Performer: Scott Hendricks

A marathon double bill using music from Verdi's early operas largely falls flat in Brussels. 

The composer's powerful When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd anchored a thought-provoking program led by Michael Stern.

A dearth of nuance affects this new production of Verdi's late masterpiece in Berlin, set in Sir John's gourmet kitchen. 

Carried by a handful of standout performances, Britten’s story of madness and infection comes into its own in 2021, in the Opéra National du Rhin's clever and inventive staging. 

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?

Here was the much-loved three-act opera Rigoletto, yes, but chances are, it was one far beyond Verdi’s wildest dreams.