AVA’s 'Les Contes d’Hoffmann' defines opéra fantastique

A modern framing device drives home the sad timelessness of Britten's 1946 opera.

As part of its 85th season, Philadelphia's Academy of Vocal Arts presented a Le nozze di Figaro excellent in voices, singing, acting, conducting, orchestra, direction, sets and costumes.

Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts Presents Gounod’s *Roméo et Juliette* with a fine young cast at the Haverford School. 

Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts presents a wonderful Puccini double bill of Suor Angelica and Le villi.

What is it about Mozart’s Così fan tutte that inspires the zaniest interpretations? While the music is lovely, replete with all those lush trios, quartets, and quintets that operagoers live for, the storyline is silly if not downright insipid.

“For some operas,” famed conductor Carlo Maria Giulini once said, “you can accept a voice of not absolute beauty – if it is well used and he is an artist and interpreter, it will work. But for Verdi you need all this plus the essential sound.