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In Brno, Janáček's home, at the theatre and festival that bear his name, Jenůfa receives a performance with all the musical and dramatic intensity you might wish for.

Although professing a great admiration for Mascagni and Cavalleria rusticana in particular, Janáček’s concept of Slavic verismo is diametrically different.

Il Trovatore has doggedly survived in opera’s hit charts despite dispensing generous quantities of hair-raising as well as eyebrow-raising content. Verdi’s music is intoxicating, of course, but there is something to this work that makes it accessible beyond reasoning.

Deborah Warner’s new production of La Traviata for the Wiener Festwochen is dotted with dramatic ideas to much the same extent as flowers are strewn and champagne is uncorked in the Act I ‘Brindisi’ (drinking song), which is to say sparingly.

Peter Konwitschnys zeitlose Inszenierung von Puccinis Klassiker wartet mit ausdrucksstarken Bildern auf und setzt dabei auf klassische Personenführung.