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Reviews, Stage Reviews

The Atlanta Opera 2025 Review: Semele

https://operawire.com/the-atlanta-opera-2025-review-semele/

(Photo credit Raftermen Photography) The Atlanta Opera (TAO) closed their 2024-25 mainstage season with Georg Frideric Handel’s 1744 semi-oratorio, or quasi-opera, “Semele.” General Director Tomer Zvulun structured the season around art’s transnational commonplace, the Hero’s Journey. But interestingly, all four works selected also play with genre and they address the nearly unanswerable question, ‘what is opera, anyway?’ They began with {…}

Editorials, Reviews

‘Don Giovanni’ Is One of the Greatest Works Ever Written. Why Is It So Hard for Directors to Get Right?

https://operawire.com/don-giovanni-is-one-of-the-greatest-works-ever-written-why-is-it-so-hard-for-directors-to-get-right/

(Photo: © Monika Rittershaus) “Don Giovanni” is an opera of seductions and escapes, moral wreckage and divine retribution, a shimmering mosaic of comedy, tragedy, farce, and existential dread. Yet “the mother of all operas” is also a uniquely treacherous work—at once alluring and intractable, irresistibly open yet elusive. Music’s sublimity rarely fails to connect with audiences, even in a less-than-stellar {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Teatro alla Scala 2024-25 Review: The Weill Triptych

https://operawire.com/teatro-alla-scala-2024-25-review-the-weill-triptych/

(Photos Brescia – Amisano © Teatro alla Scala) What began as a creative solution during the pandemic– a small-scale stage production, with no audience, zero budget, and streamed online– returns in 2025 to Teatro alla Scala in all its theatrical splendor. “The Weill Triptych,” staged by Irina Brook and musically directed by Riccardo Chailly, now comes back in an expanded {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

The Atlanta Opera 2024-25 Review: Macbeth

https://operawire.com/the-atlanta-opera-2024-25-review-macbeth/

(Photo: Raftermen Photography) The Atlanta Opera (TAO) thrives and even expands while many classical music organizations contract. Their spring mainstage offerings began this month with Verdi’s “Macbeth. ” But not before the announcement of their 2025-26 season, including what few companies can afford to do—“Götterdämmerung,” completing an entire “Ring” cycle. Their season also includes Philip Glass’ “La Belle et la {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opernhaus Zürich 2024-25 Review: Manon Lescaut

https://operawire.com/opernhaus-zurich-2024-25-review-manon-lescaut/

“Manon Lescaut,” the third opera composed by Giacomo Puccini, marked his first true success, particularly with audiences, though critics raised some mild objections. It is widely regarded as the Maestro’s first mature work, showcasing a distinctive personal style that would continue to evolve in his later compositions. A Troublesome Libretto Based on the 1731 French novel by Abbé Prévost, the {…}

News

Mainfranken-Theater & Intendant Part Ways

https://operawire.com/mainfranken-theater-intendant-part-ways/

Director Markus Trabusch is parting from the Würzburg Mainfranken-Theater. Trabusch announced that he would be leaving at the end of December. He was originally set to end his contract in 2026. According to reports Trabusch has criticized audiences and recently said that “the sounds of a disabled person making comments during a performance was a ‘massive disturbance.’ He was also {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Donizetti Opera Festival 2024 Review: Don Pasquale

https://operawire.com/donizetti-opera-festival-2024-review-don-pasquale-2/

Every production at the Donizetti Opera Festival has its specialty and purpose. One (this year, “Roberto Devereux”) is a serious production of the highest quality, another is a rare piece (this time “Zoraida di Granata,” which also took a stand to bring the most serious and painful topics to the stage), and another is fun and delightful. So, when you {…}

Opera Meets Film, Special Features

Opera Meets Film: The Birth Of A New Era In Carl Froelich’s ‘Fire At The Opera’

https://operawire.com/opera-meets-film-the-birth-of-a-new-era-in-carl-froelichs-fire-at-the-opera/

The aftermath of World War One was defined in Europe, quite remarkably, by multiple, simultaneous cultural advances and experiments. These revolutionary developments ranged from classical music shedding its attachment to romantic tendencies and exploring expressionism, through art embracing the surrealist extensions of the mystical, to cinematic developments, and even architectural conflicts between modernism and classicism. In the Germanic world, suffering {…}