Performer: David C. Woolard

Arab-American tenor Karim Sulayman devises a thoughtful pastiche that centers the perspective omitted from Early Modern depictions of the Middle East in music.

A wonderfully realized production at San Francisco Opera of Jake Heggie's operatic version of a holiday classic. 

Alan Gilbert reaches a pinnacle at the end of his tenure at the New York Philarmonic.

There was a nod to John Adams in the score, but also a kind of edgy Americana, complete with powerful writing for male chorus, and an attempt to communicate the flavor of rural North Carolina, not far from where Higdon grew up.

Outstanding vocal performances and Oscar Wilde's own words don't save this new opera based on his incarceration at Reading Gaol.