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A marathon double bill using music from Verdi's early operas largely falls flat in Brussels. 

Marina Abramović's reflection on fame, artistry and death makes an enthralling Italian debut at the Teatro di San Carlo.

After a fifty-year absence from Roman stages, Verdi's opera about the Maid of Orléans makes an appearance at Teatro dell'Opera under the conduction of Daniele Gatti.

Juan Diego Flórez was impressive in his first portrayal of a lovesick soldier/priest in Manon, with Nino Machaidze's accomplished heroine. Andrei Serban's modern and thoughtful production was still fresh and arresting.

One of Teatro San Carlo’s most cherished productions of recent years, with an excellent cast of singers and a director who steered at his ease into the libretto’s erratic changes of mood and atmosphere.

Lotte de Beer’s Il barbiere di Siviglia for Dutch National Opera seems a surprisingly traditional spectacle... although it does come with a twist.

At its 2015 inauguration at the Royal Opera House, a controversial rape scene in Act 3 drew outrage from the audience and critics alike. Now the Teatro Massimo is presenting the production once again.

The casting was something special. Each of the principals was fun to watch, magnificent to listen to, believable in every gesture, look and touch. 

Roberto Abbado leads a strong cast in an inspired production by La Fura del Baus.

If you love Verdi's inventive music, enjoy fabulous male voices in particular, and appreciate great opera conducting with exquisitely sensitive orchestral playing – then this Rigoletto is a must.

Younger generations have still a lot to learn from the 76-year old singer

Suggesting that Otello was a migrant, like modern refugees, was not a great staging idea for a production which could count on an high-rate vocal cast.

A modern updating of Vasco da Gama's discovery of a sea route to India? Vera Nemirova's stylish production of Meyerbeer's Grand Opéra works inteligently for the most part. 

On a balmy evening in Milan, there was anticipation in the air as queues stretched way back for a sold out performance of Carmen. But a flat atmosphere soon fell in the auditorium itself, with lacklustre singing and confused staging to blame.

Alden’s mise-en-scène developed the most modern aspects of Il turco's libretto. The stage not only showed what the Poet was participating towards, but the other characters also seemed to perform the poet’s conception of his own work. 

Director Michieletto’s playful staging, Stefano Montanari’s expressive conducting and stylish singing from a cast of seasoned Rossinian singers make for a thoroughly enjoyable new production of the too rare Il viaggio a Reims at the Dutch National Opera.

Matthew Richard Martinez reviews Los Angeles Opera's season-opening performance of Verdi's La traviata starring Plácido Domingo, Nino Machaidze, and Arturo Chacón-Cruz.

The Madrid opera house ends the year with a production of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore from Damiano Michieletto, transporting the action to a noisy Mediterranean beach.

When Salzburg Festival director Alexander Pereira stepped onto the stage of the Großes Festspielhaus last night to announce that one of the cast members of La bohème was sick and unable to sing, he faced a chorus of hisses from the audience. Soprano Anna Netrebko, the festival’s biggest non-conductor star, was feeling fine (though as Mimì she would shortly die of consumption).

Gounod's Roméo et Juliette isn't exactly a rarity, but it is no longer one of the stalwarts of the opera repertoire, a position which it certainly occupied during the Victorian era (there were 102 performances at the Théâtre-Lyrique in Paris in the first year of its life, followed by 291 performances at the Opéra-Comique in the next twenty).

Tobias Kratzer überzeugt mit einer realitätsnahen und beschwingten Inszenierung von La gazza ladra am MusikTheater an der Wien.

Rarement donné depuis sa création, l'opéra de Rossini bénéficie d'une belle distribution, Nino Machaidze en tête dans le rôle-titre, et de la direction avertie de José Miguel Pérez-Sierra.

Damiano Michielettos Inszenierung bietet einen durchwachsenen Abend, wenn auch mit filigranem Orchester unter der Leitung von Sestro Quatrini.

Cette belle Bohème de Puccini au Théâtre des Nations de Genève vous tire des larmes à coup sûr, tout au long de ces deux heures de musique sublime portée par des artistes investis. 

Rossinis Otello begeistert im Theater an der Wien mit packendem Kammerspiel und fabelhafter Besetzung.

Fort d’un public acquis à l’œuvre de Verdi, le Théâtre du Capitole renoue une nouvelle fois avec le compositeur italien sous la baguette érudite de Daniel Oren, prédicateur du génie révolutionnaire désormais habitué à la scène toulousaine.