(Photo: ©2026 Tristram Kenton) If you have ever visited to the Suffolk seaside town of Aldeburgh, where Benjamin Britten lived, and which inspired his 1945 opera “Peter Grimes” – based on George Crabbe’s poem “The Borough” – then you will surely remember the remarkable views from the sea front: vast, empty skies, sunlight blazing on the water like a purifying {…}
The English National Opera has announced its 2026-27 season. The season opens with Du Yun and Royce Vavrek’s “Angel’s Bone” with Allison Cook, Rodney Earl Clarke, Matthew McKinney, Mariam Wallentin, and Keith Pun. Baldur Brönnimann conducts the production by Kip Williams. Performance Dates: Oct 16-31, 2026 Ben Glassberg conducts Puccini’s “Tosca” with Annilese Miskimmon directing. Axelle Fanyo headlines with Chaz’men Williams-Ali, {…}
The Welsh National Opera has announced its 2026-27 season. Puccini’s “La Bohème” will star Carlos Cardoso, Alexia Voulgaridou, Navasard Hakobyan, and Laura Lolita Perešivana. Corinna Niemeyer and Frederick Brown conduct. Performance Dates: Sept. 27, 2026–Nov. 26, 2026 Bartok’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” and Stravinsky’s “Oedipus Rex” will be shown in a double bill. The operas will star Nathan Berg, Christine Rice, and {…}
Four centuries after William Shakespeare imagined a night-time forest where desires dissolve into illusions, Benjamin Britten transformed that world into one of the most enigmatic operas of the 20th century. Now the work returns to the stage of Teatro Real in a new production by director Deborah Warner under the baton of conductor Ivor Bolton–a duo that has repeatedly shaped {…}
Opera North has announced its 2026-27 season. The season opens with Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” featuring John Brancy, Verity Wingate, Caspar Singh, Jingwen Cai, Hannah Mason, Claire Pascoe, and Joshua Bloom. Garry Walker conducts the production by Patrick Nolan. Performance Dates: Oct. 9–Nov. 21, 2026 Leonardo Sánchez, Blake Denson and Jasmine Habersham lead Verdi’s “Rigoletto.” The cast also includes Callum Thorpe and Sir Willard {…}
(Credit: Gerard-Collett) The Royal Philharmonic Society Awards has announced the 2026 shortlists. The awards announced 11 categories including the singer award which saw Christine Rice, Louise Alder, and Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha nominated. The opera category saw “Festen” from the The Royal Ballet and Opera nominated alongside “Uprising” from Glyndebourne and “woman.life.song” from Birmingham Opera Company. Hugh Cutting was also nominated {…}
Welcome back for the first edition of 2026’s CD and DVD releases from around the opera world. The year kicks off with star-studded new releases including a new Verdi recording and an Offenbach opera that features some of today’s greatest performers. Luigi Gordigiani: Romantic Florence – Songs For Voice And Piano Dynamic releases mezzo-soprano Marina Comparato’s latest album. She is {…}
The English National Opera has announced its 2025-26 season. The season opens with “Mozart’s Women: A Musical Journey,” which will be directed by ENO’s Artistic Director Annilese Miskimmon and will star international opera soloists including Golda Schultz, Nardus Williams, Bethany Horak-Hallet, Ailish Tynan, Rainelle Krause, and Filipe Manu. Cleila Cafiero conducts the performance. The concert will be hosted by TV {…}
The Norwegian Opera has announced its 2025-26 season. Opera Puccini’s “Tosca” will be revived. Performance Dates: August 23-Sept. 4, 2025 Sara Jakubiak headlines Dvořák’s “Rusalka” alongside Dmytro Popov, Birgitte Christensen, Jerzy Butryn, Jennifer Johnston, and Magnus Ingemund Kjelstad. Edward Gardner conducts the production by Tatjana Gürbaca. Performance Dates: August 24-Oct. 9, 2025 Sir Wayne McGregor’s “Jocasta’s Line” will be performed. Performance {…}
(Photo ©2024 Camilla Greenwell) In a recent interview with director Damiano Michieletto at the Venice production of “The Tales of Hoffmann,” he said: “At its heart it is a journey into fantasy. It is opera fantastique, after all!” One definition of the French word fantastique is: a term for a literary and cinematic genre and mode that is characterized by {…}
Photo credit: Agathe Poupeney-OnP Thomas Adès’s “The Exterminating Angel” is one of the most successful contemporary operas of the century. Beyond its many productions—the Parisian one being the best of them all—, the opera quickly entered the symphonic repertoire with a very well-crafted symphonic suite. The opera, based on Luís Buñuel’s homonymous film, follows its source material: more than a {…}