The work is far too rare for us to allow ourselves to miss it. It is, alas, the sole collaboration – vivid, vibrant and luminous – between Richard Strauss and…
TRISTAN UND ISOLDE | Bayreuther Festspiele
Some weather websites predicted it would be der heiĂźeste Tag des Jahres. We didn’t try to confirm how accurate that was… but instead saw for ourselves just how wrong the…
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…
NABUCCO | Arena Verona Festival
The most Italian opera in the most Italian place on earth! Giuseppe Verdi’s third opera, which revealed his genius to the entire world, is closely linked to the history of…
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…
DER FREISCHĂśTZ | Bregenzer Festspiele
By the end of the day, our hopes that it would take place where we had wished were fading. The stifling afternoon heat, a harbinger of meteorological unrest, suggested that…
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…
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO | Glyndebourne
What an afternoon! On this July Saturday, in its usual and ever-so-picturesque misty setting, the Glyndebourne Festival offers us a magnificent tribute to Mozart’s sublime masterpiece — a pinnacle of…
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…