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BNE premieres Marcos Morau's Afanador at Madrid’s Teatro Real. Inspiration is derived from Ruven Afanador’s renowned series of photographs on flamenco dancers, Ángel Gitano and 1000 Kisses.

John Adams’ opera about Richard Nixon’s historic meeting with Mao Tse-Tung is performed with all round excellence, with a real find on the podium in the shape of Olivia Lee-Gunderman.

The spirit of Cuba visits Madrid as Carlos Acosta's dance troupe performs a mixed at the Teatro Real, including Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Mermaid. 

In this historic reopening, Lisette Oropesa offers a magnificent performance, dramatically overwhelming and vocally very unique.

Ballet Nacional de España restages Antonio Ruz’s Electra for its Christmas season at Madrid’s Teatro Real. The splendid production is greeted with widespread audience acclaim.

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. 

Comedy fails to spark in Laurent Pelly's new production of Falstaff at the Teatro Real. 

Carsen's scaled-down Ring makes a timely comeback with a melancholy message of decay.

Kaija Saariaho's delightful but unchallenging fourth opera comes to Madrid with the same crew of the world première and Davone Tines, Philippe Jaroussky and Nora Kimball-Mentzos in the leading roles

Despite a great cast led by Marina Rebeka, La Fura dels Baus's unambitious approach to the myth of Faust and Dan Ettinger's noisy conducting prevent a brighter season opening at the Teatro Real.

Javier Camarena’s debut as Edgardo contributed to a triumphal night at the Teatro Real together with Lisette Oropesa’s charismatic Lucia and David Alden’s powerful staging.

Ivor Bolton and David McVicar have teamed up to create an unapologetically Brittenian Gloriana, with Anna Caterina Antonacci at the top of a great cast

William Christie and Les Arts Florissants show true Baroque musicianship in Madrid, in an Ariodante with a solid cast.

In a disappointing revival of Hugo de Ana's clichéd and clumsy production, Liudmyla Monastyrska and Violeta Urmana confronted each other with their superb vocal techniques and diverging styles.

Weill's neglected "American Opera" opens in Madrid with a refurbished production by John Fulljames and a strong cast led by Patricia Racette.

Jake Heggie's story of redemption captivated the Teatro Real audience thanks to a solid cast and an effective production

Antonio Najarro’s attempt to produce a dance piece inspired by Joaquín Sorolla’s paintings for the Ballet National de España’s production Sorolla fails to grasp the essence of the rich diversity of Spanish dance

Jamie Barton stole the show in a lacklustre concert performance in Madrid.

The Teatro Real opened its 200th anniversary season with a revival of Claus Guth's brilliant production and a great cast, led by Kurt Streit and Silvia Tro Santafé.

Spanish composer Elena Mendoza presents a hermetic piece of contemporary theatre that is at the same time a disappointing opera and a worthy musical exploration of literary universe of Juan Carlos Onetti

Billy Budd triumphs in Madrid thanks to an inspired orchestra, a solid cast and a dream team of stage magicians.

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

A lacklustre season opening at Teatro Real proves once again the elusive nature of Verdi's masterpiece.

Romeo Castellucci's captivating Moses und Aron was a major success, a bold reminder of the boundless power of opera.

Kasper Holten's new production fails to convince about the alleged virtues of Wagner's outcast comic opera.

In the opening night of Teatro Real's new season, Mariella Devia proved why she is one of the best bel canto singers of the last decades.

A series of cancellations resulted in an unusual triple bill: a rare Spanish opera, an impromptu concert by Plácido Domingo and Woody Allen's brilliant Gianni Schicchi.

Adrianne Pieczonka and Anett Fritsch shone in an otherwise disappointing opening night, impaired by poor conducting and unimpressive staging.

Routine took hold of the Teatro Real in its production of La traviata, despite baritone Juan Jesús Rodríguez's best efforts.

The Teatro Real crowns his Britten cycle with a canonic War Requiem conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado and superbly sung by John Mark Aisnley and Jacques Imbrailo. 

Mauricio Sotelo's world première based on El Público, a fascinating surrealist play by Federico García Lorca, mixed flamenco and tragedy to achieve a great night of opera. 

Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette attracted a large audience for a concert performance from Madrid, enticed by Roberto Alagna's Roméo.

Death in Venice makes its première in Madrid with a rational and symbolic production by Willy Decker. 

Donizetti's La Fille du régiment brings much needed joy to the Teatro Real, with Javier Camarena's astonishing voice and Aleksandra Kurzak's unapologetic tomboy mesmerising the audience.

A classical setting and a varying degree of vocal and dramatic success for Mozart's miraculous score to Le nozze di Figaro.

Almost 40 years after its première, Pina Bausch's daring reinterpretation of the myth of Orpheus still captivates audiences worldwide. This tanzoper is one of the most accomplished attempts to create a contemporary tragedy, an enthralling reflection on human boundaries and the acceptance of death.

A concert of many virtues, laying bare Verdi's music only made it better. James Conlon conducts I vespri siciliani in Madrid.

With this mesmerising version of Les contes d'Hoffmann, Marthaler has proved (as Offenbach did more than one century ago) that it is possible to love Romanticism through its satire. 

Riccardo Muti conducts Verdi's Requiem in Madrid and forever changes the lives of the audience that witnessed in astonishment.

Good versus evil, only evil wins. Wagner's Lohengrin fills the Madrid night with questions about what trust is and what it takes to maintain it.

With this new production of Gluck's Alceste in Madrid, Krzysztof Warlikowski uses a well known popular icon to drag the audience into a two-way process of dramatic exploration.

Annie Proulx's love story between two men in rural Wyoming sees its opera première. Strong casting and an irregular score turn Spain into the capital of the opera.

Video artist Bill Viola fills Tristan und Isolde with mesmerising images. Peter Sellars stages and Marc Piollet conducts a cast where King Marke reigns, at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

The Madrid opera house ends the year with a production of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore from Damiano Michieletto, transporting the action to a noisy Mediterranean beach.

“Music of doubt, music of questions, music of search”. This is how Peter Sellars, the stage director for this production of The Indian Queen, sees the music of Purcell in general and this piece in particular. Sellars has reportedly wanted to present his take on this semi-opera for decades. Finally, the Teatro Real, Perm Opera and English National Opera have joined forces to make it a reality.

The inability of human beings to communicate or even empathise, and the monstrous consequences that gap in misunderstanding leads to, is the foundational idea of Die Eroberung von Mexico, and Wolfgang Rihm’s dense and frequently brilliant music.

The opening of the Teatro Real’s season in Madrid has been anything but uneventful. However, Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, the ever-pleasing opera chosen to welcome back an expectant audience, had very little to do with it.

The Teatro Real de Madrid has finished 2012 and welcomed 2013 with an excellent dance company. Mark Morris Dance Group has come to the Spanish capital to offer only six performances of its internationally acclaimed Mozart Dances.

Vox Luminis, con Lionel Meunier a la cabeza, ofreció una versión de gran solidez musical de La reina de las hadas.