(Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera) Metropolitan Opera’s season premiere of Ivo van Hove’s production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” took place on September 24, 2025. Van Hove’s production originally debuted at Ópera National de Paris in 2019 at the Palais Garnier and OperaWire reviewed the performance in detail, specifically highlighting the set design and overall aesthetic. It is also important {…}
Federica Lombardi has announced her pregnancy and as a result has to withdrawn from her planned role debut in Verdi’s “Luisa Miller.” The soprano was to sing the role at the Palau de les Arts and Wiener Staatsoper. The soprano is expected to return to the stage in spring 2026 and Lombardi wishes to thank the opera houses and her audience for {…}
(Credit: Karen Almond) The Metropolitan Opera is set to revive Ivo van Hove’s production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” The opera will be performed 14 times between Sept. 24 and Nov. 22, 2025 and will showcase Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the first cast. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green takes on the title role with a cast that includes Federica Lombardi, Ben Bliss, Janai {…}
The Wiener Staatsoper has announced the Film Festival on Vienna’s Rathausplatz. The company will present operas on 10 Sunday evenings at the Haus am Ring. Here is a look at the program: The festival opens with Puccini’s “La bohème” from 2022 featuring Vittorio Grigolo, Anna Netrebko, Günther Groissböck, and Nina Minasyan. Date: June 29, 2025 Donizetti’s “L’elisir d’amore” from 2022 features {…}
The Palau de les Arts has announced its 2025-26 season. Lorenzo Viotti conducts Gounod’s “Faust” in a production by Johannes Erath. Iván Ayón-Rivas, Alex Esposito, Ruth Iniesta, Florian Sempey, and Ekaterine Buachidze. Performance Dates: Oct. 3-15, 2025 Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s “La descente d’Orphée aux enfers” will star Josipa Bilić, Camille Chopin, Sarah Fleiss, Tanaquil Ollivier, Sydney Frodsham, Richard Pittsinger, Bastien Rimondi, Attila {…}
The Wiener Staatsoper has announced its 2025-26 season. Here is a look at the operas and recitals for the new season. Premieres Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride” will get a new production by Dirk Schmeding. The cast will be headed by Franz Xaver Schlecht, Margaret Plummer, Slávka Zámečníková, Ivo Stanchev, Monika Bohinec, Pavol Breslik, Michael Laurenz, Peter Kellner, Matthäus Schmidlechner, Ilia Staple, and Alex Ilvakhin. Tomáš Hanus conducts. A second cast will {…}
(Credit: Evan Zimmerman / Met Opera) The Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD season will continue with Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” on April 26, 2025. The production by Richard Eyre will be conducted by Joana Mallwitz and will star Michael Sumuel and soprano Olga Kulchynska as Figaro and Susanna. They will be joined by Joshua Hopkins as Count Almaviva, Federica Lombardi as the {…}
The Metropolitan Opera revived “Le Nozze di Figaro” for the 2024-25 season. I’ve seen this Richard Eyre production countless times and it’s always a breath of air to see how different casts can take the same directions, but breathe new life into them. And this cast was no different. When I reviewed the opera in 2021-22, I remarked how different {…}
The 86th Quincena Musical de San Sebastián has unveiled its upcoming season. Here is a breakdown of upcoming vocal performances. “Rossini’s Stabat Mater” will feature the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, conducted by Mark Elder, will be joined by the Orfeón Donostiarra, conducted by José Antonio Sáinz Alfaro. Soloists include soprano Federica Lombardi, tenor Xabier Anduaga, and bass Will Thomas. {…}
The Dutch National Opera has announce dits 2025-26 season. Elena Stikhina and Natalya Romaniw star in Puccini’s “Tosca” with Joshua Guerrero and Gevorg Hakobyan. Nathalie Stutzmann conducts. Performance Dates: Sept. 3-25, 2025 “Operetta Land” will be performed featuring music by Johann Strauss II, Jacques Offenbach, and Arthur Sullivan. Steef de Jong, Raoul Stefani, Marc Pantus, Laetitia Gerards, Elenora Hu, Frederik {…}
Another day, another “Norma.” Not that that is a hardship: lucky Vienna, has two new productions in which to indulge. And they proved very different beasts. The opera hasn’t been staged at the Staatsoper for almost 50 years so it was long overdue to have an outing there. And Cyril Teste’s production did the job well enough, if not excitingly, {…}