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The role of Elvira in Bellini’s I puritani contains the most challenging mad scenes in all opera, but soprano Lisette Oropesa dazzles on the opening night of Richard Jones’ new production.

In Barrie Kosky’s hyperactive staging, Il viaggio a Reims becomes a birthday tribute to Cecilia Bartoli complete with rewritten text, extravagant costumes, sexual escapades and a giant cake. 

Joyce El-Khoury saves the day in The Royal Opera’s second revival of The Sicilian Vespers in Stefan Herheim’s paint-by-numbers production. 

A good, mostly Italian cast brings alive one of the most famous productions by the great director Giorgio Strehler, under the baton of Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

The Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège takes a risk in mounting a new, but traditional production of the more rarely heard French version of Verdi’s Don Carlos and succeeds with a great ensemble of singers. 

A terrific cast takes on the latest revival of Kasper Holten’s video-infused staging of Mozart’s opera buffa.

Anja Harteros takes a while to hit her stride in a Don Carlo that doesn't quite gel.

The Royal Opera's revival of Phyllida Lloyd's production is marked by two outstanding Verdian singers and a superb rendering of the score from Pappano and the ROH Orchestra.

Dangling and turning like shards of a giant overhead chandelier in Don Giovanni’s banquet hall, this is an evocative multimedia production that tantalizes the senses while shining new light on Mozart's genius. 

According to director Sven-Eric Bechtolf,  Don Giovanni’s divine retribution for a life of pure evil and insatiable fornication is just more of the same.

Aleksandra Kurzak delivers a top drawer performance as Fiorilla, leading a star-studded cast as Evelino Pidò gives us a lesson in how to conduct Rossini in the latest revival of Il turco in Italia.

In a very silly production of Rossini's La Cenerentola at the Staatsoper, the cast takes a while to warm up, but are irresistably charming in full form.

Theodor Strassberger's Oslo production of Mozart's Don Giovanni offers a fresh, mostly well-sung take on an old classic.

Of the “ABCs” of opera (Aida, Bohème, and Carmen), Bizet’s masterpiece is the one that has made the transition to pop culture ubiquity. Surely even the most oblivious of listeners are able to whistle along to the “Habanera” and “Toreador Song”. Furthermore, the melodramatic story of exoticism, lust and rejection is one of the most popular of operatic tales.

“The most beautiful sound an audience can make,” Dudamel told the expectant masses, “is silence.” They chuckled knowingly. Dudamel’s request was borne out of the obvious production being made of Tuesday night’s performance. The giant boom and manned onstage cameras indicated that the performance was indeed being filmed.

What has made Rossini and his librettist Jacopo Ferretti’s take on Cinderella survive on the opera stage for almost 200 years now is not only the universal archetype of the downtrodden girl who is redeemed by Prince Charming, nor its enchanting music: the absence of fairy-tale symbols like the pumpkin carriage and the glass shoe (barefoot ladies would have been too outrageous a sight on an Italian

The human race craves comic relief... a universally accepted fact throughout the entire history of mankind. Comic books, sitcoms, comic theater... all seek to blissfully whisk us out of the doldrums and politics of today’s ever-busy society.

What makes for a good performance of Don Giovanni? Some have called it the greatest drama in opera, and with music by Mozart at the height of his compositional powers, its status as a masterpiece of Classical music is undisputed. Los Angeles Opera’s opening night production had elements both outstanding and troubled.

There's no such thing as a perfect comic opera, and I know it's wrong to describe any work of art as perfect. But seeing Mozart and da Ponte's Le Nozze di Figaro last night, I found this a difficult principle to accept: this opera is about as close as you can get.Many operas have a slew of memorable tunes; many have opportunities for singers to show off their qualities.

Die russische Sopranistin Lidia Fridman führt mit ihrem Charisma einen stimmigen Abend an. Auch aus dem Orchestergraben strömt dramatisches Belcanto.

Cyril Teste versetzt Norma in die 1930er Jahre, bleibt aber wichtige Antworten schuldig. Zusammen mit einem eher schwachen Ensemble wirkt diese Neuinszenierung eher wie ein altes Repertoirestück.

Eine neue Sicht auf Mozarts Krönungsoper von 1791: Schlüssig inszeniert, herausragend gesungen und gespielt wird La clemenza di Tito zu einem packenden Drama über die Ränkespiele politischer Macht von heute.

À l'Opéra Royal de Wallonie, la production de la version française de l'œuvre cherche avant tout la fidélité au spectacle original. Triomphe pour Lionel Lhote, formidable dans le rôle du marquis de Posa. 

Tugan Sokhiev propose une lecture exaltante de La Damnation de Faust à la Philharmonie de Paris, servie par un orchestre, des chœurs et une Marguerite éblouissants.

Genève s’offre une Carmen qui brûle les planches dans une mise en scène élégante sans en devenir aride.

Die Inszenierung von Rossinis Il turco in Italia an der Bayerischen Staatsoper kann musikalisch überzeugen, in die Inszenierung sollte man allerdings nicht zu viel interpretieren.

L’Opéra de Genève s’offre une trilogie autour de Figaro, avec notamment un Mozart pétillant. Il ne restera plus qu’à découvrir le « Figaro gets a Divorce » d’Elena Langer qui viendra clore cette triologie proposée par le Grand Théâtre de Genève. 

A sus 76 años, nuestro mito viviente triunfa en el final de la temporada lírica madrileña, en una version concierto semiescenificada, y acompañado de un solvente cartel vocal.

Vlan ! Poum ! Vlan ! Poum ! Difficile de juger d’une œuvre telle que le Requiem de Verdi, si apte à imposer, si naturellement rythmée dans son déroulement. Car l’enjeu véritable, bien que latent, est celui de l’urgence partagée...

Leo Nucci y Josep Bros se coronan como triunfadores en un Simon Boccanegra "mensual", a la espera de Plácido Domingo

Jürgen Flimms Produktion unterstreicht die frech-fröhlich-Mozartschen Züge der Figuren der spielfreudigen Besetzung.