarciapino.