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Reviews, Stage Reviews

Royal Ballet & Opera 2025-26 Review: The Sicilian Vespers

https://operawire.com/royal-ballet-opera-2025-26-review-the-sicilian-vespers/

(Credit: Tristram Kenton) It’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. No, really. Director Stefan Herheim employs a combination of both smoke and mirrors on a seemingly ever-revolving, ever-evolving stage setting of grandiose balconies, monumental set pieces, and athletic ballerinas, whose inclusion is frequent enough to make the casual observer question whether this is an opera or a ballet. In fact, {…}

News

Cast Change: Joyce El-Khoury & Sara Cortolezzi to Make Debuts in ‘I Vespri Siciliani’ at Royal Ballet & Opera

https://operawire.com/cast-change-marina-rebeka-withdraws-from-i-vespri-siciliani-at-royal-ballet-opera/

(© Beyond The Image Media) The Royal Ballet & Opera has announced a major cast change for “I Vespri Siciliani.” The company revealed that Marina Rebeka has withdrawn from performances of the opera due to illness. In her stead, Joyce El-Khoury will perform the role of Hélène in all performances except for the one on Oct. 3, 2025. For that {…}

News, Season Announcement

Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier Occitanie 2025-26 Season to Feature Kathryn Lewek, Bruno Taddia, Sheva Tehoval, & Maciej Kwasnikowski

https://operawire.com/opera-orchestre-national-montpellier-occitanie-2025-26-season-to-feature-kathryn-lewek-bruno-taddia-sheva-tehoval-maciej-kwasnikowski/

The Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier Occitanie announces its 2025-26 season. This article features operatic events only. A double bill of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” open the season. Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur, Azer Zada, Julie Pasturaud, Tomasz Kumięga, Reut Venturo, Giuseppina Merli, Galina Cheplakova, Maciej Kwasnikowski, and Leon Kim are among the cast. Silvia Paoli directs. Yoel Gamzou conducts. Performance Dates: October {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Royal Opera House 2024-25 Review: Turandot

https://operawire.com/royal-opera-house-2024-25-review-turandot/

At the risk of repeating myself, opera should be all about the music and the voice. If I’m ever asked to quantify that statement, I readily proffer “Turandot” in support of my assertions. For here is a ridiculous, cruel, convoluted tale that is impossible to like and grasp, perpetrated by a pair of unpleasant, thoroughly dislikeable characters with, were it {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Royal Opera House 2023-24 Review: Celebrating 22 Years of Sir Antonio Pappano

https://operawire.com/royal-opera-house-2023-24-review-celebrating-22-years-of-sir-antonio-pappano/

A truly packed house, a cast of operatic luminaries and a program of works chosen and compiled by Maestro Pappano himself; a Gala, fit for a KING, surely? Which is just as well because His Royal Highness King Charles III was in the audience as a truly surprise guest of honor, courtesy of a massive covert security operation that even {…}

News

Pretty Yende, Sonya Yoncheva, Juan Diego Flórez, Allan Clayton, Lise Davidsen, & Lisette Oropesa Lead Royal Opera House’s 2024-25 Season

https://operawire.com/pretty-yende-sonya-yoncheva-juan-diego-florez-allan-clayton-lise-davidsen-lisette-oropesa-lead-royal-opera-houses-2024-25-season/

The Royal Opera House has announced its 2024-25 season. Here is a look at the season. Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” will open the season with a cast that includes Luca Micheletti, Ying Fang, Huw Montague Rendall, Jacquelyn Stucker, and Ginger Costa-Jackson. Performance Dates: Sept. 2-15, 2024 Verdi’s “La Traviata” will feature two casts. The first cast will be headlined {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Royal Opera House 2023-24 Review: Lucia di Lammermoor

https://operawire.com/royal-opera-house-2023-24-review-lucia-di-lammermoor/

I have more than once commented that OPERA, no matter the tale, should always be about the music; specifically, the singing, above and beyond anything else. It is, after all, what truly defines the art. And in Katie Mitchell’s and Robin Tebbutt’s revival production of Donizetti’s tragic opera, the singing is inarguably superlative. Alas, this is a truly grim tale. {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Royal Opera House 2022-23 Review: Don Carlo

https://operawire.com/royal-opera-house-2022-23-review-don-carlo/

Opera, especially Grand Opera, has always had a predilection for throwing up stories that test the boundaries of credibility and border on indelicacy, and Verdi operas frequently bask in both. “Don Carlo,” one of Verdi’s later works although arguably written whilst in his prime, is a truly convoluted tale, mostly fictional although involving true historical figures, that involves conflict, war, {…}

News

Jonas Kaufmann, Sondra Radvanovsky, Sonya Yoncheva, Angel Blue, Asmik Grigorian Headline Royal Opera House’s 2023-24 Season

https://operawire.com/jonas-kaufmann-sondra-radvanovsky-sonya-yoncheva-angel-blue-asmik-grigorian-headline-royal-opera-houses-2023-24-season/

The Royal Opera House has unveiled its 2023-24 season. It all kicks off with a production of “Das Rheingold” directed by Barrie Kosky and conducted by Antonio Pappano. The opera stars Christopher Maltman, Christopher Purves, Sean Panikkar, Marina Prudenskaya, Kiandra Howarth, and Wiebke Lehmkulm. Performance Dates: Sept. 11 – 29, 2023 Next up is “La Forza del Destino” in a {…}