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When is The Nutcracker not The Nutcracker? When's it's mashed together with Tchaikovsky's Iolanta to represent the blind princess’ inner world in a dark interpretation. 

Lotte de Beer’s new retelling at the Volksoper reintroduces the element of shock into Bizet's popular opera. 

This is not Carmen, but then Wu Tsang's bizarre meta-work, originally commissioned by Schauspielhaus Zürich, is all about breaking ties with convention. 

The Royal Opera orchestra, chorus and a large cast bring their A game to Sir Antonio Pappano's last run as music director.

A human waxwork, a lottery win and circus buffoonery combine in a long-neglected Offenbach operetta, given a fizzing performance by the forces of Opera Rara and the London Philharmonic.

Lawrence Cummings conducts Zurich’s Orchestra La Scintilla in Handel’s oratorio-cum-opera, Belshazzar. The music was celestial; the staging was a bombastic mix of excess and vaudeville.

To outwit death and attain immortality is a dream as old as human history. But isn’t it precisely the finite nature of life that makes it so precious?

The credits for this new production directed by Olivier Py raised high expectations that were only partially met on opening night.

Viktorianische Rüschen, verrutschte Schnurrbärte und Katia Ledoux als Mezzo-Piratenkönig. Die Inszenierung an der Volksoper sorgt sichtlich für Unterhaltung, kann die Schwächen von Gilbert und Sullivan aber nicht wettmachen.

Die Dirigentin Emmanuelle Haïm und die Regisseurin Jetske Mijnssen ziehen am gleichen Strick und lassen Rameaus Platée sowohl als musikalische als auch theatralische Komödie erscheinen. 

Die neue Inszenierung am Gürtel transportiert das Publikum in einen göttlichen Wiener Olymp.