Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Margaret Mezzacappa

For the opening production in its 35th anniversary season, Opéra de Montréal pulled out all the stops in Verdi’s Nabucco, presented as a re-enactment of its première in 1842.

The greatest bass drum part ever written, the thundering Wrath of God, shook War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco Friday night in a thrilling performance of Verdi’s Requiem. Embracing the vivid extremes of Verdi’s great work, conductor Nicola Luisotti marshaled the wonderfully unruly forces of the largest ensemble ever assembled on the venue’s stage.

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.

“For some operas,” famed conductor Carlo Maria Giulini once said, “you can accept a voice of not absolute beauty – if it is well used and he is an artist and interpreter, it will work. But for Verdi you need all this plus the essential sound.

In his program notes for Pelléas et Mélisande, director K. James McDowell refers to the only opera Claude Debussy ever completed as "a towering masterpiece in the operatic repertoire.

The Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) in Philadelphia presented a concert version of a rarely performed Verdi opera, Oberto, at the Haverford School's Centennial Hall. This is, in fact, the celebrated Italian composer’s first opera, and a work that took him four years to write. The evening proved a showcase for the AVA’s talented resident artists and the many musicians supporting them.

Tucked away on Spruce Street, Philadelphia, many blocks off the glittering Avenue of the Arts is a stellar training academy with the mission of preparing world-class opera singers. It’s called the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA), and it offers resident artists from throughout the United States and all over the world a chance to study and perform in its four-year program.