Giancarlo Andretta conducts the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Choir and a fine team of soloists led by Tatiana Serjan's Abigaille into an exhilarating Nabucco.
New York Philharmonic, under the strong leadership of its incoming music director, demonstrated that they can perform opera as well as symphonies in an impressive performance of Act 1 of Die Walküre.
The Philadelphia Orchestra presented an exciting and fresh performance of Swan Lake selections and Bluebeard's Castle, led by its energetic music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Liudmyla Monstyrska and John Relyea turn in strong performances and Plácido Domingo confirms his hallowed status, but Daniele Abbado's direction remains unappealing in this first revival.
Haydn’s late, lofty achievement has the august quality of a masterwork, coupled with cheerfulness befitting a summer series that ends in the month of August.
Amber Wagner sings Elisabeth with a deepened command and an access to a horizon of sound that make it seem as though her throat had found six more inches of release. It’s a phenomenal performance.
Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas deserves credit for this excellent semi-staged version of Britten's Peter Grimes performed with the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin kept the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra sounding especially lively and cohesive in this revival of Otto Schenk's enchanting production of Rusalka, starring Renée Fleming as the water nymph and Piotr Beczala as her lover.
When one hears an Esa-Pekka Salonen interpretation one expects no less than a keen and original approach tempered by an incredible ear for accuracy. This no doubt comes from his prolific work as a composer, work which has of late dominated his professional life.The sound he pulled from the cello section to open tonight’s concert of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde was breathtakingly withdrawn.
Robert le diable’s 1831 opening was perhaps the most successful opera première of all time. Meyerbeer was lauded by luminaries like Chopin, Dumas, Balzac and Heinrich Heine, the opera was played in 69 cities in its first two years and spawned an entire genre of French Grand Opera.
The venerable Viennese tradition of airing dirty operatic laundry in public found an unlikely proponent this season in the form of the Theater an der Wien’s mild-mannered director Roland Geyer, who, unhappy with William Friedkin’s production of The Tales of Hoffmann in March, abruptly sacked the American director and announced he would devise a new staging himself a matter of months before the
One of the questions this opera poses for any director is how to link the 'tales' of Hoffmann's three lost loves together and knit them satisfactorily into the Prologue and Epilogue.
Sous la direction de Tugan Sokhiev, l'Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse proposent une interprétation puissante et minutieuse de La Damnation de Faust. Au sein du plateau vocal, les Chœurs de l'institution toulousaine se distinguent.
L'Opéra de Lyon a le vent en poupe, multipliant depuis quelques années les programmations audacieuses. Lever de rideau avec un Mefistofele déroutant, mis en scène par Àlex Ollé.
La très attendue mise en scène de La flûte enchantée de Mozart au Festival d'opéra de Québec a valu un triomphe au metteur en scène Robert Lepage, qui a procédé à un véritable dépoussièrage de l'œuvre.
La Philharmonie de Paris accueillait l’Orchestre du Conservatoire supérieur de Paris encadré par l'Ensemble Intercontemporain, pour une soirée consacrée à Ligeti, Kurtag et Bartók.
Albert Boadella queda lejos de revitalizar el Don Carlo de Verdi en esta representación de El Escorial, despejando muy levemente la consabida leyenda negra que lo rodea desde su origen y que sigue resplandeciendo. Un compacto equipo vocal salva los muebles de una representación un tanto pretenciosa.
