Opera

Madama Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini Wiener Staatsoper, Wien 05.12.2025 La ya mítica puesta en escena japonista que el ya fallecido director de cine de Holywood Anthony Minghella creó en 2008, se va reponiendo en la Wiener Staatsoper desde el año 2020 bajo la dirección de Carolyn Choa, quién fue la mujer de Minghella, y estos días la podemos ver con un nuevo casto estelar en el coliseo vienés. Giampaolo Bisanti hace brillar la extraordinaria orquesta de la Wiener Staatsoper como

Lohengrin, Richard Wagner Malmö Opera, Sweden We went to Sweden to see a new production of Lohengrin and instead found ourselves watching a production of Die Zauberflöte It seems that Charlotte Engelkes didn't like the dramatic intensity of Lohengrin and decided to transform it into a marvelous staging, but not for Lohengrin , rather for Die Zauberflöte . The King of Brabant was a very convincing Papageno -like figure (Anna Ardelius's work with the costumes was sublime) and

Lohengrin, Richard Wagner Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe Manuel Schmitt has created a new, epic Lohengrin where the history of Germany unfolds in a timeless manner, without direct references, creating an oppressive atmosphere that everyone understands perfectly. In this endeavor, the extraordinary work of Julius Theodor Semmelmann as set designer, Carola Volles in costumes, and Stefan Woinke in lighting design results in something monumental. Not pleasant, because seeing

Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Jacques Offenbach Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin The Unter den Linden opera house this week staged Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann with extraordinary set design by Lydia Steier. The set design is one of the best ever created for Offenbach's work—colorful, detailed, vibrant, and mysterious. The Staatskapelle, under the direction of the extraordinary Bertrand de Billy, was clear, cohesive, and brilliant. The voices were the highlight of the evening

Wagner arrives in Seoul, South Korea, under the direction of Swiss stage director Stephan Märki, who previously conceived a celebrated production of Tristan und Isolde that was staged several times in Germany. But this time, he has transformed it into a far more spectacular and impressive staging. The Cottbus production already placed Tristan und Isolde in a somewhat celestial, galactic setting, but in South Korea, he has magnified it with a grand metaphor of space and the

On November 27th, the Deutsche Oper Berlin held the premiere of Umberto Giordano's opera Fedora . But it wasn't just a premiere; it was the first time the work had been performed at the German capital. Giordano's piece is a marvel inspired by the work of the celebrated French playwright Victorien Sardou, also the author of La Tosca , both works premiered by Sarah Bernhardt, and in fact, Fedora was dedicated to her. This already indicates the great dramatic depth required fo

2.12.2025, Gran Teatre del Liceu Still recovering from a vocal ailment, the mexican tenor Javier Camarena took to the stage of the Gran Teatre del Liceu on 02.12 to sing the role of Nemorino. Camarena has sung this role countless times, and we could see it; he moves with ease in Mario Gas's production, because he is his unique and his Nemorino is also unique. His theatrical gifts in this role are extraordinary, and where others fail to achieve stage presence, he delivers the

In 2016, Barrie Kosky premiered a new production of Verdi's Macbeth that caused a scandal for some, while for others it was the triumph of a human and contemporary Shakespeare on the operatic stage. The Zurich Opera House is currently staging that now-historic production again, with Klaus Grünberg as the reprising maestro. Kosky's Macbeth remains a somber, dark piece that delves into the darkest aspects of humanity, eschewing details and exploring the abyssal and tragic depth

Pierre Audi's now-famous Tosca has returned to the Opéra Bastille in Paris with its enormous cross flying above the stage—there's no doubt that this cross owes much to Dalí and his Corpus Hypercubus at the Met Museum. It's not a production that I find particularly brilliant, although, for example, its Te Deum is visually extraordinary. However, Tosca's ending, without her leaping from Castel Sant'Angelo—something that it's more practical for the soprano in Audi's production—

The Bavarian Staatsoper had its 2025/26 season first premiere yesterday with Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Night Before Christmas, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski and staged by Barrie Kosky. Expectations were understandably high: a beloved title, an exceptional predominantly Russian cast, and a director known for theatrical imagination. Instead of entering a world of winter magic, however, the audience found itself in what felt more like a circus arena than a Christmas tale. Throughou

The Temporada d'Òpera de Catalunya, the Sabadell Opera, had never dared to perform Wagner and for the first time, yesterday, presented Der Fliegende Holländer at the Teatre de la Faràndula in Sabadell. Although it is a short Wagner, it is not easy at all, neither scenically nor musically. The Sabadell Opera, however, always surprises us. The commitment of the Sabadell Opera has been capital. Not only to stage Der Fliegende Holländer but to do so with a young cast and above

The Metropolitan Opera in New York closes out 2025 by staging a production by the legendary Nicolas Joël, who was artistic director of the Paris Opera between 2009 and 2014, and who passed away just five years ago in 2020. As is always the case with the Metropolitan Opera, its commitment to this revival is a commitment to tradition, and in this case, to the tradition of theatrical savoir-faire. The production with which Joël debuted at The Met in 1996, with Pavarotti in the c

Rome kicks off its opera season with the world premiere of a new production of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin, directed by Damiano Michieletto. Following its run in Rome, the new production will travel to Venice and Valencia. The staging is fresh, innovative and dazzling. The set design and its structures, with their pure forms that seek the essence of the elements, seem to have sprung from the studio of a genius of design and architecture: Paolo Fantin. This new production, it's

The Teatro Comunale di Bologna has revived the celebrated La Bohème, a production conceived by stage director Graham Vick three years after his death, in 2018, inspired by the Bologna of university students. It was revived again in 2021, the year of the British director's death, as a tribute, and now it is once more celebrated in Bologna as a contemporary and fresh interpretation of Puccini's classic. This time, however, the opera has been temporarily moved to the Teatro Comu

El mítico Elisir d'Amore  creado por Mario Gas en 1983, ambientado en la Italia fascista, que se repuso la temporada 1997/1998 en el Teatro Victoria, con aún el Liceu en reconstrucción, y que ha dado la vuelta por medio mundo, ha vuelto a aterrizar en el Liceu estos días. Es una producción sencilla en lo escenográfico, como lo es el cine realista italiano en el que Gas se inspiró, con ese regusto a Ladri di biciclete , pero riquísima en colores y movimiento escénico. Aunque a

Das Theater Münster präsentierte eine Neuinszenierung von Wagners Tristan und Isolde, die sich mit beeindruckender Klarheit und künstlerischer Konsequenz von vielen regieexperimentellen Irrwegen der Gegenwart absetzt. Die Inszenierung bewegt sich souverän zwischen Realität und Traumwelt. Der erste Aufzug spielt tatsächlich auf einem Schiff, einem militärischen Frachter, dessen kühle Härte Tristan im Licht seiner eigenen toxischen Männlichkeit bloßlegt. Der zweite Akt öffnet s

Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci, München, 6.11.2025 With a line-up featuring Elīna Garanča, Vittorio Grigolo, Yonghoon Lee and Ailyn Pérez, most major opera houses — Vienna, La Scala, or even the MET— would have sold out weeks in advance. The Bavarian State Opera, however, faced noticeably empty seats, a situation that has become increasingly common. It would be easy to attribute this solely to the house’s chronically unfocused marketing, which fails to build genuine anticipat

The Maid of Orleans, Amsterdam, 15.11.2025 Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans fuses grand choral tableaux with an intimate psychological portrait of Joan of Arc. In Amsterdam, Dmitri Tcherniakov reframes the opera as a modern courtroom drama: Joan is tried for extremism, confined in a metal cage, abused, hallucinating and, in the end, driven to self-immolation that kills everyone around her. While some conceptual ideas are recognisable, the staging repeatedly collapses under i

The Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, with its extensive and continuous repertoire, has made a bold undertaking these past few days with its production of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin . And it has done so with a powerful staging by András Almási-Tóth. The stage director situates the story of the Swan Knight in a fin-de-siècle setting, yet interwoven with elements of our own time, making the production timeless, especially in the second act when two contrasting rooms appear, h

Teatro alla Scala presents Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Così fan tutte, one of the Salzburg genius's most brilliant and comical operas. This production by Robert Carsen and Luis F. Carvalho is a vibrant display of garish pastel colors, reminiscent of American candy colors, as if we were in a pink and blue Mulholland Drive burger joint. This is accompanied by simultaneous video projections and various other quirky elements, all in keeping with the latest trends in stage design. T