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Living in an environment influenced by French culture, Verdi saw the chance of breathing new life into the Italian opera through the grand-opéra. Les Vêpres siciliennes is his successful attempt.

Sir David McVicar's unassuming production fails to engage with the political side of Verdi's masterpiece, despite good conducting by Nicola Luisotti and some good singing by a solid cast. 

In the role created for Jenny Lind, Lisette Oropesa, in her debut in the theater, shows her magnificent silvery voice, beautiful vibrato and impeccable colorature.

Verdi's fifth opera can be considered a blueprint for Trovatore and deserves a more regular place in the repertoire, but it needs more sincere advocacy than Bechtolf is prepared to grant.

The Rossini Opera Festival stages a new production of the most famous of Rossini’s masterpieces to celebrate the composer in the 150th anniversary of his death.

A (nearly) complete performance of the original French version of Don Carlos forms the centrepiece of Daniele Rustioni's Verdi Festival in Lyon. 

Lengthy but full of melodic invention, Semiramide finally made her triumphant return to the Royal Opera in David Alden's fine new production.

Issues that cropped up in the first run of Mitchell's production have been ironed out. In the hands of a strong cast, a chilling interpretation of Donizetti's masterpiece.

La gazza ladra celebrates its 200th anniversary with a new production at La Scala, an earthbound effort from director Gabriele Salvatores, but it was Riccardo Chailly who drew the wrath of sections of the Milanese audience. 

Livermore turns Norma into a dubious tribute to fantasy B-movies but Gregory Kunde and Karine Deshayes come to the rescue.

Gianandrea Noseda leads a fiery account of Verdi's “opera in ecclesiastical garb” to open the LSO's new season.

Andreas Homoki’s new production of Vincenzo Bellini’s I puritani wows with a quartet of stellar vocalists, but its awkward staging and set design are a distinct disappointment.

Patchy vocal offering saved by superb orchestra in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra.

A charmingly-retro, Naïf Art production of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore at Teatro alla Scala provided a refreshing departure from the minimal, post-apocalyptic devastation trends of modern stagecraft.

Teatro Regio in Turin paid its first seasonal tribute to Giuseppe Verdi with an engaging execution of the Messa da Reqiuem.

Guth's production is beautiful to look at, but fails to bring out the best in Mozart's drama.

There is much to enjoy in the Met’s revival of its almost 40 year old production of Bellini’s I Puritani although almost none of it is visual, with Olga Peretyatko and Lawrence Brownlee both fitting the bill. 

This year’s revival of Mary Zimmerman’s La Sonnambula at the Met requires too much suspension of disbelief to seriously work, but it provides a fun and vibrant take on Bellini’s bel canto opera all the same. In the title role, Diana Damrau knocked it out of the park. 

When you discover your bride-to-be in another man's bed on the eve of your wedding day, the excuse "Darling, I must have been sleepwalking" rates somewhere near the same level of credibility as "Sir, the dog ate my homework." But hey, this is opera, and bel canto opera at that. You didn't come to Bellini's La Sonnambula for the story and the drama: you came here for the singing.

On Saturday night, Antonio Pappano and his Roman orchestra and chorus, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, brought us the first opera of the 2011 Proms- Gioachino Rossini's William Tell.

When Franz Liszt conducted Le Comte Ory in Weimar, he said it “bubbled like champagne,” according to the Metropolitan Opera’s program note. It also noted that Liszt arranged for the audience to be served champagne in Act II.

Read our review of Mary Zimmerman's production of Bellini's La Sonnambula in its 2009 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

Le Grand Théâtre de Genève propose une version des Huguenots satisfaisante musicalement mais desservie, hélas, par une lecture scénique dont on cherche en vain les clés.

Monumentalidad y grandes voces encienden la nueva temporada del Teatro Real.

L'Opéra Garnier propose la reprise de la géniale mise en scène de Damiano Michieletto, qui multiplie les trouvailles heureuses. Michele Pertusi, Christian Senn, Javier Camarena et Pretty Yende forment une distribution convaincante.

La siempre excelente actuación de la Orquesta de la Comunidad y un reparto vocal bien empastado invitan a abandonarse al simple disfrute de los sentidos.

Mis en scène par Laurent Pelly, Don Pasquale de Donizetti est présenté à La Monnaie : une machinerie réglée au millimètre près, sur la fabuleuse vis comica d’une musique extraordinairement efficace.

Adaptation de l’œuvre de Victor Hugo, l’Ernani de Verdi capte les tensions de la société d’Ancien Régime révélée par un amour impossible entre Elvire et ses trois prétendants le roi Don Carlo, le vieux duc Donc Ruy Gomez de Silva et celui qu’elle aime en secret Ernani. Les adeptes du bel canto seront servis durant cette soirée.

Patrizia Ciofi et Karine Deshayes ont justement rendu hommage à la plus saisissante confrontation royale du répertoire lyrique. Cette Maria Stuarda a tenu ses promesses. 

Rossini sublimé par les voix expertes de Sergey Romanovsky, Michele Pertusi et Marianna Pizzolato à l'Opéra de Lyon.

Michele Pertusi, Juan Diego Flórez, Alessio Arduini und Valentina Naforniţă machen das Beste aus der bunten Neuinszenierung von Irina Brook, die sich ansonsten auf Pointenmanagement beschränkt.

La baguette d’Evelino Pidò transforme l’Opéra de Lyon en sanctuaire du bel canto dans l’œuvre de Rossini.