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Riddle me this: what is the result of combining Andrei Serban's beloved staging of Turandot with Antonio Pappano's first stage outing of the piece? Answer: a thrilling evening.

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.

An icy female ruler, three chaotic cabinet ministers, questionable hand-holding - it could only be Puccini's last opera in a revivial of Serban's gorgeous 1984 production.

Patricia Petibon manages to portray an absolutely charming Manon. She spans the space between innocence and worldliness and remains consistently energetic and delightful. 

In 1984, I went to Covent Garden to see Andrei Serban's production of Turandot and was bewitched. Thirty years, fifteen revivals and a wealth of opera-going later, I was bewitched all over again by Nicola Luisotti's rendering of the score.

Goethe’s epistolary novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (“The Sorrows of Young Werther”) hit the 1774 zeitgeist not only because it brought back emotion to the rather sober Age of Enlightenment, but because the tragic title hero sports a multi-faceted character that lends itself to various interpretations and projections, therefore making it easy to feel sympathy or even partly identify with the

Otello, Verdi’s penultimate opera, is a tightly-wound setting of Shakespeare’s familiar tragedy. From the opening storm to the title character dying upon a kiss, it is more fragmentary and emotionally cool than his earlier work, an opera that tends to be more admired than loved.

An der Wiener Staatsoper begeistern Orchester und Sänger zwar mit technischer Finesse, blieben aber Emotion schuldig.

La reprise de la mise en scène d'Andrei Șerban donne à entendre une distribution plus qu'enthousiasmante, un orchestre et des chœurs excellents ; mais théâtralement parlant, on reste un peu sur sa faim.

Belle reprise de La Khovantchina à l'Opéra Bastille, où triomphent les forces de la maison, mais aussi Anita Rachvelishvili !

Nach fünf Jahren Pause im Repertoire ist dieser Hoffmann Werbung für das Werk und die Inszenierung.

À l'Opéra Bastille, le retour de la mise en scène d'Andrei Serban produit un Otello mitigé, où l'étincelante Aleksandra Kurzak répond à un Roberto Alagna défaillant.

Transfigurant littéralement le personnage de Lucia, Pretty Yende déploie une palette vocale stupéfiante et fait preuve d'une intelligence artistique tant dans son jeu scénique que dans son interprétation vocale, absolument sublime.

Naives Mädchen, berechnendes Luder, Vamp und Todgeweihte: Diana Damrau überzeugt als Manon in der ästhetischen und klugen Inszenierung von Andrei Serban.

Angela Gheorghiu als leidende Charlotte, Jean-Francois Borras als leidenschaftlicher Werther und das melancholische Dirigat von Frederic Chaslin sorgten zwar nicht für einen perfekten, aber hochemotionalen Abend an der Wiener Staatsoper.