(Photo: Luciano Romano) In 1770, Naples’ Teatro San Carlo attempted to commission a new opera from the fourteen-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart while he was touring Italy with his father. Mozart declined, having already accepted a commission from Milan’s Teatro Ducale. The resulting opera, “Mitridate, Re di Ponto,” was never performed at the San Carlo until its 2026–27 season, when the {…}
(Credit: ©2026 Tristram Kenton) Gaetano Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment,” first perfomed in 1840, was something of a near disaster. On opening night, the lead tenor was frequently off pitch and when it premiered in Italy, shortly after, it was labelled as “worthless” and closed after just six performances. Fortunately for Donizetti, (and everyone else), it quickly turned round and {…}
(Credit: David Ruano) In a production built around camp, color, and a towering wedding cake, Marta Pazos has uncovered what has always been hidden in plain sight within Mozart’s comedy of desire, class, and performance. Mozart can survive everything: new translations, radical reinterpretations, and directorial manifestos the size of doctoral dissertations. He survives because his scores always contain more than {…}
(Photo: Monika Rittershaus / La Scala) “Opera sings too much” provocatively declared a barely thirty-year-old Claude Debussy shortly before revolutionizing the concept of lyric theater in France with what would become his only operatic work: “Pelléas et Mélisande.” A work built upon silences, allusions, and a circular sense of time: a fable situated outside reality. The result was not what {…}
The Gran Teatre del Liceu has announced its 2026-27 season. Shirin Neshat directs Verdi’s “Aida” with four sopranos taking on the title role. Anna Netrebko, Anna Pirozzi, Olga Maslova, and Ewa Plonka star alongside Ekaterina Semenchuk, Ksenia Dudnikova, Fiorenza Cedolins, Yusif Eyvazov, Piotr Beczała, Arsen Soghomonyan, Artur Ruciński, Igor Golovatenko, Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar, Riccardo Fassi, George Andguladze, Manuel Fuentes, Alexander Köpeczi, {…}
Ibermusica has announced its 2026-27 season. Here are the vocal performances. Gustavo Dudamel conducts the New York philharmonic and Orfeó Català in Prokofiev, Di Castri, and Adams. Performance Date: Oct. 13, 2026 Le Concert D’Astrée and Emmanuelle Haïm lead Handel’s Messiah with Lucy Crowe, Carlo Vistoli, Lunga Eric Hallam, and Ashley Riches Performance Date: Dec. 10, 2026 The Deutsche Radio {…}
The Teatro San Carlo has announced a cast change for its March 24, 2026 performance of “Lucia di Lammermoor.” The company said that due to Rosa Feola’s illness, the role of Lucia will be performed by Sara Blanch. Blanch has performed Lucia at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo to great success. She is known for the bel canto repertoire performing {…}
BCN Classics has announced its 2026-27 season. Here are the vocal performances. Gustavo Dudamel conducts the New York Philharmonic and the Orfeó Català in music by John Adams, Zosha Di Castri, and Prokófiev. Performance Date: Oct. 12, 2026 Lucy Crowe, Carlo Vistoli, Lunga Eric Hallam and Ashley Riches join Le Concert d’Astrée and Emmanuelle Haïm for Handel’s “Messiah.” Performance Date: Dec. {…}
The Staatskapelle Dresden has announced its 2026-27 season. Here is a look at the vocal performances. Joshua Weilerstein conducts Regula Mühlemann in the AdventKonzert. Performance Date: Nov. 29, 2026 Marie Jacquot conducts Emily D’Angelo and Igor Levit in works by Ravel and Beethoven. Performance Date: Dec. 30-31, 2026 Daniele Gatti conducts Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Klaus Florian Vogt in a program of Mahler and Widman. Performance {…}
The etymology of the Italian word “maschera” (and its English equivalent “mask”) is rather obscure. It’s derived from the Arabic word “maskara,” meaning buffoonery and/or harsh derision. Indeed, a closer look at “Un ballo in maschera” reveals a higher degree of caustic bite far beyond the final act’s famous masked ball. Amelia seeks help from the soothsayer Ulrica to rid {…}
(Credit: Benjamin Girette/OnP) The Opéra National de Paris is set to present “Un Ballo in Maschera” in cinemas on Feb. 8, 2026. The opera, which will be presented in a production by Gilbert Deflo, will star Anna Netrebko (Amelia), Matthew Polenzani (Riccardo), Ludovic Tézier (Renato), Sara Blanch (Oscar), and Elizabeth DeShong (Ulrica). Speranza Scapucci conducts. The opera will be shown {…}