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Very few singers can hold an audience in the palm of their hand the way Brenda Rae as Marie does in this rollicking frolic. 

David Angus leads a taut, spirited performance, but Steve Maler’s staging of Verdi's first Shakespearean opera raises many questions. 

The composer's magnum opus, unjustly neglected in English-speaking countries, receives magnificent treatment from Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, anchored by David Butt Philip and Christine Goerke.

Conducting a reduced version of his own opera, Matthew Aucoin's Eurydice still packs a big punch. 

Impeccable ensemble work in Dawn M Simmons' first foray into opera. 

Boston Lyric Opera decamps to a 1919 wharf shed for a production of Bartók's eerie two-hander, framed by four of Alma Mahler's songs. 

Yuval Sharon’s production of La bohème turns the opera upside down... with captivating consequences.

The white hot intensity and conviction of the duet between Santuzza and Turiddu encapsulated the strengths of this performance.

An opening night of Gregory Spears' opera is more like a dress rehearsal in Boston. 

David Lefkowich takes Pagliacci into the big top for a contemporary treatment at the the Steriti Rink.

Jennifer Johnson Cano’s stamina and total commitment were exceptional in the East Coast premiere of Poul Ruders' opera. 

Boston Lyric Opera, with the approval of Bernstein's estate, recast Arias and Barcarolles as the further musings of Sam and Dinah. 

Muted portrayals dilute the danger of the work, but excellent singing saves the performance. 

Despite its title, the victims dominate Julian Grant and Mark Campbell’s caustic one-act opera. 

Boston Lyric Opera’s production of Le nozze di Figaro boasted a young, capable, and energetic cast, a lively staging, and an intimate venue to put it all across. 

If you think you know Carmen, think you know Calixto Bieto, then you definitely should head to the Opera House and have your eyes opened on both counts.

A complex portrait of obsessive and destructive passion.

In James MacMillan’s Clemency, three strangers visit Abraham and Sarah. The aging couple make them welcome and receive the news that Sarah will bear a son – to Sarah’s disbelief. They appear to be angels, coming to bless the couple. But as the travelers prepare to leave, they reveal that their next stop is one of condemnation. The people of the twin towns, Sodom and Gomorrah, will be destroyed.

Boston Lyric Opera opened a new production of Madama Butterfly on Thursday night, with gorgeous results. From the beautifully articulated set to the connection of the singers, the production was clean and inspired. While the music and the libretto go unchanged, different productions bring out different aspects of the well-loved opera. In one, Butterfly’s lost honor may be central to the retelling.

Just as it seemed that contemporary American opera had sworn off melody completely, composer John Musto brings us The Inspector. Paired with Mark Campbell's brightly comic libretto, Musto's score sweeps the hilarious plot along, punctuated by clever musical references and familiar tunes.

Boston Lyric Opera's production of The Barber of Seville looks, sounds and feels like a storybook come to life. Wildly improbable and completely over the top, the story recounts the antics of Count Almaviva and his quest to win the love of Rosina, freeing her from her vile guardian in the process.

In 1900, a relief ship arrived at a lighthouse in Northern Scotland's Orkney Islands, and discovered the three lightkeepers had gone missing without a trace. Peter Maxwell Davies' opera The Lighthouse takes this moment of history and explores the possibilities of what may have happened. It is a stormy ride of shifting identities, guilt and fear.

Imagine a tattered red curtain, blocking the set but revealing several bodies, bound head to toe in grey, hanging from the ceiling by their feet. It looks like the home of a malevolent, human spider - its prey a silent presence overhead. This is the opening of Verdi's Macbeth, at Boston Lyric Opera.

From the opening glissandos of Britten's opera, we know this is not Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Where the Mendelssohn / Balanchine ballet is romantic, dreamy and reminiscent of an illustrated fairytale, Britten's opera borders on the nightmarish and eerie.

By all rights, Agrippina should be a tragedy. It begins with news of Claudius' death and ends with a roll call of doom, with political intrigue, power struggles, infidelity and dysfunction filling in the blanks. The Roman Empire is rife with opera fodder, and operas are rife with tales of Greek gods and Roman heroes (and anti-heroes).