The Dallas Opera (TDO) is set to broadcast past performances on WRR 101.1 FM, one of the country’s oldest radio stations. From Sept. 14 to Oct. 5, 2026, TDO will partner with the classical music radio station’s Concert Hall program to broadcast its four 2025-2026 season mainstage productions. The first broadcast will be Bizet’s “Carmen,” conducted by Emmanuel Villaume and {…}
(Credit: Arena di Verona) Oddly enough, the Arena di Verona was offering two different productions of “Aida” this summer: Franco Zeffirelli’s and Stefano Poda’s. Judging from Poda’s staging of “Nabucco” the previous evening, I was glad to have found myself at Zeffirelli’s classic production, which I had first seen in 2018. True, Zeffirelli had positively buried Verdi’s opera beneath gold. Yet, {…}
(Credit: © Javier del Real | Teatro Real) There are operas that cannot be separated from the city where they were born. For Madrid, “Il Trovatore” is exactly that kind of story. It did not begin with Verdi but with a young playwright, Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, who in 1836 presented his play “El Trovador” at Madrid’s Teatro del Principe, inspired {…}
(Photo: Brescia e Amisano © Teatro alla Scala) There are works that endure through time because they contain questions that no era has ever been able to answer completely. “Carmen” is one of them. Since its controversial Paris premiere in 1875, when the Opéra-Comique witnessed an audience bewildered by a story centered on a woman who rejected the social and {…}
La Monnaie/De Munt has announced its 2026-27 season. Opera Jeanine de Bique, Kseniia Proshina, Ismael Jordi and Airam Hernandez star in Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” with Florence Losseau, Travon D. Walker, and Maxim Kuzmin-Karavaev. Valentina Peleggi conducts the production by Julia Burbach. Performance Dates: Sept. 29-Oct. 17,, 2026 Alain Altinoglu conducts Berg’s “Wozzeck” in a production by Christophe Coppens. Scott {…}
The Lyric Opera of Chicago has announced its 2026-27 season. Christian Van Horn and Kyle Ketelsen lead Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” with Mané Galoyan, Nina Solodovnikova, Lawrence Brownlee, Tommaso Barea, Anna El-Khashem, Christopher Humbert, Jr., and David Leigh. Enrique Mazzola conducts the production by Robert Falls. Performance Dates: Oct. 10-Nov. 1, 2026 Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’s “Omar” will star Issachah {…}
(Photo: Marcello Orselli) The seventeenth of Verdi’s twenty-six operas, “Il trovatore” (1853) is considered the archetypal senseless opera, thanks to its convoluted and highly implausible plot. So absurd is its premise that it was used in the Marx Brothers’ “A Night at the Opera” (1935) to elicit laughs. But despite this, “Il trovatore” has remained one of the most popular {…}
The Arena di Verona has announced its 2026 season. The season will open with a new production of Verdi’s “La Traviata.” Michele Spotti and Francesco Ivan Ciampa conduct the new production starring Martina Russomanno, Gilda Fiume and Rosa Feola. The casts also include Yusif Eyvazov, Galeano Salas, Francesco Meli, René Barbera, Adam Smith, Amartuvshin Enkhbat, Mihai Damian, Youngjun Park, Ludovic {…}
The Teatro Carlo Felice has announced its 2025-26 season. Opera Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” will open the season, starring Simone Alberghini, Gurgen Baveyan, Desirée Rancatore, Irina Dubrovskaya, Ian Koziara, David Ferri Durà, Mattia Denti, Jennifer Holloway, Monica Zanettin, Giulio Mastrototaro, Bruno Taddia, Alex Martini, and Chiara Fiorani. Constantin Trinks conducts the production by Damiano Michieletto. Performance Dates: Oct. 3-12, 2025 Marta Torbidoni, {…}
(Photo: Ansa Matteo Corner) This Monday, the long-awaited press conference was held to unveil the Teatro alla Scala’s 2025–26 season. The lineup promises to shine with big names, new productions, and ambitious projects. That’s why we’re bringing you a Top five list of the unmissable highlights of the new season! Number 1: A Bold Opening As tradition dictates, the season {…}
The Teatro Cervantes de Málaga has announced its 2025-26 season. Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” will star Lianna Haroutounian, Michael Weinius, Clementine Margaine, and Marko Mimica. Pedro Halffter conducts the production by Alex Aguilera. Performance Dates: Sept. 25 & 28, 2025 Ismael Jordi, Rihab Chaieb, and Alfonso Mujica star in Massenet’s “Werther.”Pau-Emile Fourny directs. Performance Dates: Nov. 28 & 30, 2025 {…}