Magical musicianship, but drab direction: Alcina at Theater an der Wien

Herheim’s Fledermaus is a risky experiment that, miraculously, works – at least in a city that knows it so intimately.

At MusikTheater an der Wien, Miroslav Srnka’s new opera provess a deeply compelling, meticulously crafted work. It may not uplift, but it sears itself into the memory.

Damiano Michieletto directs a slick and frequently hilarious staging of Prokofiev's comic opera Betrothal in a Monastery. 

In a week where Vienna welcomes two new productions of Bellini's Norma, MusikTheater an der Wien sets a high bar with Vasily Barkhatov's staging. 

What do you get for the composer who made – and also kind of broke – everything? Arnold Schoenberg’s well-documented phobia of the number 13 aside, he could not have asked for a superior tribute in his 150th anniversary year.

Martin G Berger exhaustively reworks the story and the libretto of Salieri's Cublai, gran kan de' Tartari and throws the kitchen sink at this new production, but not everything lands well.