Venue: The Academy of Vocal Arts: Warden Theater, Philadelphia

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 a wonderful Puccini double bill of Suor Angelica and Le villi.

The latest production of Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia gave the audience lots to marvel at musically – beautiful composition and gorgeous voices.

As the legend goes, a noble cavalier loses his battle with giant windmills. But the Academy of Vocal Arts wins big with their latest production, Jules Massenet’s melodic Don Quichotte.

Most Americans are ashamed of the legacy of the Ku Klux Klan in this country and their lawless persecution of non-whites. Racism in America is not a pretty subject, and it doesn’t make for pretty opera. It does, however, make for a thought-provoking and even disturbing piece in the hands of Philadelphia’s Center City Opera Theater (CCOT).

In his program notes for Pelléas et Mélisande, director K. James McDowell refers to the only opera Claude Debussy ever completed as "a towering masterpiece in the operatic repertoire.

While recordings of Arabella abound, operagoers could conceivably go years without actually seeing the piece performed. Compared to the frequency with which companies present Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Salome, Richard Strauss’s Arabella is an infrequently seen gem.