(Photo: Arena di Verona) There are few operas more congenial to the Arena di Verona than Verdi’s “Nabucco.” Its massed choruses, martial confrontations, religious fervor and rhetoric of tyranny and liberation seem almost purpose-built for the world’s most imposing open-air amphitheater. Yet the Arena’s colossal scale presents an equally formidable challenge: what magnifies spectacle can just as readily obliterate intimacy, {…}
(Photo: Brescia e Amisano © Teatro alla Scala) At a time when vocal recitals seem to have lost some of the prominence they enjoyed throughout much of the twentieth century, it is particularly significant that two artists at the height of their careers should choose to celebrate a decade of collaboration through a format that demands complete artistic exposure. Such {…}
The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino has announced its 2027 season. Opera Kristina Mkhitarian star in Verdi’s “La Traviata” with Anthony Ciaramitaro, Luca Salsi, and Min Kim. Performance Dates: Jan. 15-22, 2027 Baldassarre Galuppi’s “Il mondo alla roversa o sia le donne che comandano” will star finalists of the International Pietro Antonio Cesti Baroque Singing Competition in Innsbruck. Chiara Cattani conducts the {…}
The Teatro dell’Opera di Roma has announced its 2026-27 season. Opera The season opens with Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress” with Michele Mariotti conducting a new production byRafael R. Villalobos.The cast includes Lawrence Brownlee, Jennifer Larmore,Daniela Barcellona, Alex Esposito, Rosalia Cid, Simone Alberghini, and Ya-Chung Huang. Performance Dates: Nov. 27-Dec. 5, 2026 Two cast will perform Giordano’s “Andrea Chénier.” Sonya Yoncheva, {…}
(Credit: Brescia e Amisano © Teatro alla Scala) A dark chapter in Giuseppe Verdi’s life came to an end with the success of “Nabucodonosor” at La Scala in 1842. During the preceding decade, between 1832 and 1842, Verdi had been rejected by the Milan Conservatory; his sister Giuseppa died, followed by his daughter Virginia just fourteen months old, his son {…}
On May 29, La Scala TV is set to present a livestream of Verdi’s “Nabucco.” The live stream will feature a new production by Alessandro Talevi with Riccardo Chailly conducting the opera in a version that includes the divertissements composed by Verdi in 1848. The cast will be led by Luca Salsi as Nabucco and Anna Netrebko as Abigaille. The {…}
The Teatro Real de Madrid has announced its 2026-27 season. Opera Sondra Radvanovsky and Saioa Hernández lead Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” with Lucas Meachem, Szymon Mechliński, Brian Jagde,, Michael Fabiano and Jorge de Leon. Nicola Luisotti conducts Carlos Wagner’s production. Performance Dates: Sept. 23-Oct. 11, 2026 Paul Agnew conducts Handel’s “Riccardo Primo, rè d’Inghilterra” with Jakub Józef Orliński, Melissa Petit, Alex Rosen, {…}
The Semperoper Dresden has announced its 2026-27 season. Premieres The opera premieres begin with Verdi’s “Un ballo in maschera,” a new production by Angela Denoke in her Semperoper directorial debut, conducted by Daniele Gatti and Stefano Tanzanian. Francesco Meli, Giorgio Berrugi, Nicole Car, Yulia Matochkina, Rosalia Cid, George Petean, and Lodovico Filippo Ravizza. Performance Dates: Oct. 4, 2026-May 21, 2027 {…}
(Credit: Victor Santiago) The Maggio Musciale Fiorentino has announced the postponement of Francesco Meli’s masterclass. The company said that Meli will give his masterclass on March 30 instead of the original Feb. 21 date. Tickets will be valid for the new date. This season, Meli is set to perform a new production of “Nabucco” at the Teatro alla Scala, and {…}
Rarely has a single performance so cornered the discographic record of an opera as Claudio Abbado’s “Simon Boccanegra” from 1977. And my use of the possessive is, in this case, far from aleatory: Abbado lays claim to the score with an authority scarcely less than Verdi’s own—or would Hugo Shirley otherwise have spoken in superlatives so unsparingly when Gramophone revisited {…}
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 {…}
