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A strong international cast and fine musicianship from the orchestra carries on Strauss's legacy with a smart, antic romp.

The Spanish director's emotionally-sapped staging for the Prague National Theatre travels to Brno for the Janáček Festival.

The National Theater revives Jaromír Weinberger opera Schwanda the Bagpiper with energy, affection and overly active imagination.

“An eye for an eye, a kiss for a kiss,” declares Madeleine in the knock-down battle of the sexes that is Paul Abraham's rarely staged operetta. 

Powerful visuals can't compensate for an otherwise empty production of Janáček’s gripping tragedy.

Calixto Bieito's surreal production of Erwin Schulhoff's forgotten opera takes the audience to the heart of darkness.

Franz Schreker's innovative study of artistic aspiration and despair gets a fresh look and loving musical treatment.

All the energy is in the pit in this flat production of a time-honored favorite.

Great performances cannot rescue the Norwegian director's superficial treatment of a classic ghost story.

A talented cast labors under the yoke of a gender-conscious Così fan tutte in a new production at the Estates Theatre. 

Director Barbora Horáková Joly and conductor Jiří Rožeň offer a fresh take on a pair of 20th-century psychodramas.

Lively singing saves Magdalena Švecová's listless production of Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Národní divadlo.

“Who's dead, you or the old man?” asks Leporello after Don Giovanni’s duel with the Commendatore. What if the answer was that they had both received fatal wounds?

Slovak director Zuzana Gilhuus' serendipitous production could hardly be more timely.

Magdalena Švecová's staging for Prague National Theatre wins hearts with ensemble work full of verve and costumes that are pure eye candy.

A trip to the moon caps a week of high aspirations and bold musical excursions at the National Theater's Opera Nova festival.

A colorful, light-hearted approach captures the spirit of Prokofiev's LʼAmour des trois oranges.

Czech composer Petr Wajsar indulges an obsession and takes the audience for a ride.

A twin tribute slices and dices the composer's life and leaves a bad aftertaste.

A rare revival of Ernst Krenek's breakout opera hits all the wrong notes.

In this new distillation of The Ring, more is less.

Realism elbows aside romanticism in this dark departure from a star-studded tradition.

Smetana's Libuše makes a timely reappearance in Prague.

José Cura shines as a designer but brings surprisingly little staging expertise to his latest directorial effort.

Willy Decker's enduring production gets smart treatment in a handsome revival.

More than 200 years after Mozart premiered La clemenza di Tito at the Estates Theatre, Marc Minkowski reveals there are still surprises to be found.

The National Theater takes a bold step forward with a smart realization of a literary grotesquerie.

Tradition and modernity are a mismatch in this uneven production of Mozart’s comic masterpiece.

Invigorating in the pit, Britten’s Billy Budd never gets its sea legs on the National Theatre stage.

The King of Opera leads an inspired performance commemorating the 230th anniversary of Don Giovanni.

The National Theatre opens its new season with a Verdi favorite short on substance but lovely to hear.

Clad in sulphurous yellow with beaded jet shoulder pads she looked well able to vanquish Lohengrin in single combat with the swish of her cloak.

Krakatit, an opera composed in the shadow of the Cold War, remains frighteningly relevant.

A new opera at the National Theater takes on a tragic chapter of communist history with mixed success.

A political makeover of Puccini's verismo classic backfires.

Fourteen years after it premiered in Vienna, a razor-sharp revival of Steve Reich's Three Tales still has the power to shock.

In a delirious opening to the new opera season, Prague's National Theatre puts a contemporary spin on Carl Orff and the Brothers Grimm.

Whilst the spirit of Mozart permeates the Estates Theatre in Prague, it was sadly absent in both the staging and singing of his “work of uninterrupted perfection”.  

Despite some strong performances onstage and in the pit, the National Theater's Andrea Chénier never catches fire.

Making his operatic debut at Prague's National Theatre, director Daniel Špinar recasts Janáček’s From the House of the Dead as a schizophrenic prison comedy.

Clever staging in Prague breathes fresh life into subversive works that were kept secret during the composer's lifetime.

Baffling staging muddles a politically charged period piece that still has the power to perturb.

Toufar, a chamber opera by Czech composer Aleš Březina, tells the true story of a Bohemian priest arrested and tortured to beat out a false confession of faking a miracle. It mkaes a powerful impression at Prague's National Theater. 

Is it opera, or operetta? Actually, Pucciniʼs La rondine looked more like 1930s Hollywood - men in tuxes, women in glamorous gowns, socialites with endless leisure time, people who barely know each other falling passionately in love – the only thing missing was Greta Garbo.

With a production in a style with which I was not at all familiar and which I found very true to the work's spirit, this Rusalka at the Czech National Theatre in Prague was a memorable evening's opera.

Seeing Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre in Prague is a special occasion, for two reasons. Firstly, for the history: it’s the theatre where the opera was first performed, back in 1787. Secondly, because today’s Estates Theatre is one of the loveliest opera houses you will find anywhere. Seating just 643, it’s an intimate space, in the classic horseshoe parterre-plus-boxes configuration.

Tenor Daniel Frank impressed in the title role in the Prague State Opera's new Tannhäuser, directed by Andrejs Žagars – but the production itself suffered from a lack of interpretation and inventiveness.