Natalya Romaniw, Michael Volle, Golda Schultz, Ailyn Pérez & Corinne Winters Lead Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia’s 2025-26 Season

The Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia have announced its 2025-26 season. Concerts Daniel Harding conducts a staged version of Wagner’s “Die Walküre” by Vincent Huguet. The opera will star Michael Volle, Miina‐Liisa Värelä, Vida Miknevičiūtė, Jamez McCorkle, Stephen Milling, and Okka von der Damerau. Performance Dates: Oct. 23-27, 2025 Antonio Pappano conducts Natalya Romaniw, Szilvia Vörös, {…}

Jun 4, 2025

Chelsea Lehnea, Anna Bonitatibus, Jeanine De Bique, Stéphane Degout, Samuel Hasselhorn & Lea Desandre Lead Opéra de Rouen’s 2025-26 Season

The Opéra de Rouen Normandie has announced its 2025-26 season. Opera Chelsea Lehnea, Leonardo Sanchez, and Anthony Clark Evans lead Verdi’s “La Traviata.” Dayner Tafur-Diaz conducts the production by Jean-François Sivadier. The opera will be livestreamed on Oct. 4, 2025. Performance Dates: Sept. 26-Oct. 7, 2025 Elsa Benoit and Samuel Hasselhorn lead Brahms’ Deutsche Requiem. Laurence Equilbey conducts the production {…}

May 7, 2025

Elza van den Heever, Joseph Calleja, Nicholas Brownlee, Corinne Winters, Allan Clayton & Anna Princeva Lead Oper Frankfurt’s 2025-26 Season

Oper Frankfurt has announced its 2025-26 season. Premieres Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” will star Teona Todua, Karolina Bengtsson, Kelsey Lauritano, Taehan Kim, Sakhiwe Mkosana, Magnus Dietrich, Andrew Kim, Bianca Tognocchi, Elizabeth Reiter, Liviu Holender, and Sebastian Geyer. Thomas Guggeis conducts the production by Mariame Clément. Performance Dates: Sept. 21, 2025-Jan. 17, 2026 Alexander Tsymbalyuk leads Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” with Karolina {…}

Mar 24, 2025

New Cast Change for the Gran Teatre del Liceu’s ‘Lohengrin’

The Gran Teatre del Liceu has announced a cast change for its performance of “Lohengrin” on March 24. The company said that Miina-Liisa Värelä will sing the role of Ortrud replacing the originally scheduled Iréne Theorin, who currently has an infection in the vocal chords. Värelä already sang the March 17 performance also replacing Theorin. Värelä is a soprano who {…}

Aug 2, 2024

Glyndebourne Opera Festival 2024 Review: Tristan und Isolde

(Photo credit: Glyndebourne’s own official trailer highlights its festival as “No Ordinary Opera”. Certainly, the staging for “Tristan und Isolde” is far from ordinary, courtesy of a visually entrancing setting by Ronald Aeschlimann. The performers are basically encased in an elliptical vortex-type form of concentric circles, which I interpreted to be a depiction of some portal-like presence intended to illustrate {…}

Mar 29, 2024

Kristine Opolais, Vida Miknevičiūtė, Tuomas Pursio & Stefan Pop Lead Finnish National Opera’s 2024-25 Season

The Finnish National Opera has announced its 2024-25 season. Premieres Leevi Madetoja’s “The Ostrobothnians”, which is known as Finland’s “national opera” will be directed by director Paavo Westerberg. The cast will include Jukka Rasilainen, Ville Rusanen, Jussi Vänttinen, Johanna Lehesvuori, Maria Turunen, Iida Antola, Päivi Nisula, Tuomas Pursio, Aarne Pelkonen, Ilkka Hämäläinen and Mika Pohjonen. The Orchestra of the Finnish National {…}

Sep 8, 2023

Miina-Liisa Värelä & Clay Hilley Lead Canadian Opera Company’s ‘Fidelio’

The Canadian Opera Company is set to open its 2023-24 with Beethoven’s “Fidelio.” The opera, which will run from Sept. 29 to Oct. 20, 2023, will be directed by Matthew Ozawa. In a statement, the director said, “I would say the biggest takeaway [I would hope for audiences] is that someone comes away from Fidelio reminded that they have the {…}

Aug 21, 2023

Aigul Akhmetshina, Danielle de Niese & Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen Lead Glyndebourne Festival’s 2024 Season

The 2024 Glyndebourne Festival has been announced celebrating its 90th season. The season will open with a new production of Bizet’s “Carmen,” directed by Diane Paulus in her Glyndebourne directorial debut. Music Director Robin Ticciati and conductor Anja Bihlmaier will share conducting duties with two casts. The first cast will include mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb in the role of Carmen and {…}

Jul 31, 2022

Bayerische Staatsoper Announces Cast Change for ‘Die Frau ohne Schatten’

The Bayerische Staatsoper has announced a cast change for its performance of “Die Frau ohne Schatten” on July 31. The company announced that Nina Stemme fell ill and as a result, will be replaced by Miina-Liisa Värelä. Due to short notice, the company had to postpone the performance a few hours in order to allow Värelä to arrive in Munich. {…}

May 21, 2022

Nancy Fabiola Herrera, Julia Kleiter & Sabina Puértolas Orquesta & Coro Nacionales de España’s 2022-23 Season

The Orquesta and Coro Nacionales de España have announced their 2022-23 season. Here is a look at the vocal performances for the season. The season opens with György Ligeti’s Requiem and Richard Strauss’ Eine Alpensinfonie conducted by David Afkham with soloists Jenny Daviet and Barbara Kozelj. Performance Dates: Sept. 23-25, 2022 György Ligeti’s Atmosphères and Antonín Dvořák’s Te Deum and {…}

Apr 1, 2022

Finnish National Opera Announces 2022-23 Season

The Finnish National Opera has announced its 2022-23 Season featuring new productions and classic opera. Here is a look at the opera productions for the season. “Between” features music by Kaija Saariaho, Matias Vestergård, and Sebastian Hilli. Clément Mao-Takacs conducts a cast that includes Thomas Kellner, Tuuli Lindeberg, and Peter Herresthal. Performance Dates: August 31-Sept. 3, 2022 “CircOpera 2.0″ will {…}

Miina-Liisa Varela