(Photo: Alciro Theodoro da Silva) As the final opera of George Frideric Händel, “Deidamia” (1741) has long occupied a minor space in the composer’s canon. Often viewed as a weary departure from the high-octane heroism of his Royal Academy years—a view infamously codified by Winton Dean’s somewhat dismissive assessment of Händel’s operatic swan song—the work, as the core production of {…}
Innsbruck Festival of Early Music announces its 50th season. This article only features vocal events. Ottavio Dantone leads the Accademia Bizantina Ensemble in a workshop concert. Performance Date: July 25, 2026 Lauren Lodge-Campbell, Nicolò Balducci, and Jonathan Eyers perform alongside Il Gusto Barocco Ensemble under the direction of Jörg Halubek. Performance Date: August 1, 2026 Anna Bonitatibus gives a masterclass. {…}
(Photo credit: Padraig Grant) The International Handel Festival Göttingen announces its 2026 lineup. Sophie Junker takes on the title role in Händel’s “Deidamia.” The Handel specialist is joined by Nicolò Balducci, Bruno de Sá, Sarah Gilford, Rory Musgrave, and Fenice Petros. The Göttingen University Chamber Choir is led by Antonius Adamske. George Petrou conducts the Göttingen Festival Orchestra. Giorgina Germanou and Ernst {…}
Welcome back as we explore the latest CD and DVD releases from around the opera world. This week, audiences are in for a world premiere recording from one of the great mezzos, a Strauss album from a rising star soprano, a contemporary album of rediscovered works, and a lot of baroque music. Here is a look at some of the {…}
(Photo: Michele Crosera) Venice’s Teatro La Fenice opened its 2025-26 season with a new production of “La Clemenza di Tito,” widely considered to be the least popular of Mozart’s mature operas. Its premiere in 1791 at the Estates Theatre in Prague received a lukewarm reception, with the Empress herself complaining that “nearly all of us fell asleep.” Albert Einstein’s assessment {…}
Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik announces its program for the 2026 season. This article only features opera events. Opening the festival is the workshop concert which features a sneak peak into Ottavio Dantone’s reconstruction of Pietro Antonio Cesti’s “Il pomo d’oro.” This event is presented in a a hybrid format combining elements of concert and rehearsal. The Accademia Bizantina Ensemble {…}
(Photo: Padraig Grant) In 1752, Händel’s final complete composition, his oratorio “Jephtha,” was premiered at London’s Covent Garden Theatre, bringing to an end the composer’s illustrious career. Just over ten years earlier, he had premiered his opera “Deidamia” at London’s Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, in what proved to be another significant landmark; it was to be the last of his {…}
(Photo: Guiseppe Tricarico) Countertenor Nicolò Balducci first came to attention at the 2022 Early Music Festival in Innsbruck, where he won 3rd prize as well as the Young Artist Award in its Cesti singing competition. Three years later, he is now an established singer with an impressive CV, boasting a wide repertoire of roles from operas of the baroque era, {…}
The Teatro Filarmonico has announced its 2026 season. Here is a look at the vocal performances in Verona. The season will open with Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” starring Ildar Abdrazakov, Paolo Bordogna, Ramaz Chikviladze, Gilda Fiume, Iván Ayón Rivas, Marta Torbidoni, Emma Fekete, and Alessandro Abis. Francesco Lanzillotta conducts the production by Enrico Stinchelli. Performance Dates: Jan. 18-25, 2026 Christian Senn, Loriana Castellano, Josè {…}
(Photo: Clemens Manser) In 1637, the San Cassiano theatre opened its doors for the first time with a performance of Francesco Minelli’s “L’Andromeda,” an event that took opera out of the palazzi and drawing rooms of the aristocracy and into the public arena. Within a matter of only a few years, the city was awash with opera houses. Composers and {…}
As usual, the 2024 Innsbruck Early Music Festival brought a rare work to the stage: Francesco Bartolomeo Conti’s “Il trionfo della Fama,” a one-act serenata composed in 1723 for the coronation of Emperor Charles VI and Empress Elisabeth Christine in Prague. Conceived as court propaganda, the serenata was commissioned to glorify imperial virtues and Habsburgs’ claims to the divine favor {…}