Arrestingly effective: Dead Man Walking at Minnesota Opera

In a highly effective stage presentation, the Minnesota Opera tells Jules Massenet’s story of two personalities whose spiritual journeys are like two ships passing in the night.

Don Pasquale is updated to 1950s Hollywood, delivering clever staging and slapstick humor while sacrificing none of Donizetti's musical artistry.

Highly idiomatic and effective singing by Greer Grimsley, Denyce Graves and other cast members, coupled with inventive stagecraft wizardry, make the Minnesota Opera's first-ever Rheingold a memorable production.

During Verdi’s bicentenary month and year, it’s fitting that Opera Philadelphia kicked off its 2013/14 season with the work that Verdi himself considers as having launched his own career – Nabucco. Written at a time when Italy longed to be free of foreign rule, Verdi’s name and the expression “Viva Verdi” became synonymous with Italian nationalism and unification.

Leaving unresolved loose ends aside and viewed from a child’s perspective, Joel Ivany’s new Hänsel und Gretel at the Canadian Opera Company it’s a fun night at the opera.

Against the Grain's production of Vivier's Kopernikus is an immersive and thought provoking realisation of the composer's late Opera – rituel de mort. It's music theatre of a rare intensity, brilliantly executed.