Angelica Antonini, Núria Rial, Andrzej Filończyk, Mark Padmore Star in National Forum of Music’s 2026-27 Season

The National Forum of Music announces its 2026-27 season. This article feature classical voice works only. Mark Padmore performs Bach’s “Ich habe genug” at the Krzyżowa-Music festival. Performance Date: Aug. 30, 2026 Thomas Guggeis conducts a concert version of Saint-Saëns’ “Samson et Dalila” starring Brian Jagde and Anita Rachvelishvili in the title roles. They are joined by Kostas Smoriginas, Peter {…}

Dec 9, 2025

Ravenna Festival Review 2025: Alcina

(Photo: Zani-Casadio) Is it a wise decision to perform two independent works by the same composer on consecutive nights, using a very similar cast, the same stage director, the same basic set, similar or in some cases the same costumes with the same musical director and orchestra? Well, this is exactly what the Ravenna Festival decided to do for its stagings {…}

Nov 27, 2025

Ravenna Festival 2025 Review: Orlando

(Photo: Zani-Casadi) For the November installment of the Ravenna Festival, it was decided to present a Händel trilogy, comprising two fully staged operas, “Orlando” and “Alcina,” and a concert performance of his oratorio “The Messiah.” First up was the composer’s 1733 composition, “Orlando,” written to a libretto by Carlo Sigismondo Capece, which premiered at London’s King’s Theatre and ran for {…}

Aug 27, 2025

Innsbruck Early Music Festival 2025 Review: Ifigenia in Aulide

(Photo:Birgit Gufler) In 1718, the Venetian composer Antonio Caldara and the librettist Apostolo Zeno premiered their opera “Ifigenia in Aulide” for the imperial court in Vienna to celebrate Emperor Karl VI of Austria’s name day. This summer, over three hundred years since its last staging, the Innsbruck Early Music Festival brought together a stellar cast under the musical direction of {…}

Jul 25, 2025

CD Review: Innsbruck Early Music Festival’s ‘Il trionfo della Fama’

As usual, the 2024 Innsbruck Early Music Festival brought a rare work to the stage: Francesco Bartolomeo Conti’s “Il trionfo della Fama,” a one-act serenata composed in 1723 for the coronation of Emperor Charles VI and Empress Elisabeth Christine in Prague. Conceived as court propaganda, the serenata was commissioned to glorify imperial virtues and Habsburgs’ claims to the divine favor {…}

Feb 8, 2025

Teatro Municipale di Piacenza 2025 Review: Giulio Cesare in Egitto

(Photo: ©Zani-Casadio) In the autumn of 1709, as he was preparing to conclude his journey through Italy, George Frideric Handel triumphantly arrived in Venice to present his second Italian opera, “Agrippina.” The work was enthusiastically received by the audience, who acclaimed the composer with shouts of “Viva il Sassone!” (Long live the Saxon!) and with 27 performances that sealed its {…}

Dec 4, 2024

Ravenna 2024 Review: Il Ritorno Di Ulisse In Patria

(Photo: Zani-Casadio) In his program notes, the director, Pier Luigi Pizzi, writing about “Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria,” stated that “the opera speaks for itself,” adding, “we must not induce or force its interpretation… It is up to the audience to confront it, to think about it, and to decide for themselves whether or not it is worthwhile.” Even {…}

Aug 30, 2024

Valeria La Grotta & Omar Montanari Star in ‘Pergolesi Rediscovered’

The Pergolesi Spontini Foundation is set to present “Pergolesi Rediscovered.” Accademia Bizantina, led by harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone, return to the Festival to perform the world premiere of a new Symphony and five unpublished arias by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi from “Lo frate nnammorato.” The arias presented appear in both the 1732 and 1734 version of Pergolesi’s opera. The vocal soloists include {…}

Jul 10, 2024

Documenting the Evolution of an Early Music Orchestra & the Innsbruck Festival

The story of how Accademia Bizantina (AB) began seems quite simple. But like all good stories, there is more to it than meets the eye. In 1983 three classmates of the Ravenna Conservatory met for coffee. This initial meeting included Angelo Nicastro, a violist and now director of the Ravenna Festival; Romano Valentini, a pianist, organist, and harpsichordist, as well {…}

Jan 25, 2023

Ravenna 2022 – 23 Review: Tamerlano

(Photo: Zani-Casadio) The rehabilitation of Vivaldi’s operas continues apace. Over the past five or six years, the number of performances of his works has soared so that productions, which would have only recently been classed as welcome but rare events, are now becoming increasingly common. At least, that is the case in Italy and one or two other countries. It {…}

Nov 16, 2021

Teatro Dante Alighieri, Ravenna 2021 Review: L’Orfeo

(Photo: Zani-Casadio) In the space of three days, Ravenna’s Teatro Tradizione Dante Alighieri performed two operas, both of which involved trips into the afterlife. The first, “Il Viaggio di G.Mastorna” was a contemporary opera by Matteo D’Amico in which the hero Mastorna is killed in an airplane crash and condemned to journey through a modern-day purgatory in search of peace. {…}

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