Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Anita Götz

Movable walls, some adorned with Baroque frescoes, partition the stage in ways that remind the viewer of the easy proximity of the masters and servants' quarters in Almaviva's estate.

A night in the cheerful undemanding: lovers of Strauss, Venice and period costumed slapstick will get their money’s worth. Oh how lovely to behold are not only the charming women in this operetta, but also Hinrich Horstkotte's costumes.

Emmerich Kálmán’s Gräfin Mariza is celebrating her 90th birthday this year, but just like my slightly younger great-aunts, who introduced me to this operetta at the tender age of five, she is far from ready for a care home. Thomas Enzinger and set/costume designer Toto have come up with another imaginative response to the question of why and how the bygone genre of operetta should be produced today.

Under the headline “Why Lortzing?”, the evening’s programme lists 20 reasons by Lortzing biographer Jürgen Lodemann why this composer should not be forgotten, including the fact that Lortzing’s operas were the most-performed in Germany for about 150 years.

Smetana wrote Prodaná nevěsta (“The Bartered Bride”) as a light Czech folk piece in a playful reply to critics who said that his music was too Wagnerian, or too German for that matter – something not compatible with the growing Czech national consciousness in the period he composed it (1863–66), even though he only showed mild interest in the Czech cause.

After twelve long years, Oscar Straus’ Ein Walzertraum has made it back to the Volksoper, the place where it belongs for its indestructible Viennese spirit and never-ending popularity, and where Robert Meyer, the house’s boss and director on this occasion, customarily ensures that the traditional operetta is sheltered from modernist conceptual stagings.

Lotte de Beer wagt ein Capriccio aus Peter Tschakowskys Jolanthe und dem Nussknacker. Durchweg unterhaltsam, aber nicht bahnbrechend.

Der Regisseur Peter Lund setzt sich intensiv mit seinen Stücken auseinander und bietet eine weitere grandiose Inszenierung am Haus.

In der Regie von Achim Freyer und unter der Leitung von Jan van Steen zeigt die Volksoper Wien ihren neuen Don Giovanni.

Così fan tutte in einer klugen und optisch ansprechenden Neuinszenierung: Schwarze und weiße Rokoko-Kostüme vor schwarz-weißem weißem Bühenbild, emotionale und tatsächliche Erdbeben.