Anna Netrebko, Elīna Garanča, Benjamin Bernheim, Derek Welton, Gerald Finley, Freddie de Tommaso, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, & Piotr Beczała Lead Wiener Konzerthaus’ 2026-27 Season

The Wiener Konzerthaus has announced its 2026-27 season. Here is a look at the vocal performances. VOCES8 leads a program of music by William Byrd, Virgil Thomson, Caroline Shaw, Morten Lauridsen, William Billings, Bobby McFerrin, Eric Whitacre, Taylor Scott Davis, Samuel Barber, Richard Rodgers, and Billy Strayhorn. Performance Date: Sept. 16, 2026 The Mahler Academy Orchestra will be joined by Fleur Barron and Philipp von Steinaecker in music by Mahler. Performance {…}

May 12, 2025

Ravello Festival Unveils 2025 Season

The 2025 lineup for the Ravello Festival has been announced. For the purposes of this article only classical voice concerts are included. Uniting Voices Chicago led by director Josephine Lee is first. Performance Date: July 11, 2025 Mezzo-soprano Annika Schlicht serves as soloist with the Dresden Philharmonic in Wagner’s “Wesendonck-Lieder.” Felix Mottl conducts. Performance Date: August 2, 2025 Tenor Michael {…}

Mar 5, 2025

Staatsorchester Hamburg Announces 2025-26 Season

The Staatsorchester Hamburg has announced its 2025-26 season. Here is a look at the vocal performances. Mahler’s “Lieder aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn” will be conducted by Adam Fischer and star Annika Schlicht and Benjamin Appl. The concert will also include Bartok’s Konzert für Orchester. Performance Dates: Nov. 23 & 24, 2025 Omer Meir Wellber conducts the Silverkonzert with Hila Baggio {…}

Nov 4, 2024

San Francisco Opera 2024-25 Review: Beethoven Symphony No. 9

(Photo: Cory Weaver / San Francisco Opera) We need Beethoven. Especially the 9th Symphony with Schiller’s Ode to Joy. “Freude, schöner Götterfunken/Tochter aus Elysium,/Wir betreten feuertrunken,Himmlische/, dein HeiligtumFreude menschen gotterfunken./Oh friends, no more of these sounds!/Let us sing more cheerful songs, More full of joy!/Joy, bright spark of divinity,/Daughter of Elysium,/Fire-inspired we tread Thy sanctuary!/Thy magic power reunites/All that custom {…}

Oct 23, 2024

San Francisco Opera 2024-25 Review: Tristan und Isolde

(Credit: Cory Weaver) Whether you view Richard Wagner’s opera, “Tristan und Isolde,” as an expressive tale of universal human redemption or simply a unique take on the many medieval romances of love and death, there is no question it casts a spell. In the opening of San Francisco’s new production by Paul Curran, conducted by San Francisco’s own Eun Sun {…}

Sep 27, 2024

Simon O’Neill & Anja Kampe Lead San Francisco Opera’s ‘Tristan und Isolde’

San Francisco Opera is set to present Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde.” The opera is set to be presented between Oct. 19 and Nov. 5 for five performances under the baton of Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim. Paul Curran makes his company debut directing a cast that will be led by Wagnerian interpreters Simon O’Neill and Anja {…}

Jul 25, 2024

Deutsche Oper Berlin 2023-24 Review: Götterdämmerung

(Photo Credit: Bernd Uhlig) There is something unique about waiting for the curtain to rise on “Götterdämmerung.” Anyone who has followed a “Ring” in the theatre, may take their seat in sadness as this evening will end the journey through the most fabled, mythical and symbolic landscape of all. Though the images and sentiments confronted in any given production condition {…}

Jul 23, 2024

Deutsche Oper Berlin 2023-24 Review: Die Walküre

(Credit: Fotos von Bernd Uhlig, Kontakt: bernd.uhlig.fotografie@t-online.de) Often after watching a perplexing rendition of “Das Rheingold“, critics and public alike might proclaim: “Let’s see what will happen tomorrow night. Let us hold our judgement until then, to see where all of this is going.” And then, Herheim’s “Die Walküre” began, proving to be the worst of the cycle. The First {…}

Jul 19, 2024

Deutsche Oper Berlin 2023-24 Review: Das Rheingold

(Fotos von Bernd Uhlig, Kontakt: bernd.uhlig.fotografie@t-online.de) It does seem that the 2021 Deutsche Oper Berlin’s Ring has been somewhat of a success over the last few years. And this is good for opera. A major achievement, this as other cycles, after the centennial Patrice Chéreau staging have created negative stirrings, indeed vivid contestations largely due to mistaken stage-director conceptions ingrained {…}

Jun 11, 2024

Deutsche Oper Berlin 2023-24 Review: Der Ring des Nibelungen

(Photo credit: Bernd Uhlig) The man who gave the opera world its most dazzling 21st century “Parsifal,” Stefan Herheim, continues his quest to interrogate the Romantic text that is Richard Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungen.” Inspired refreshing of a 150-year-old work of art can provide new insights and flashes of illumination. But conceptual pyrotechnics can just as easily destroy its {…}

May 30, 2024

Deutsche Oper Berlin 2024 Review: Der Ring des Nibelungen

(Photo by Bernd Uhlig) I’m back in Berlin, a city I favor and enjoy so much, ready for yet another Ring cycle at Deutsche Oper, a large, comfortable 1850-seat theatre boldly designed in the Modernist style and simply ideal for large-scale productions. And none comes much larger than those penned by Giacomo Meyerbeer, Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner Therefore, with {…}