Eleonora Buratto, Javier Camarena & Francesco Meli Lead Palau de les Arts’ 2023-24 Season

Valencia’s Palau de les Arts’ 2023-24 season featuring opera, recitals, concerts, and zarzuela. Opera Dima Orsho and Carla Nahadi Babelegoto star in “Women at Point Zero.” Performance Date: Sept. 15, 2023 James Gaffigan conducts Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades” in Richard Jones’ production. The cast includes Arsen Soghomonyan, Doris Soffel, Ekaterina Guseva, Elena Maximova, Roman Burdenko, and Nikolay Zemlianskikh. Performance {…}

May 18, 2023

ABAO Bilbao Ópera Closes Season with ‘Il Trovatore’

ABAO Bilbao Ópera closes its seventy-first season with Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.” The show will run May 20, 23, 26, and 29, 2023 at the Euskalduna Bilbao. Soprano Anna Pirozzi stars. Joining her will be mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk, tenor Celso Albelo and baritone Juan Jesús Rodríguez. Maestro Francesco Iván Ciampa will be on the podium. The production will be directed by {…}

May 7, 2023

Q & A: Anna Pirozzi on Medea & Maria Callas

The Greek National Opera is currently performing a production of Cherubini’s rarely performed opera “Medea.” The run of the opera is part of the company’s tribute to the centennial of Maria Callas’ birth. Callas was well known for rediscovering “Medea” and made it one of her signature roles. She went on to perform it more than 30 times at the Dallas {…}

Apr 25, 2023

Julia Bullock, Michael Fabiano, Javier Camarena, Anna Pirozzi, Freddie De Tommaso Headline Liceu+ Streaming Slate for 2023-24

The Gran Teatre del Liceu has announced the programming for its 2023-24 Liceu+ slate. The company will live stream “Eugene Onegin.” The opera stars Svetlana Aksenova, Audun Iversen, and Alexey Neklyudov. Josep Pons conducts. Streaming Date: Oct. 8, 2023 / Special Edition in November 2023 Next up is “Antony and Cleopatra” with Julia Bullock and Gerald Finley. John Adams conducts. {…}

Apr 16, 2023

Cecilia Bartoli, Jonas Kaufmann, Anna Netrebko, Lisette Oropesa & Juan Diego Flórez Lead Wiener Staatsoper’s 2023-24 Season

The Wiener Staatsoper has announced the 2023-24 season featuring new productions, revivals, and concerts. Premieres The company will showcase Tatjana Gürbaca’s production of “Il Trittico.” For “Il Tabarro,” audiences will hear Carlos Álvarez, Anja Kampe, and Joshua Guerrero. Headlining “Suor Angelica” will be Eleonora Buratto and Michaela Schuster. Finally, for “Gianni Schicchi,” the headliners including Carlos Álvarez, Serena Sáenz, Michaela {…}

Mar 30, 2023

Anna Netrebko, Sondra Radvanovsky, Benjamin Bernheim & Ludovic Tézier Lead Opéra de Paris’ 2023-24 Season

The Opéra de Paris has announced its 2023-24 Season featuring many new productions and many of the great stars in the world. Alexander Soddy conducts Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” with a cast that includes Peter Mattei, Kyle Ketelsen, Adela Zaharia, Julia Kleiter, Ben Bliss, Cyrille Dubois, John Relyea, Gaëlle Arquez, Tara Erraught, Alex Esposito, Bogdan Talos, Guilhem Worms, Ying Fang, and {…}

Mar 21, 2023

Royal Opera House 2022-23 Review: Turandot

Photo: Marc Brenner Having an unequivocal passion for Puccini, this reviewer must confess to being somewhat conflicted over his final work. These concerns, though, have always been assuaged with the knowledge that many others have also been plagued with such uncertainty, not least with the original work itself, for, of course, the maestro died before the completion of “Turandot.” After {…}

Mar 16, 2023

Royal Opera House 2022-23 Review: Turandot

Photo: Marc Brenner/ROH Somnific fiction is the stuff of bedtime stories starring beasts and feasts of the absurd: displays of madness only children could endure pre-slumber. Lumbering imaginations with beguilement, it refrains from the revilement of base villains, wrapping them instead in tangible entrancement. This enhancement of surrealness makes the fairytale the tender tooth’s apéritif: a nightly dose of magical {…}

Mar 4, 2023

Anna Pirozzi Stars in ‘Medea’ at Greek National Opera

Photo credit: Marty Sohl The Greek National Opera (GNO) will present the Greek premiere of Sir David McVicar’s production of Cherubini’s “Medea” starring soprano Anna Pirozzi. Alongside Pirozzi is bass-baritone Yanni Yannissis as Creon, soprano Vassiliki Karayanni as Glauce, tenor Giorgio Berrugi singing the role of Jason, mezzo-soprano Nefeli Kotseli as Neris, bass Nikolas Douros as the Captain of the {…}

Feb 17, 2023

Opera de Liège Announces Cast Change for ‘Adriana ‘Lecouvreur’

The Opera de Liège has announced a cast change for its production of Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur.” The company said that Anna Pirozzi will not be making her debut as “Adriana Lecouvreur,” as the soprano is reserving her role debut for Paris. The soprano also announced that she will be retiring the role of Abigaille in “Nabucco” after performing the opera {…}

Jan 23, 2023

Opéra National de Paris 2022-23 Review: Il Trovatore

This review is for the performance of January 21, 2023 Unearthing the bodies of “Il Trovatore,” La Fura dels Baus and Àlex Ollé found the first great war. This is not a literary metaphor used by this pedantic critic, but what actually was presented in the stage. Large tombs are raised and lowered into rows of graves on the stage {…}