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Reviews

Staatstheater Meiningen 2025-26 Review: Didone abbandonata

https://operawire.com/staatstheater-meiningen-review-2025-26-didone-abbandonata/

(Photo: Christina Iberl) The revival of Domenico Sarro’s “Didone abbandonata” (1724) at the Staatstheater Meiningen marks perhaps the first scenic production of this Neapolitan gem since its 1724 premiere in Naples.  While this staging offered a rare opportunity to witness Pietro Metastasio’s debut libretto in full staged form, there was a lingering sense that the interpretation was perhaps too cautious. {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Teatro La Fenice 2025-26 Review: La Clemenza di Tito

https://operawire.com/teatro-la-fenice-2025-26-review-la-clemenza-di-tito/

(Photo: Michele Crosera) Venice’s Teatro La Fenice opened its 2025-26 season with a new production of “La Clemenza di Tito,” widely considered to be the least popular of Mozart’s mature operas. Its premiere in 1791 at the Estates Theatre in Prague received a lukewarm reception, with the Empress herself complaining that “nearly all of us fell asleep.” Albert Einstein’s assessment {…}

DVD and CD Releases, News

Lisette Oropesa, Philippe Jaroussky, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson & Ce Suarez Paz Lead New CD/DVD Recordings

https://operawire.com/lisette-oropesa-philippe-jaroussky-lorraine-hunt-lieberson-ce-suarez-paz-lead-new-cd-dvd-recordings/

Welcome back for this week’s look at the latest CD and DVD releases in the opera world. Happy Halloween! It’s a week of solo recitals, including numerous showcases of baroque music and rarely performed works from Armenia and Argentina. There is also a perfect Halloween recording featuring one of the most famous mad scenes in opera. Lucia di Lammermoor Euroarts {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Rossini Opera Festival 2025 Review: Soirées musicales / La cambiale di matrimonio

https://operawire.com/rossini-opera-festival-2025-review-soirees-musicales-la-cambiale-di-matrimonio/

(Photo: Amati Bacciardi / ROF 2025) Soirées musicales After the triumph of his last opera, “Guillaume Tell,” Gioachino Rossini decided to abandon theatrical composition and retire to his home in Paris to recover from nervous exhaustion. Even so, he never stopped writing music: he composed for himself, for Olympe Pélissier–whom he married in 1846 after the death of Isabella Colbran–and {…}

DVD and CD Reviews, Reviews

CD Review: Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci’s ‘Adriano in Siria’

https://operawire.com/cd-review-musikfestspiele-potsdam-sanssoucis-adriano-in-siria/

Carl Heinrich Graun’s “Adriano in Siria”—set to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio—is a compelling example of mid-18th-century opera seria, a genre that once dominated the European stage. First performed in Berlin in 1746, Graun’s setting was one of more than seventy opera settings of Metastasio’s libretto between 1732 and 1828, attesting to its immense popularity. This new live recording from {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci 2025 Review: Didone abbandonata

https://operawire.com/musikfestspiele-potsdam-sanssouci-2025-review-didone-abbandonata/

(Photo: Noah Shaye) On June 28, 2025, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci presented a rare revival of Baldassare Galuppi’s opera “Didone abbandonata” — the 1752 Madrid version. Commissioned by the legendary castrato Farinelli to honor King Ferdinand VI of Spain, this adaptation brought together three giants of the 18th century opera: Farinelli himself, librettist Pietro Metastasio, and composer Galuppi. More concise and {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Théâtre des Champs-Elysées 2023-24 Review: L’Olimpiade

https://operawire.com/theatre-des-champs-elysees-2023-24-review-lolimpiade/

(Photo: Vincent Pontet) Paris is gearing up for the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games, and a variety of Olympic-themed events are taking place throughout the city. In this context, Antonio Vivaldi’s opera “L’Olimpiade” is a must-see, with the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées showcasing a new production by Emmanuel Daumas. Belgian soprano Jodie Devos, who recently passed away untimely, was originally scheduled to {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Salzburg Whitsun Festival 2024 Review: La Clemenza di Tito

https://operawire.com/salzburg-whitsun-festival-2024-review-la-clemenza-di-tito/

(Credit: Matthias Horn) The Whitsun Festival in Salzburg this year is titled “Tutto Mozart” and is dedicated to the city’s most famous son. The program features only one full opera, “La clemenza di Tito,” written by Mozart in 1791 while he was finishing “The Magic Flute,” making it his final opera. Created to commemorate the coronation of Emperor Leopold II {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Irish National Opera 2023-24 Review: L’Olimpiade

https://operawire.com/irish-national-opera-2023-24-review-lolimpiade/

(Photo: Ros Kavanagh) Intricate and convoluted plots are not exactly rare in operas of the 17th and 18th centuries. Usually revolving around mistaken identities, complex love triangles, misunderstandings and deliberate deceptions that precipitate extreme emotions, their narratives career forward, plunging the protagonists into life-threatening and life-changing situations in which the gods, heroes and mythical characters often play their part. Vivaldi’s {…}