Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Elisabeth Schwarz

Movable walls, some adorned with Baroque frescoes, partition the stage in ways that remind the viewer of the easy proximity of the masters and servants' quarters in Almaviva's estate.

The new Zauberflöte at this summer’s Salzburg Festival is a visually brilliant production with sets tailored to the atmospheric venue of the Felsenreitschule (for people not familiar with Salzburg, this is where the singing contest was held in the film The Sound of Music).

How to stage The Abduction from the Seraglio in Vienna, a city not exactly known for its sensitivity towards its Turkish minority? Mozart’s opera doesn’t, it should be said, contain nearly as much politically incorrect embarrassment as the rhetoric of some of Austria’s modern-day political parties, but the abusive boor Osmin and the Western women enslaved by his short-fused ganglord are images whi

The Volksoper Wien’s first-rate production of “Die Csárdásfürstin” (“The Csárdás Princess”) offers a rare chance to waltz through one of operetta’s most tuneful hits. Emmerich Kálmán’s score, to a libretto by Béla Jenbach, is a frothy concoction of romance, hedonism, and too much time spent in nightclubs.

Mariame Clément inszeniert mit Petticoats aus den Fünfzigern am Operettenwalzer vorbei.

Die Volksoper beweist mit einem pointensicheren Ensemble und walzerseligen Abend einmal mehr, dass Operette ihre Kernkompetenz ist.

Just an Arturo Toscaninis 150. Geburtstag fand die Volksopernpremiere von Alfredo Catalani 1892 uraufgeführter Oper La Wally statt. Das ist ein interessanter Zufall, denn Toscanini war von dieser Oper so angetan, dass er seine ersten beiden Kinder nach zwei ihrer Partien nannte – Walter und Wally. Für Gustav Mahler war La Wally überhaupt „die beste italienische Oper“.

Conte merveilleux peuplé d’objets et de personnages magiques, c’est également une allégorie de la quête du Bien et de la connaissance, et un opéra maçonnique où les rites d’initiation et les symboles sont repris ouvertement.