So… this was my 5th year in a row at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, after highlights like I Puritani and a magical Tosca two years ago. This time, it was…
RIGOLETTO | Arena Verona Festival
To close my two-week festival stay in Verona, it could only be with a masterpiece by Verdi. And even though I had already seen this particular masterpiece 11 times live…
LA TRAVIATA |Â Arena Verona Festival
For my 15th edition of the Arena di Verona Festival—and to wrap up the weekend beautifully after the rain cancellation of Aida (which stopped after just 50 minutes)—I was lucky…
GIANNI SCHICCHI / CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA | Festival de Verbier
There were so many reasons to attend the Verbier Festival this year for the Gianni Schicchi / Cavalleria Rusticana concert on Thursday, July 24, and let me give you a…
LA FORZA DEL DESTINO | ChorĂ©gies d’Orange
The weekend promised to be… magnificent!With three operas across two different festivals — Aix-en-Provence to start, and the ChorĂ©gies d’Orange to wrap things up on Sunday — the program featured…
LES PĂŠCHEURS DE PERLES | Festival d’Aix en Provence
What a discovery! Why hadn’t I experienced this before? I’ve seen three or four Les PĂŞcheurs de Perles live on stage in the past, but this time… I don’t know…
DON GIOVANNI | Festival d’Aix en Provence
To “give of oneself”: definition — To make a personal effort or sacrifice; to invest one’s time, energy, or physical presence in helping or participating in something. There is no…
LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN | Opernhaus ZĂĽrich
One of the really cool things about loving opera in general is that it’s like a bottomless well—just like good wine, or our culinary tastes, we evolve with time. The…
NORMA | Teatro alla Scala
Decades of waiting—yes, literal decades—had gone by without Norma being staged in the most iconic theatre of the Italian repertoire. You can imagine my reaction when, in May 2024, I…