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A strong cast and an inspiring production deliver the latest opera staged at the Rossini Opera Festival.

DSO music director Jader Bignamini leads his ensemble in the glory of Beethoven’s Ninth, prefaced by a recent work written as a companion piece to the symphony.

In one of his first assignments as Music Director in Detroit, Bignamini conducts rarely-heard works by two Americans, along with an 18th-century Classical symphony by the Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

Robert Wilson's Madama Butterfly is back in Amsterdam starring rising star Elena Stikhina as the doomed Cio-Cio-San.

 “The Minghella Butterfly” has physically lost none of its luster, but the singing did not live up to the staging.

Quinn Kelsey's Rigoletto is commanding, emotional and complex. His bass-baritone has all the qualities you could ask for – darkness and light.

With the double bicentenary of Verdi and Wagner this year, other musical landmarks risk being eclipsed. But this October “La Verdi” commemorate the 140th anniversary of Rachmaninov’s birth with a series of concerts and lectures featuring all four of his piano concertos alongside works by other Russian greats.