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DSO music director Jader Bignamini leads his ensemble in the glory of Beethoven’s Ninth, prefaced by a recent work written as a companion piece to the symphony.

Ailyn Pérez’ role debut as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin at the Metropolitan Opera is a joy, with Piotr Beczała's Lensky the evening’s other standout. 

The Bayerische Staatsoper's new production of Falstaff makes the mistake of turning a comedy into a slapstick, but the fine ensemble have the last say as they stand in silence and defiance to face the empty auditorium.

One of Puccini's less renowned works returns to the Teatro San Carlo after over thirty years away.

Exceptional singing, an auspicious conducting debut and a staging that is both sophisticated and emotionally involving make this production an unequivocal winner.

Barrie Kosky's divisive production returns to The Royal Opera but has lost its zing. 

A welcome revival at the Met of Robert Carsen's witty production of Verdi's final opera. 

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.

Bartlett Sher's production of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette returns to the Met. 

Chicago's new Faust is a quest for youth but also a reflection on insipiration, fabrication and manipulation. 

Ailyn Pérez draws every eye and ear to her in an easy-on-the-eye production that doesn't solve some of the work's inherent contradictions.

A gripping performance of one of opera’s masterpieces in Berlin. 

Netrebko's Violetta is now fuller in body and voice than in her former incarnation. Goodbye to the fresh-faced damsel we saw in Salzburg; hello to a larger-than-life courtesan in her twilight years.

Santa Fe Opera presented Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette in Stephen Lawless’ mid 19th-century staging, a co-production with Barcelona's Liceu. Before the overture, General Director Charles MacKay came onstage to announce that Stephen Costello was ill and would be replaced by Joshua Guerrero, a graduate of the Los Angeles Opera Young Artist Program.

This production proves that even Mozart’s best-laid plans can be undone.

A new bel canto opera, a pro football team, and the future of American Opera--all in a day's work for Heggie, McNally, DiDonato, and von Stade.

This is a well-oiled operatic machine, with all of the cogs whirring. Act I's garret crackles and pops in a slick stream of gags both familiar and new.

Sonya Yoncheva shines in a production which proves that the story of Verdi's opera still feels current today.

If you let yourself be transported to director David Bösch’s strange world, you'll find an Elisir d'amore that is heartbreaking and uplifting by turns.

The Met's revival of Carmen, with its rotating set, has a successful opening night with a strong cast, an insightful conductor, a superb orchestra and chorus, all working well as a team.

Ailyn Pérez and Stephen Costello open San Diego Opera's season in a generous duo recital.

A great deal of the audience were in the house for La traviata last night for the chance to see Diana Damrau and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. They will not have been disappointed: these were performances of the very highest quality by two very fine singers, with Francesco Demuro all but matching them.

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.

Every opera poses an acting challenge to its prima donna, but Massenet’s Manon, whose 2010 production by Laurent Pelly started its first revival at Covent Garden last night, is particularly harsh on the singer of its title role. Ermonela Jaho rose to the task magnificently.

Ailyn Perez, Stephen Costello and Simon Keenlyside star in Verdi's La Traviata at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

A glittering high society romance. A sordid tale of a prostitute born in the gutter and dying alone and painfully. A bel canto charmer, packed with glorious tunes. A scathing attack on Victorian sexual hypocrisy. Verdi's La Traviata is all of these things: find in it what you will.Richard Eyre's production for the Royal Opera is a hardy old soldier.

In 1971, the thirty year-old Placido Domingo made his Covent Garden début as Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca and in the intervening forty years, he has given two hundred and thirty performances in more than twenty-five roles for Royal Opera House audiences.

Some operagoers contend that Carmen, the fatalistic gypsy doomed to die, is unlikable. She antagonizes other women at the cigarette factory. She seduces men with abandon. She makes an inexperienced corporal of the guard fall for her, manipulates him into abandoning his military career for a life of smuggling, and then heartlessly turns him out like a pesky stray.

Opera Company of Philadelphia (OCP) reached into the Philadelphia community with its remake of Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, the second of five shows in the 2010-11 season. In his OCP debut, Italian director Manfred Schweigkofler gave the company a chance to recast a Renaissance-era tale of two Italian families bearing ancient and deadly grudges as warring fashion houses in 21st century Verona.

Manon fait son retour à Bastille dans un spectacle cohérent, avec une distribution réservant quelques belles surprises – mais une direction d'orchestre lorgnant un peu trop vers l'opéra...

Après un mois et demi d'annulations successives, l'Opéra de Paris a rouvert ses portes pour l'œuvre d'Offenbach, dans la célèbre mise en scène de Robert Carsen, toujours aussi ingénieuse.

Retour de La Traviata à l'Opéra Bastille, dans la mise en scène de Benoît Jacquot. Aleksandra Kurzak et Jean-François Borras portent cette production du célèbre opéra de Verdi.

Die Berliner Traviata besticht durch ein exzeptionelles Sängerensemble und feinfühliges Orchester.