All Reviews

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

On November 13, 2025, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, led by its principal conductor Simone Young, presented a concert version of Richard Wagner's Siegfried to the Sydney audience. The Australian conductor, after establishing herself in Bayreuth and at La Scala as one of the leading contemporary Wagner interpreters, decided to bring a cast worthy of Bayreuth to the Sydney Opera House's Concert Hall. Young conducts with passion, composure, and supreme energy, giving her Wagner

On Saturday, the Opéra Garnier in Paris premiered the production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro done by Netia Jones in 2022, with a new cast. Da Ponte's celebrated libretto, based on Beaumarchais's work and a key embryo of the French revolutionary movement, returned to Paris in a stage interpretation by Netia Jones that attempts to expose the power dynamics surrounding an opera house, setting the action backstage at the Opéra Garnier itself. The idea is bril

Today, November 13, 2025, the Palau de la Música Catalana paid a profound tribute to one of the greatest baritones of all time: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. His most worthy heir, Benjamin Appl, wove together an extraordinary program of carefully chosen pieces to illustrate the life of the great singer and multifaceted artist, as Appl himself demonstrated. Appl was accompanied by the South African-born pianist, James Baillieu. Bailieu is not a pianist, he is God. His hands don't

Jessica Pratt is the true diva of bel canto . These days in Florence, she is crowned as a true diva in the stratospheric role of Lucrezia Borgia. Her vocal range is absolutely complete and, moreover, tailor-made for this role, in the tragic depths of her lower notes and the piercing, stellar quality of her higher ones. Pratt delivers a Lucrezia unlike any heard in Italy for years. Powerful, regal, electric, with breathtaking breath control, and high notes as clean and delicat

The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra arrived in Barcelona in full force, accompanied by Myung-Whun Chung, the newly appointed principal conductor of the La Scala Orchestra in Milan, and the extraordinary violinist Maxim Vengerov. They performed two fundamental monuments of Russian musical literature: Tchaikovsky's exquisitely romantic Violin Concerto and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, the piece that forever shattered the traditional conventions of harmony and symphonic music. T

One of Verdi's most profound and late works, Otello, was presented at the Opéra national du Rhin with a minimalist concept by Ted Huffman. Everything is concentrated on Shakespeare's human drama and the power of his characters; the set design adds nothing of interest, except for Bertrand Couderc's dramatic lighting. Speranza Scappucci is a conductor with a promising future who has toured the world's greatest opera houses, such as the Met, La Scala, and the Royal Opera House (

As happened last year with Rheingold, Calixto Bieito's production was so highly anticipated, given the director's track record in other productions such as his Tristan und Isolde at the Vienna State Opera, that the final result is disappointing. Bieito is no longer the director he once was, and when Wagner becomes complex and grandiose with his absolute Gesamtkunstwerk – Der Ring des Nibelungen – Bieito pales in comparison. This time, the main stage prop is a fresh robotic do

Ayer el Palau de la Música Catalana tuvo el placer de presenciar un concierto de Martha Argerich, leyenda viva del piano, y su amigo Nelson Goerner, otro genio de las teclas. Todo empezó perfecto hasta que las autoridades catalanas decidieron avisar por notificación de emergencias en el momento que Argerich y Goerner tocaban La Valse de Ravel. Argerich, muy enfadada y nerviosa, paró el concierto y no entendía nada, porque cada vez sonaban más móviles y más fuerte. Ella que vi

he Théâtre des Champs-Elysées premiered a new production of Hector Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust the day before yesterday. The role of Faust was sung by the legendary French vocalist, Benjamin Bernheim, who joined the cast at the last minute. From the very first lines, he impressed with the brilliance of his timbre, the power of his projection, and the perfection of his phrasing. Deeply committed to the dramatic, he made the role of the tormented, childlike adult, consumed by

The Ring ohne Worte , a creation by Lorin Maazel, arrived at the Berliner Philharmonie today, by the hand of Theodor Currentzis and his Utopia Orchestra. Wagner without words does not exist, because his music was born from words, and in the case of the Ring, the words began to take shape many years before the music, already in his youth in Dresden. But I believe that today, Wagner himself would have taken a train from Bayreuth to hear Currentzis's interpretation and his extra

Sir Bryan Terfel can still do it all. Yesterday his voice resonated once again in Monaco, embodying a magnificent and awe-inspiring Flying Dutchman. The Monte-Carlo Opera had the privilege yesterday of witnessing Richard Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer in a semi-staged version with extraordinary projections by Stefano Visconti. Senta was sung by Asmik Grigorian, who delivered an marvellous and highly dramatic Ballad of Senta. The legendary Albert Dohmen was Daland, and his W

Valentina Carrasco, born with La Fura dels Baus, brought the war to the country that has been spared from it all: Switzerland. The Zurich Opera House presented her staging of Giuseppe Verdi's La Forza del Destino , based on the Argentine director's vision, in which she brings the war to Switzerland to reflect on contemporary conflicts. How tiresome! Does anyone really think people want to go to the opera to see more war? Isn't it enough that we see it constantly in the media?

Khovanshchina (Хованщина) was the great musical testament that Modest Mussorgsky left unfinished when he died in 1881. After premiering, not without some difficulties, his magnum opus Boris Godunov in 1874, which would henceforth be considered a musical bible of the history of the Russian Empire under the Tsars, Mussorgsky worked tirelessly on this new great Russian drama, which he left unfinished at the fifth act. After Mussorgsky's death, due to his fame as the composer of

Yesterday, Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette at the Berlin State Opera became a resounding triumph for Lisette Oropesa in the former Prussian city. Lisette Oropesa fully embraced Mariame Clément's strange stage concept, even when not singing and only acting, resulting in a highly convincing performance. From the very beginning of the waltz "Je veux vivre" it was impossible not to be captivated by her jubilant voice, dazzlingly bright, with impeccable technique and a charming

Last Thursday, October 30th, Roberto Alagna, a living legend of opera, landed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, courtesy of Puccini. He gifted a completely devoted Barcelona audience with a recital dedicated entirely to the composer from Lucca. Me -Roberto- and Puccini: something very intimate and familiar, as he himself described the recital, speaking directly to the audience at the beginning, and continuing in this way throughout the evening, engaging in a continuous and very c

The highly anticipated premiere of Tristan und Isolde at the Deutsche Oper Berlin is noteworthy not for Michael Thalheimer's staging, which was already seen in September 2024 at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, but for the world debut of soprano Elisabeth Teige as Isolde. Isolde represents one of the most challenging roles for any soprano. A few sopranos dare to sing Isolde without any prior Wagner experience, but this is not so advisable. Elisabeth Teige is a highly intelligent

This Monday, October 27, the great Royal Philharmonic Orchestra arrived at the Palau de la Música Catalana with Vasily Petrenko as conductor. Petrenko knows how to extract a precise, methodical and poignant sound from any formation, but with the talent present in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, everything takes on an epic aspect. So much so that Albert Guinovart himself could hardly believe the sound that the RPO was able to extract from his "La Vida Secreta" Sonata. This i

The  Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia  in Rome wanted to kick off the musical season with a bold move: staging Die Walküre at the Auditorium of Rome's Parco della Musica. For this, some of the finest Wagnerian singers came to Rome. Michael Volle, on his endless Wotan tour, left his indelible vocal mark in Rome, creating another Wotan full of power and color. The evening's great achievement was Miina-Liisa Värelä's Brünnhilde. Her voice becomes a torrent that flows over th