# OPERA DIARY > Pizza, Vino, Opera... E Basta ! 🍕🍷🎭🤌 ## Posts - [LA TRAVIATA | Teatro Comunale Ferrara](https://opera-diary.com/2026/04/13/la-traviata-teatro-comunale-ferrara/): Before even talking about the opera… I need to talk about the place. Because honestly, for me, the Teatro Comunale di Ferrara is one of the most beautiful theatres in Italy. The kind of place we all love — old-school, intimate, full of history. It opened in 1798, was later renamed after the composer Claudio Abbado, and holds just around 1,000 seats. You feel it immediately: this is not a giant machine like Milan or Vienna. This is a human-sized theatre, with soul, with stories in the walls, with that slightly worn charm that makes everything feel more real. It’s... - [TOSCA | Opera Carlo Felice](https://opera-diary.com/2026/04/11/tosca-opera-carlo-felice/): I hadn’t been to the opera in over a month. I think that has never happened in my life. And let me tell you — a few minutes before the curtain went up, I felt like a guy about to get his fix after weeks without it. Slightly nervous, overly excited, probably unbearable to sit next to. Did I need a reason to go see Tosca? Absolutely not.But if I had to find one, it was clearly Lucas Meachem making his role debut as Scarpia. The North Carolina baritone, who already shines in Puccini, Verdi, and Donizetti, was stepping into... - [DER ROSENKAVALIER | Staatsoper Berlin](https://opera-diary.com/2026/04/10/der-rosenkavalier-staatsoper-berlin/): After the triumph of Elektra and the less conclusive venture of Ödipus und die Sphinx, Hofmannsthal felt the need to step back from tragedy and attempt a genre more accessible and less overtly unsettling for audiences. Since Strauss had declined Cristinas Heimreise (“Christine’s Return“), inspired by Casanova, the playwright devised a “comedy” written expressly “for music”. To the mobile triangle (often familial) that underpins most tragedies, including Elektra (Elektra/Klytämnestra/Aegisth), he now substitutes a quadrilateral (Marschallin/Ochs/Octavian/Sophie), in which shifting affinities, withdrawals and exchanges work towards a new equilibrium. The chosen path is a blend of earthy, good‑natured comedy and genuine drama,... - [MACBETH | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2026/04/08/macbeth-bayerische-staatsoper/): Verdi was thirty-three years old. The great trilogy did not yet exist. Rigoletto, Trovatore, Traviata — none of it. And yet here he was, producing this: an opera about guilt and madness, about power that corrodes and blood that will not wash away, with a musical language of such maturity and such darkness that he himself would never quite find his way back to it. The mystery of Macbeth lies partly there — in that vertiginous precocity, in the sense that Verdi had touched something essential before he had even fully constructed his own idiom. Every new encounter confirms and... - [DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES | Teatro Regio Torino](https://opera-diary.com/2026/04/07/dialogue-des-carmelites-teatro-regio-torino/): It is noteworthy that Poulenc’s masterpiece has enjoyed a growing presence on Italian stages in recent years. After Rome and Venice, Turin has now presented “Dialogues des Carmélites” for the first time on the prestigious stage of the Teatro Regio. The opera was commissioned by La Scala, where it premiered in January 1957 with exceptional performers such as Leyla Gencer, Virginia Zeani, Gianna Pederzini and Fiorenza Cossotto. Poulenc set music to Georges Bernanos’s play, based on a true story during the French Revolution, when sixteen French nuns, the Martyrs of Compiegne, who refused to renounce their vows, were sent to... - [BILLY BUDD | Opéra National de Lyon](https://opera-diary.com/2026/04/04/billy-budd-opera-national-de-lyon/): Presented for the first time in its history at the Opéra de Lyon, Billy Budd by Benjamin Britten is staged by the company’s director, Richard Brunel. It is no small undertaking. Britten’s music is not always the most immediately accessible, and the opera itself grapples with a range of complex themes that are challenging to bring to the stage, particularly for a house like Lyon, which takes pride in attracting new audiences and younger spectators. Yet the gamble has clearly paid off. Following last season’s acclaimed Peter Grimes, Brunel delivers here a genuine lesson in theatre. Stephan Zimmerli’s set is... - [IL TROVATORE | Opéra de Monte-Carlo](https://opera-diary.com/2026/04/02/il-trovatore-opera-de-monte-carlo/): There is something quietly miraculous about Il Trovatore. Dismissed by snobs and adored by the masses, Verdi’s most melodically concentrated opera has always thrived on a certain paradox: the more absurd the plot, the more overwhelming the music. On this Saturday evening at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo — that jewel of a house where the chandeliers and the welcome are equally warm — the paradox resolved itself with spectacular ease, thanks to a cast of such consistent quality that the evening became, by its final curtain, something considerably more than the sum of its parts. Francisco Negrin’s production, designed with... - [Elīna Garanča | Opera de Monte-Carlo](https://opera-diary.com/2026/04/01/elina-garanca-opera-de-monte-carlo/): Concluding a refined and significantly stimulating season, the Monte-Carlo Opera presented an operatic recital with orchestra by Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča.  She is undoubtedly one of the most charismatic and authoritative performers of the first quarter of this century, having debuted in the early 2000s in Mozart’s Sesto, Annio, and Dorabella, as well as bel canto roles such as Romeo and Giovanna Seymour. Today, she is a leading interpreter of the most demanding mezzo-soprano roles, from Kundry to Eboli, and her Carmen, which she has performed in major theaters around the world, is a standout.  At the dawn of transitioning to... - [TRISTAN UND ISOLDE | Oper Frankfurt](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/30/tristan-und-isolde-oper-frankfurt/): Oper Frankfurt opens the early spring season with a revival of Katharina Thoma’s 2020 production. The staging is marked by Johannes Leiacker’s pared‑back set design, the same throughout all three acts: three vast white walls punctuated by numerous doors that ease the performers’ entrances and exits while reducing the depth of the stage; a row of neon lights set side by side halfway up the walls, switched on and off at pivotal moments (Isolde’s awakening in Act I, or the entrance of Marke, followed by Melot and his guards, in Act II); and, finally, a large black plank symbolising the... - [DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES | Opéra de Marseille](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/28/dialogues-des-carmelites-opera-de-marseille/): A new production of Dialogues des Carmélites always raises the same fundamental question: how to reconcile the work’s metaphysical density with the radical simplicity it demands on stage. In Marseille, Louis Désiré opts for a deliberately pared-down aesthetic, structured around a series of clean, carefully composed tableaux. The visual language is restrained, often effective, and supported by a fluid management of scenic elements that allows the drama to unfold without unnecessary obstruction. This approach proves largely convincing—until the final scene. Here, the production falls short of the work’s inherent violence and transcendence. Whether through the presence of a guillotine or... - [LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN | Staatsoper Unter den Linden](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/27/les-contes-dhoffmann-staatsoper-unter-den-linden/): Few works demand such a precarious equilibrium between fantasy and coherence as Les contes d’Hoffmann. Too much caricature, and the piece collapses into vulgarity; too much restraint, and its surreal poetry evaporates. Lydia Steier’s production navigates this tightrope with notable intelligence, embracing both the grotesque and the refined without ever allowing one to cancel out the other. The result is a series of striking tableaux—visually accomplished, rhythmically alive, and above all theatrically functional. It works. In the pit, Pierre Dumoussaud delivers what can only be described as a benchmark performance. From the outset, his reading imposes itself through its theatrical... - [IL TROVATORE | Hamburgische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/27/il-trovatore-hamburgische-staatsoper/): Il trovatore is, perhaps more than any other Verdi opera, a work of extremes: structurally fragmented, dramatically implausible at times, yet propelled by an almost unmatched musical urgency. It lives or dies on the sheer quality and commitment of its performers. In Hamburg, the balance ultimately tips in the right direction—largely thanks to an exceptional female pairing and a remarkably solid principal cast, despite a musical direction that raises legitimate questions. Matteo Beltrami does not quite manage to impose a convincing Verdian architecture over the evening. From early on, a number of ensemble imprecisions emerge, occasionally putting the singers in... - [RIGOLETTO | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/26/rigoletto-bayerische-staatsoper/): New Rigoletto at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Should we go? And if so, why? For the story? Not really, as it belongs to that category of operas whose libretto reveals all its secrets and nuances after just a few listens. For the music? Certainly, as this little operatic gem, when well performed, continues to surprise with each hearing through its intensity and its irresistible forward momentum. For the love of live performance? Definitely—especially in this configuration, and in the sacred temple that is the Bayerische Staatsoper. That configuration: a promising new production by Barbara Wysocka, with Barbara Hanicka on staging, somewhere... - [LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK | Komisch Oper Berlin](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/22/lady-macbeth-of-mtsensk-komisch-oper-berlin/): The aesthetic violence matches the musical intensity. Remembering that, for its composer, this opera was a “satirical tragedy”, where “satirical” means an indictment of the cynicism and contempt of Russia’s wealthy merchants, it is above all the satirical, laced with caustic verve, that lingers. The result is a faint dizziness as one steps out of the theatre. Apart from the heroine’s splendid wedding dress and kokoshnik in Act III, there is no trace of visual beauty, nor even of an attempt at it. Set in a contemporary reality, the new Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Komische Oper Berlin unsettles... - [DON CARLO | Deutsche Oper Berlin](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/21/don-carlo-deutsche-oper-berlin-2/): Long acclaimed for its merits, the current Don Carlo at the Deutsche Oper nonetheless proves a revelation to those approaching it anew. The eye is first caught by Marco Arturo Marelli’s exquisitely conceived staging. With remarkable fluidity, the Queen’s gardens metamorphose into the cloister of San Yuste, the Fontainebleau forest, or Philip II’s private chamber, a sophisticated rotational device continually returning the gaze to the emblematic form of the cross – an element that is certainly dispensable, given the countless references to religion, but one that serves as a reminder that the political plot is heavily influenced by the clergy’s... - [ONEGIN | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/18/onegin-bayerische-staatsoper/): Created in 1965 by John Cranko and part of the repertoire of the Bayerisches Staatsballett since 1972, Onegin remains one of the most enduring narrative ballets of the 20th century. Based on the story of Tatiana and her doomed love for the arrogant Onegin, the work continues to fascinate through the richness of its characters and their psychological development — most notably Tatiana’s transformation from naive girl to mature woman, and Onegin’s gradual collapse into isolation. For an opera audience, the interest lies precisely in this translation of a deeply psychological narrative — familiar from Eugene Onegin — into purely... - [SEMIRAMIDE | Teatro Massimo Palermo](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/16/semiramide-teatro-massimo-palermo/): Rossini’s monumental opera, composed for Venice’s La Fenice, where it premiered on February 3, 1823, with Isabella Colbran in the title role, returns to Palermo after an absence of nearly 150 years, to be performed for the first time on the stage of the Teatro Massimo, the largest opera house in Italy and among the most beautiful in the world. Semiramide is a true apotheosis of Italian tragic opera, a grandiose and refined synthesis of Rossini’s music, in the theater where he achieved his first triumph with Tancredi and when he was preparing to leave Italy forever. An opera rich... - [FIDELIO | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/12/fidelio-bayerische-staatsoper/): What a magnificent production of Fidelio by Calixto Bieito. A director whose work can sometimes feel conceptually overbearing here finds an almost perfect balance between strong imagery and dramatic clarity. The staging is both striking and deeply musical, always serving Beethoven’s drama rather than imposing itself upon it. One particularly unforgettable moment comes during the quartet, when the singers appear suspended high above the stage in cages lowered from the flies before slowly rising again — a haunting image that perfectly captures the opera’s tension between confinement and hope. Johanni van Oostrum offers a superb Leonore. Her voice combines warmth,... - [MACBETH | Teatro Regio Torino](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/09/macbeth-teatro-regio-torino/): Some evenings at the opera are planned weeks in advance. Others are dreamed about for months. For me, this Macbeth at the Teatro Regio di Torino belonged firmly to the second category. It had been nine months since the theatre announced its 2026 season — nine months since I first saw that this production would be conducted by Riccardo Muti and led by the remarkable baritone Luca Micheletti. Nine months of anticipation. You can imagine the excitement in the days leading up to the performance — the restless energy the night before, and the almost unbearable anticipation during the two... - [FAUST | Opéra de Tours](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/07/faust-opera-de-tours/): Co-produced with the Opéra Royal de Versailles, this new production of Faust by Charles Gounod, staged by Jean‑Claude Berutti, offers a largely traditional transposition. Painted sets and medieval style costumes coexist with stagehands who execute scene changes in full view of the audience. Yet the production never slips into kitsch, the formula works, thanks in particular to a straightforward but effective approach to stage direction. The Baroque Dance Academy of the Opéra Royal de Versailles shines in the ballet sequences, which are beautifully choreographed. At the podium of the Orchestre Symphonique Région Centre‑Val de Loire/Tours, Laurent Campellone proves thoroughly inspired... - [HOSOKAWA · BEETHOVEN · BRAHMS | Münchner Philharmoniker](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/04/hosokawa-%c2%b7-beethoven-%c2%b7-brahms-munchner-philharmoniker/): A Symphonic Narrative, Built from the Inside OutSome concerts tell stories without words, and this evening was one of them. Toshio Hosokawa’s Blossoming II opened the programme with the quietude of a world awakening: the strings unfolded like petals, delicate and hesitant, while woodwinds traced invisible contours of wind and light. The music felt like a ritual, an almost theatrical meditation where the orchestra itself became both stage and actor. In these first minutes, one could already sense the subtle connection with opera—the way Hosokawa suspends time, like Debussy in Pelléas et Mélisande, letting music sketch psychological space rather than... - [FAUST | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/04/faust-bayerische-staatsoper/): A new production of Faust at the Bayerische Staatsoper, staged by Lotte de Beer, offers a reading that is clear, intelligent, and theatrically fluid, without resorting to heavy-handed concepts. The dramatic framework is sharply defined, the visual world cohesive and purposeful, and the storytelling consistently engaging. It is a production that trusts the piece—and, crucially, its performers. From the outset, Nathalie Stutzmann shapes a performance of structure and refinement. The Bavarian State Orchestra responds with warmth, transparency, and a finely calibrated sense of balance; textures remain clear, climaxes never inflated for effect. Stutzmann avoids excess, favouring line and momentum, allowing... - [SALOME | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/02/salome-bayerische-staatsoper/): Somewhere between the 1930s and 1940s, a group of Jewish men and women gathers in a vast and richly stocked library. As in all places where books are handled and consumed, order is elusive; the volumes themselves belong to another age. The contrast with the deep burgundy of the walls only heightens the eye’s attraction to these grey, dust-laden tomes. The evening opens with Narraboth (Joachim Bäckström), veiled hat perched upon his head, launching – lip‑synched – into Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgehn’ from Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder. The choice of music and of character to voice it is strikingly... - [LA GIOCONDA | Gran Teatre del Liceu](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/01/la-gioconda-gran-teatre-del-liceu/): There are operas you fall in love with instantly. And then there are operas like La Gioconda. For me, Ponchielli’s Venetian epic has always been something I listen to in the background at work — a sweeping, dramatic soundtrack that washes over you without necessarily demanding total emotional surrender. Falling in love with it takes time. And I am exactly the same in my sentimental life: I rarely fall head over heels at first sight. I need to discover the qualities, understand the flaws, learn the backstory, and return again and again before I truly fall. Seeing La Gioconda at... - [TAMERLANO | Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe](https://opera-diary.com/2026/03/01/tamerlano-badisches-staatstheater-karlsruhe/): The International Händel Festival taking place at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe presents Handel’s Tamerlano. It’s a prime opportunity to witness the immense René Jacobs at the helm of the orchestra. Kobie van Rensburg delivers a truly astonishing performance. The singers are filmed by three cameras, allowing them to be seamlessly integrated into live digital sets. This gives the audience a dual perspective of the stage, almost as if they were film directors, watching the scene in both pre-production and post-production stages. The initial effect is disorienting, as the eye isn’t sure where to focus, but the concept quickly becomes... - [RINALDO | Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/28/rinaldo-badisches-staatstheater-karlsruhe/): As part of its Internationale Händel-Festspiele, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe is reviving the production of Rinaldo that was first presented here last year. This production by Hinrich Horstkotte pays tribute to the ingenuity of period stagecraft, the earliest “special effects,” if you will. Perspective sets, appearances of monsters, and suspended singers all contribute to a Baroque atmosphere, colorful and enhanced by meticulously designed costumes. The aptly named Rinaldo Alessandrini conducts a highly energized Deutsche Händel-Solisten, bringing a welcome dynamism to this 1731 version, though it could be criticized for lacking the grandiloquence of the original version. Martha Eason and Lisandro... - [LISETTE OROPESA | Crans-Montana](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/26/lisette-oropesa-cran-montana/): Social media often receives its fair share of criticism, but sometimes it delivers something truly special. Just a week ago, I came across a post from Lisette Oropesa announcing that she would be giving a recital in Crans-Montana. I could hardly believe it. Without hesitation, I reached out to Swiss Made Culture to request a ticket. They responded quickly and generously with a positive answer, and I would like to thank them once again for their kindness and efficiency. For a recital of this caliber, such responsiveness was both impressive and deeply appreciated. The evening lasted approximately one hour and... - [DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES | Den Kongelige Opera](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/24/dialogues-des-carmelites-den-kongelige-opera/): The spareness of the décor presages that of the work itself. From the instant the curtain rises, space is yielded to the full dramatic amplitude such an act of remembrance may engender. Gesture is pared back to an expression at once essential and unadorned: a modest buttress to the unfolding of the narrative. One is reminded, were reminder needed, that through means apparently devoid of pretension the sensation – whether of an approaching storm or of descending grace – acquires a far greater potency. Little wonder, given the stagecraft of a director such as Barrie Kosky. Bringing together these various... - [NORMA | Teatro Regio Parma](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/23/norma-teatro-regio-parma/): This was a date I had been waiting for for a long time. The main reason was Vasilisa Berzhanskaya. I have seen her several times in bel canto repertoire, including as Adalgisa in Milan last summer, and I was extremely curious to see how this Rossini’s “school” would translate into the tragic grandeur of Norma. We all know examples like Gregory Kunde, after two decades of Rossini, he became one of the great interpreters of Verdi’s most tragic role, Otello. In my mind, Norma for Bellini is the equivalent of Otello for Verdi: a summit of dramatic intensity. And I... - [LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR | Opéra National du Capitole](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/21/lucia-di-lammermoor-opera-national-du-capitole/): For this final revival of Nicolas Joël’s classic production, the Toulouse Opera unveiled an international caliber principal cast, raising expectations to a peak on opening night.With its grandiose sets, meticulously crafted costumes, and occasionally questionable wigs, the staging proves undeniably effective: clear, focused, and dramatically direct. Under the spirited baton of Fabrizio Maria Carminati, the Capitole Orchestra delivered a luminous reading of the score. Special praise must go at once to principal flutist Sandrine Tilly, outstanding in her “duet” with Jessica Pratt during the mad scene. The Capitole Chorus, in splendid form, projected both power and cohesion, filling the vast... - [LA SYLPHIDE | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/21/la-sylphide-bayerische-staatsoper/): What makes La Sylphide especially meaningful for opera lovers is how recognisable its emotional grammar is. You don’t need to be deeply versed in ballet technique to feel at home: the storytelling follows the same arcs we respond to in opera — desire pitched against duty, illusion seducing reality, and a tragic ending that was inevitable long before the characters see it coming. The score breathes dramatically in the way good opera scores do, the pacing relies on the same balance of tension and release, and the movement phrasing often reads like wordless recitative. Watching it at the Staatsoper feels like encountering... - [LUISA MILLER | Wiener Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/20/luisa-miller-wiener-staatsoper/): There are evenings when Verdi’s Luisa Miller feels less like a prelude to the later tragedies and more like a fully mature, self‑contained world — one where intimacy and power collide, and where the score asks the singers not only to shine but to break, to plead, to fracture. This performance in Vienna had that charge in the air from the start, carried above all by a cast in rare equilibrium and a musical direction that knew exactly how to let Verdi’s long lines breathe. At the centre of the evening, Nadine Sierra gave a Luisa of breathtaking radiance. You could sense it from... - [DIE VERKAUFTE BRAUT | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/20/die-verkaufte-braut-bayerische-staatsoper/): The lightness of an opera sometimes becomes its greatest strength — evenings where the joy onstage mirrors the joy in the room, and where a packed audience full of young faces transforms the performance into something brighter than the score alone. This Verkaufte Braut was exactly that kind of night: quick-witted, generous, and charged with the kind of fresh energy that reminds you why this opera has been winning hearts for 150 years. What struck first was the atmosphere: the house buzzing, laughter rolling warm and unforced, an ease in the air that felt almost like a collective sigh of relief. David... - [TRISTAN UND ISOLDE | Teatro Carlo Felice](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/17/tristan-und-isolde-teatro-carlo-felice/): “Since I have never in my life enjoyed the true happiness of love, I intend to erect a further monument to this most beautiful of dreams, a monument in which this love will be properly sated from beginning to end: I have planned in my head a Tristan and Isolde, the simplest, but most full- blooded musical conception; with the ‘black flag’ which flutters at the end, I shall then cover myself over, in order—to die” With these words from a famous letter written in 1854, Wagner announced the composition of Tristan und Isolde to his friend Franz Liszt, whose... - [VIOLANTA | Deutsche Oper Berlin](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/17/violanta-deutsche-oper-berlin/): The work is as rare as it is concise (barely eighty minutes) yet sufficiently incandescent to leave upon its listeners an imprint commensurate with the ardour of its passions and the opulence of its orchestration. Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s second opera, composed in the wake of Der Ring des Polykrates, Violanta astonishes both in subject – vengeance transfigured into suicidal love – and in its unfolding, suffused with such harmonic sensuality from a composer of… eighteen. To fashion a score of such stratified richness (where psychological depth and an almost preternatural capacity for emotional restitution coexist) would in itself be remarkable;... - [L'ELISIR D'AMORE | The State Opera - Prague](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/16/lelisire-damore-the-state-opera-prague/): If there is one place where I feel comfortable, at ease, and truly at home, it is the State Opera in Prague. I defend this theater, which is so dear to my heart, to all our subscribers, to the people I meet, and to my close friends. It is always a real pleasure to come here. I have been coming for more than ten years, and I have never — listen carefully — I have never been disappointed! You will not see Netrebko, Sierra, or other prima donnas who dominate today’s opera world, but you will see singers — young... - [TURANDOT | Deutsche Oper Berlin](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/16/turandot-deutsche-oper-berlin/): I hesitated for a long time before writing the lines that follow. You know Opera Diary’s primary motivation: to inspire audiences to go to the theater and to focus only on the positive aspects of the experiences lived, rather than playing into the “look at me” side of a harsh review to tear down this or that singer just to generate clicks and audience numbers. Yes, human beings — or at least a large part of them — enjoy looking at what goes wrong, at what is bad, slowing down to stare at accidents on the highway… Last night, however,... - [TOSCA | Staatsoper Berlin](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/14/tosca-staatsoper-berlin/): Friday the 13th may carry a reputation for bad luck, but at the Staatsoper Berlin, there was nothing unfortunate about this Tosca. Having seen countless productions of Puccini’s masterpiece over the years, I was particularly intrigued by this cast — a trio I had never experienced together before: Aleksandra Kurzak, Piotr Beczała, and, for the first time for me, Alexey Markov as Scarpia. Aleksandra Kurzak – A Tosca Fully Her Own It feels as though Aleksandra Kurzak has been singing Tosca for fifteen or twenty years, yet she has only carried the role for about four. That in itself says... - [FAURÉ · SAINT‑SAËNS · PROKOFIEV | Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/14/faure-%c2%b7-saint-saens-%c2%b7-prokofiev-symphonieorchester-des-bayerischen-rundfunks/): Symphonic & Theatric — A Natural Rhyme  Some programmes barely need a stage: they play in images, and this one certainly did. Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélisande Suite unfolded less like a set of movements than like a series of scenes whispered into half‑light—strings murmuring emotional subtexts, woodwinds sketching an atmosphere so tactile you could almost follow Mélisande through it. The line between pit and stage dissolved instantly. Saint‑Saëns’ “Egyptian” Concerto brought its own kind of theatre: inner landscapes, sonic tableaux, the piano as protagonist setting and dissolving scenes. It isn’t programme music so much as dream‑architecture; every gesture summons a place, a... - [COSI FAN TUTTE | Opera de Monte-Carlo](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/10/cosi-fan-tutte-opera-de-monte-carlo/): Don Alfonso sings, “The faith of women is like the phoenix; everyone says it exists, but no one knows where it is!”, paraphrasing a famous aria by Metastasio. The third panel of the Mozart/Da Ponte triptych is the most literary sophisticated but perhaps the most misunderstood. Beethoven detested it as a frivolous and licentious work, but at the same time took open inspiration from Fiordiligi’s rondò to express the turmoil of his Leonora. There were at least three reasons for the appeal of this Monegasque production, a single date sold out for months: the presence of the Wiener Staatsoper Orchestra,... - [DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG | Staatsoper Stuttgart](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/09/die-meistersinger-von-nurnberg-staatsoper-stuttgart/): Opening night for this production, and for many of its soloists as well: no fewer than seventeen role débuts. A distinct air of renewal, then, for an opera that demands unwavering musical and theatrical stamina and efficiency. Among the works regularly performed in their entirety within a single evening, it remains the longest in the repertoire. The question that arises at once is whether this renewal truly materialised. In certain respects, yes, for the greater part, even; yet in others, one was left with the impression of an attempt, only partially successful, to fashion something new out of something old.... - [DER SCHATZGRÄBER | Deutsche Oper Berlin](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/09/der-schatzgraber-deutsche-oper-berlin/): Restraint touched with elegance returns to the stage of the Deutsche Oper in this revival of Der Schatzgräber, in Christof Loy’s staging, long acclaimed wherever it has been seen. In Berlin as in Strasbourg, the most rapturous critical notices greeted a production that has not aged by a single day, whose interpretative force, despite an astonishing economy of means, remains wholly intact. It stands as eloquent proof of the calibre of insight this all-too-rare and exceptional work demands – and, one may hope, as a means of bringing it more fully into the public consciousness. It bears recalling that, following... - [MADAMA BUTTERFLY | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2026/02/04/madama-butterfly-bayerische-staatsoper/): There are evenings when the drama onstage doesn’t so much begin as unfold from the breath of its singers — when the emotional temperature is set not by the podium or the staging, but by a trio so instinctively aligned that everything else seems merely to follow their gravitational pull. From the first moments of this Madama Butterfly, it was clear that Eleonora Buratto, Riccardo Massi and Shannon Keegan were going to shape the evening’s emotional centre with uncommon intensity and unity of purpose. Buratto, especially, stepped into the role of Cio-Cio-San with a presence that instantly quieted the room. There was no... - [L'ITALIANA IN ALGERI | Grand Théâtre de Genève](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/29/litaliana-in-algeri-grand-theatre-de-geneve/): In Geneva, people usually come for the auditory experience, not necessarily the visual one, and proving I’m not one to hold a grudge, it was an enormous pleasure to see L’Italiana in Algeri in Geneva! The Grand Théâtre de Genève has temporarily relocated for 18 months to the former power plant building, 200 meters from the GTG (Grand Théâtre de Genève), with roughly 1,000 seats. I attended one of my favorite shows of 2026. Just a few days after La Cenerentola in Turin, I found myself immersed once again in the comic and musical genius of Rossini! Michele Spotti is... - [MACBETH | Teatro Coccia di Novara](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/26/macbeth-teatro-coccia-di-novara/): Last Sunday, January 25, 2026, I attended a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth at the Teatro Coccia in Novara, and it was my very first time in this theatre. I can already say it will certainly not be the last, as I already have my tickets for L’Italiana in Algeri there in May 2026. From the very beginning, I felt at home. Teatro Coccia immediately reminded me of Piacenza: a warm, almost family-like atmosphere, a loyal and knowledgeable audience, and that very special feeling you only get in smaller Italian cities. The theatre is clearly a central place in the... - [WERTHER | Opéra Comique](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/25/werther-opera-comique/): Almost a year ago, Pene Pati and Adèle Charvet made their respective role debuts as Werther and Charlotte in a concert version in Geneva. It is on the stage of the Opéra Comique that we find them reunited once again, this time for their debuts in a fully staged production. Here, Ted Huffman opts for restraint : very little scenery and scene changes carried out in full view, giving the work a distinctly modern theatrical vision. Refocusing the action on the characters without external artifice seems to be the guiding principle. It must be said that this approach works thanks... - [DAS WUNDER DER HELIANE | Opéra National du Rhin](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/25/das-wunder-der-heliane-opera-national-du-rhin/): Das Wunder der Heliane? It unfolds in Strasbourg, upon the blessed stage of the Opéra national du Rhin which, true to its reputation, displays both daring and discernment in presenting (just as it did with Die tote Stadt in 2001) this extraordinary work for the very first time in France. The reasons for its rarity seem all the more unfathomable after the splendour unveiled in Strasbourg. Above all, an orchestral and vocal opulence, a veritable shower of Geminids cascading in turn from pit and stage, framed by a stripped‑back yet exquisitely astute production (signed by the Jakob Peters-Messer). A Korngoldian... - [LA CENERENTOLA | Teatro Regio - Torino](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/25/la-cenerentola-teatro-regio-torino/): My last Cenerentola was so long ago that the website you’re reading this review on didn’t even exist yet, and it was in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées during the height of the COVID pandemic—needless to say, the wait was quite long! Sixteen hours after the applause at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa for Il Trovatore, here I am in the auditorium of the Teatro Regio in Turin. Indeed, I almost missed it, as the performance on Saturday, January 24th, was scheduled for 3 pm, which is unusual for a Saturday, especially in Italy. But no worries, it... - [CARMEN | Opernhaus Zürich](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/25/carmen-opernhaus-zurich/): The house is sold out this evening for the revival of Andreas Homoki’s production, which plays with a mise en abyme of theatrical representation. A living, breathing performance, driven by numerous curtain drops, to the point where reality and performance begin to blur. Few artists today can fill a hall on the strength of their name alone. Elīna Garanča as Carmen is obviously one of them. Domingo Hindoyan conducts the Zurich Orchestra with great dynamism, bringing remarkable vitality to the score without neglecting its dramatic weight. The local chorus is also in excellent form, delivering high-quality French. Unfortunately, the same... - [THE PASSENGER | Opéra National du Capitole](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/24/the-passenger-opera-national-du-capitole/): There are subjects that demand every ounce of tact one can summon merely to approach them, yet they cannot evade the obligation to evoke, as plainly as possible, the very essence they are presumed to embody. In such circumstances, words assume a profoundly heightened significance, for they are called upon to render the unrenderable, at times even the unbearable. Unlike the majority of works in the operatic repertoire, which stir excitement, impatience and a kind of trembling anticipation (feelings most often suffused with joyful exhilaration), this one announces itself through qualities seldom encountered elsewhere: one unmistakably historical, the other a... - [IL TROVATORE | Teatro Carlo Felice - Genova](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/24/il-trovatore-teatro-carlo-felice-genova/): Attending a final performance is something I increasingly enjoy and am beginning to prefer to opening nights. Sure, opening nights are nice for the glitz, glamour, and champagne, but you know yours truly, the opera’ bartender’s batman, always in the shadows, never wanting the limelight! And on Friday evening, February 23rd, was the final performance of Il Trovatore, an absolute masterpiece by Giuseppe Verdi, part of the popular trilogy with La Traviata and Rigoletto, if I may remind you. Il Trovatore doesn’t enjoy the same widespread reputation as the two operas I just mentioned, but I can tell you that... - [NABUCCO | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/21/nabucco-bayerische-staatsoper/): Opening nights of Nabucco often hinge on the ability of the conductor to grip Verdi’s early and volcanic writing with both discipline and imagination. What unfolded this evening under Francesco Ivan Ciampa was exactly that: a performance held together not by force, but by clarity. From his first downbeat, Ciampa imposed the kind of atmosphere that singers describe as a safe place: a pit in which gestures are legible, preparations unmistakable, and the dramatic trajectory is shaped with long‑breath confidence. His conducting is theatrical without ever being showy, and its generosity is what allows the entire structure to rise. The orchestra seems to respond instinctively... - [Mozart 38 & Bruckner 4 | Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/21/mozart-38-bruckner-4-symphonieorchester-des-bayerischen-rundfunks/): Originally announced with Gustavo Dudamel, the programme ultimately fell to Paavo Järvi — and what a stroke of luck. His conducting, as always, was energetic, theatrical, and deeply informed, turning two symphonies into narratives that felt almost operatic. Mozart – Symphony No. 38 in D major “Prague” From the opening Adagio, Järvi sets a dramatic tone that reminds us Mozart was first and foremost a man of the stage. The pauses, the sudden bursts, the interplay of winds and strings — everything breathes theatre. The Allegro unfolds like a curtain rising on Don Giovanni, written the same year; the Andante sings like an aria... - [NABUCCO | Teatro San Carlo](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/19/nabucco-teatro-san-carlo/): The production of Nabucco, which inaugurated the year 2026 at the most beautiful theater in theworld, can be considered the perfect synthesis of the Lissner/Tzempetonidis management, recentlyconcluded with the designation of the new Sovrintendente Fulvio Macciardi: the best voices on theinternational scene today, accurate and routine conducting, and ugly productions German province style. First of all, the theater management deserves credit for offering the debuts of Marina Rebeka and Ludovic Tézier in two of the most challenging and iconic roles in the entire operatic repertoire, flanked by two true champions of Verdi singing: Michele Pertusi and Piero Pretti.Tézier is undoubtedly... - [LA BOHEME | Teatro Dell'Opera di Roma](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/18/la-boheme-teatro-dellopera-di-roma/): There are not many operas left today that truly make me cry.Not because they are less powerful, but because I see a lot of opera, I consume a lot of it, and when you know the endings by heart, when you know exactly when the blow will land, you inevitably become a little less sensitive over time. And yet… La Bohème is different. No matter how many times I see it, La Bohème still makes me cry. Really cry. And once again, on Saturday January 17th, 2026, at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, it happened. Tears, emotions, the whole package.... - [THE NUTCRACKER | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/15/the-nutcracker-bayerische-staatsoper/): Staging & Choreography: John Neumeier • Sets & Costumes: Jürgen Rose • Musical Direction: Azim Karimov There are Nutcrackers that simply serve tradition, and others that reshape it to rediscover its meaning. John Neumeier’s version clearly belongs to the latter: an initiation story where the familiar fairy-tale codes shift toward a narrative of artistic formation — the classroom, the studio, the rehearsal hall — with Ballet Master Drosselmeier as mentor rather than magician. The idea is simple yet powerful: replacing decorative spectacle with the inner journey of a young dancer, her trials, her hesitations, her promise. Jürgen Rose’s sets and costumes make this vision... - [AKADEMIEKONZERT | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/15/akademiekonzert-bayerische-staatsoper/): Conductor: Vladimir JurowskiSoloist: Francesco Piemontesi An ambitious programme spanning three distinct worlds: the brooding intensity of Rachmaninov, the crystalline elegance of Ravel, and the monumental sweep of Strauss. Jurowski approached each with his trademark precision, though not without contrasts worth notions. The evening opened with Rachmaninov – The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29, a sombre orchestral meditation inspired by Böcklin’s painting. Jurowski shaped its surging waves with admirable control: the dark undertow of the lower strings never became heavy, crescendos breathed naturally, and the woodwinds added spectral touches that flickered through the texture. The Bayerisches Staatsorchester sounded magnificent, giving the... - [TRISTAN UND ISOLDE | Gran Teatre del Liceu](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/13/tristan-und-isolde-gran-teatre-del-liceu/): A glittering evening, as beguiling as it was enchanting. The première of a superb production in which the avowed minimalism, guided by a stagecraft as incisive as it was assured, only heightened the impact of such vocal and orchestral splendour. A matter for women? Indeed, in many respects. In taking charge of the staging, Bárbara Lluch displayed the acuity to evoke realities that are perfectly conceivable (though almost never acknowledged) in a world where love may secure one’s survival as readily as it may hasten one’s demise. Hence the (mercifully understated) scene of Brangäne’s assault by the sailors in Act... - [WOZZECK | Staatsoper Berlin](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/07/wozzeck-staatsoper-berlin/): Wozzeck, Alban Berg’s masterpiece, turns 100. The first performance took place on December 14, 1925, at the Berlin Staatsoper, under the baton of the legendary Erich Kleiber. It was Kleiber’s determination, and his intense correspondence with Berg, that led to the opera’s success, requiring more than 150 rehearsals amid protests from the singers and the Orchestra, who deemed the score unperformable, and a press campaign unleashed by the reactionary press. Between 1925 and 1932, the opera was performed 21 times at the Staatsoper and premiered in major European and North American cities. During the Nazi period, the opera was banned... - [GSTAAD NEW YEAR MUSIC FESTIVAL](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/05/gstaad-new-year-music-festival/): Quel plaisir… Hope, Eternity, Talent, and Sublime. These are the four words that define the four evenings I spent in the Swiss mountains for the Gstaad New Year Music Festival. Four nights that, one after another, brought to the stage Corinne Winters and Xabier Anduaga on December 27, Plácido Domingo and Christina Poulitsi on December 29, Michael Spyres and Anastasia Bartoli on January 2, and finally Asmik Grigorian on January 3. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Swiss festival host and organiser, Princess Caroline Murat, truly went all out to delight both her guests and the ears of opera... - [DIE FLEDERMAUS | Deutsche Oper Berlin](https://opera-diary.com/2026/01/04/die-fledermaus-deutsche-oper-berlin/): A vibrant sense of ensemble spirit radiated from the stage of the Deutsche Oper Berlin on this 31 December. As for the Vienna of Emperor Franz Joseph’s era, Rolando Villazón’s staging allows it to surface – one might even say to be faintly suspected – only in the first act, supported by period costumes and décor (despite the puzzling appearance of a laptop). For the remainder of the evening, the action unfolds in Berlin, or elsewhere (truly elsewhere; one might even imagine another galaxy) though the principal characters’ attire continues to gesture towards the familiar narrative as it is traditionally... - [ELEKTRA | Wiener Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/22/elektra-wiener-staatsoper/): It was not the rising of the curtains but their sudden fall, like the proclamation of an Old Testament prophecy, that summoned tragedy onto the stage. Centred upon Agamemnon’s tomb and framed by a metallic, near‑industrial set, the staging strives to embody a vision of morbid decline, driven by an unrelenting surge from the pit. It leaves no lingering sense of loss for the alternative productions rooted in Harry Kupfer’s celebrated mise en scène — one thinks in particular of Claudio Abbado’s famed 1989 account, with Brigitte Fassbaender as Klytämnestra, Eva Marton in the title role, and Cheryl Studer as... - [STIFFELIO | Teatro di Piacenza](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/22/stiffelio-teatro-di-piacenza/): For me, coming to Piacenza every year to see my very last opera of the season is always more than a joy — it is a deeply personal and emotional ritual. This theatre is my opera house, my favourite theatre in the world. I know it may surprise many people when I say that. Why not Parma? Why not Milan? Why not the San Carlo? Why a small theatre in a small city like Piacenza? But Piacenza is something truly special. It is a theatre where everyone knows each other, where the audience is loyal, knowledgeable, and deeply committed. It... - [LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK | Teatro Alla Scala](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/22/lady-macbeth-of-mtsensk-teatro-alla-scala/): La Scala’s brave decision to open the new season with Shostakovich’s masterpiece is a courageous choice: the audiences who fill the theater on St. Ambrose’s Day in evening gowns and fabulous jewelry, paying up to €3,500 for a seat, are much more comfortable with the operas of Giuseppe Verdi or Giacomo Puccini; incidentally, the 2026 season will open with Otello and the 2027 season with “Un Ballo in Maschera“. The theater’s choice is even more courageous in a time of widespread Russophobia, with some great conductors and singers banned from performing in Western European theaters; the absence of Sergio Mattarella,... - [LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN | Opéra National de Lyon](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/22/les-contes-dhoffmann-opera-national-de-lyon/): After Venice, Sydney and London, the production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann as seen through the eyes of Damiano Michieletto has arrived in Lyon for the end-of-year holiday season. We will not discuss here the version presented, nor the staging, as these aspects have already been addressed during previous performances of this production around the world.Suffice it to say that this production is visually engaging and offers a true “grand spectacle,” making it ideal for opera lovers as well as newcomers. On this evening, Emmanuel Villaume’s conducting at the helm of the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon is rather Germanic in... - [IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA | Teatro Comunale di Bologna](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/20/il-barbiere-di-siviglia-teatro-comunale-di-bologa/): After missing a performance of La Bohème due to a car accident between Parma and Bologna, I absolutely had to make it up to myself and return to this city I love so much (even though it’s the sworn enemy of my beloved Parma Calcio, haha!). This time, not for Verdi or Puccini, but for a true classic of classics: The Barber of Seville. I had almost forgotten—me, a true lover of drama—just how much you can laugh at the opera, how much you can literally double over in your seat, and experience a genuinely vibrant, living spectacle. And this... - [ERNANI | Teatro Filarmonico di Verona](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/20/ernani-teatro-filarmonico-di-verona/): I have to say it straight away: I was genuinely happy that evening. Not only because I was about to hear Ernani — an opera that is sadly not staged very often — but also because it was my very first time inside the Teatro Filarmonico di Verona. And that’s kind of crazy when you think about it. I’ve been coming to Verona for the summer festival for about 15 years now, but somehow, I had never set foot in the Filarmonico before. So yes, first time in the theatre, first time Hernani live in Verona… good vibes from the... - [HÄNSEL & GRETEL | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/16/hansel-und-gretel-bayerische-staatsoper/): Some performances remind us that opera is, above all, an art of sharing — and this matinée was a perfect example. The auditorium was quite literally filled with children: tiny spectators, excited, absorbed, reacting to the slightest flicker of light. The entire atmosphere changed, charged with a kind of palpable magic. And one wonders whether, outside of Munich, any other house still manages to create events of such natural brilliance: families everywhere, and artistic quality absolutely uncompromised. Richard Jones’s iconic staging withstands time with remarkable ease. John Macfarlane’s sets and costumes conjure a world where object theatre meets domestic surrealism,... - [CHRISTMAS EVE | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/16/christmas-eve-bayerische-staatsoper/): Some works seem tailor‑made to ignite a theatre’s imagination, and Rimsky‑Korsakov’s Christmas Eve is certainly one of them. The Bayerische Staatsoper presents a new production by Barrie Kosky, a director whose baroque fantasy and taste for the grotesque find here an ideal playground. From the opening moments, everything is present: the blend of laughter and mystery, folklore winking at satire, poetry slightly askew yet irresistibly charming. Kosky embraces this energy fully, crafting a visually extravagant world — never gratuitous — shaped by Klaus Grünberg’s sculpted lighting and Klaus Bruns’ mischievously anachronistic costumes. An aesthetic in constant transformation, slipping and distorting like this... - [LOHENGRIN | Teatro Dell'Opera di Roma](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/16/lohengrin-teatro-dellopera-di-roma/): Opening a season in Rome is never a trivial gesture. In Italy more than anywhere else, a first night carries symbolic weight: it sets an artistic direction, commits an institution, shapes expectations. This year, Lohengrin launches the season in a new production by Damiano Michieletto. His aesthetic is immediately recognisable: clean lines, rounded volumes, abstract spaces that seem to float outside of reality. The symbolic vocabulary sometimes frays or evades clarity, yet the staging never stifles the music; instead, it allows it to breathe with intelligence In the pit, Michele Mariotti offers an unexpectedly luminous Wagner. His supple gesture and his way... - [CHOWANSCHTSCHINA | Staatsoper Berlin](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/14/chowanschtschina-staatsoper-berlin/): Moussorgsky’s Chowanschtschina stands as a singular achievement: a human comedy transposed into music, a vast operatic river whose currents are as intricate as Balzac’s narrative designs. Rarely performed, its very appearance on stage constitutes an event of stature. As Alain Duault observed in his introduction to L’Avant-Scène Opéra (issues 57/58), everything here is driven to its highest pitch: vehement monologues, prophecies and mystical visions, impassioned duets, and choruses of striking power, steeped in the sonorities of Orthodox liturgy. For three hours the listener is borne along in a torrent of intensity, wandering across the steppes in contemplation of the peoples... - [DON GIOVANNI | Opéra de Massy](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/14/don-giovanni-opera-de-massy/): The concept astonishes, the impact resounds. Thus begins an evening in which, summoned to the stage, the orchestra ignites from the very first bars of an overture foreshadowing the fatal destiny of the giovane cavaliere estremamente licenzioso. Guided by Julien Chauvin’s vigorous hand (somewhere between René Jacobs’ refinement and Charles Mackerras’ fervour), Le Concert de la Loge delivers a performance of striking vehemence, tempered by nuance and delicacy, essential to safeguard balance and precision, leaving us breathless. So it continues throughout the night: a pulsating intensity that knows when to yield, allowing tenderness to unfold freely, those moments of gentleness... - [NORMA | La Monnaie de Munt](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/14/norma-la-monnaie-de-munt/): For my last European weekend trip by plane, my heart was set on Norma in Brussels. After Milan, Gstaad, and Bern, I wanted to revisit Bellini’s masterpiece, especially with everything I’d learned about its creation after a recent stay in Catania. The funny thing about this production is that it helped me make a New Year’s resolution for 2026: to stop spending a fortune on such a short weekend to see such a dreadful production, and to use that time to do more interesting things than watching a production like this, such as counting the number of grains of rice... - [TOSCA | Greek National Opera](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/10/tosca-greek-national-opera/): One hundred and twenty-five years after its first performance in Rome on January 14, 1900, Athens also paid homage to Puccini’s masterpiece with a series of for months sold- out performances. Based on a play by Victorien Sardou, brought to fame by Sarah Bernhardt, Tosca has all the ingredients to captivate audiences: a mix of love and death, jealousy, sexual harassment, sadism, religion, murder, suicide, and murderous police. Added to this are a series of some of the most famous musical scores in the entire operatic repertoire. The December 7 performance was highly awaited due to the presence of tenor... - [L'ELISIR D'AMORE | Liceu - Barcelona](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/08/lelisir-damore-liceu-barcelona/): Let me start with something bold: this production of L’Elisir d’Amore is without a doubt in my Top 10 operas of the entire year. And honestly, if I had to choose one opera to introduce a newcomer to the art form, I would pick L’Elisir d’Amore — but especially this production. It is everything opera should be for a first-timer: fun, colourful, hilarious, romantic, and constantly alive. And the staging… genuinely perfect for beginners and seasoned opera lovers alike. Something is always happening on stage. When Belcore makes his entrance coming from the actual auditorium doors, marching in with his... - [LUCREZIA BORGIA | Teatro de la Maestranza](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/08/lucrezia-borgia-teatro-de-la-maestranza/): I travelled to Seville almost entirely for one reason: to see Marina Rebeka in her role debut as Lucrezia Borgia. I had been excited for months—truly convinced that this role was written for her—and after finally hearing her live in it, I can say without hesitation that I was right. It was also my very first time at the Teatro de la Maestranza, and before speaking about the music, I have to admit I was rather disappointed by the overall audience experience. The staff at the entrance and in the corridors were few, not particularly welcoming, and the atmosphere felt... - [DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES | Wiener Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2025/12/03/dialogues-des-carmelites-wiener-staatsoper/): “I watched over every note, paid attention to the right vowels on the high sounds, ensured a completely natural prosody, while allowing the voice to pour out to the fullest […] the recitative style is when you speak while singing; the lyrical style is when you sing while speaking!” said the prodigious and endearing Francis Poulenc about his Dialogues des Carmélites, regarding which he confessed to a friend: “I have never written a work with more enthusiasm. I live with all these Carmelites from morning to night in a state of fascination.” An immense challenge, then, to produce and perform this... - [LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN | Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/30/les-contes-dhoffmann-staatsoper-unter-den-linden-berlin/): Pene Pati’s role debut as Hoffmann and the provocative Lydia Steier’s direction of this iconic opera were more than enough to justify a trip to the German capital. We won’t debate the version presented here, which includes some cuts (particularly in the Venice act) and adjustments to the dialogue. However, Lydia Steier and Bertrand de Billy offer a fairly complete production. The concept of the staging revolves around a Hoffmann who dies in the prologue, and we follow him in purgatory to see whether he will be saved by the Muse or follow the Devil into Hell. The idea makes... - [LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR | Wiener Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/27/lucia-di-lammermoor-wiener-staatsoper/): Laurent Pelly proves once again that he is among the finest interpreters of Donizetti on stage. His production, already familiar to Vienna, remains sharp, fluid, and theatrically intelligent — the kind of staging that earns its place in the repertoire because it adapts to the singers who inhabit it. Tonight, the voices made it special. Adela Zaharia delivers a performance that sets a benchmark. Every moment — solo or ensemble — is electrifying. She brings far more than ornamental brilliance: the bel canto foundation is there, but enriched with dramatic weight and psychological depth. The mad scene is not a sudden eruption... - [SALOME | Komische Oper Berlin](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/23/salome-komisch-oper-berlin/): In Richard Strauss’s one-act Salome, the audience’s collective verdict is revealed only at the curtain call. Yet the fervour of the applause last night at the Komische Oper Berlin left little doubt: the reception was rapturous. As the packed house spilled into the night, one phrase echoed everywhere: ganz fantastisch! And indeed, how could it have been otherwise, with Nicole Chevalier’s sumptuous assumption of the Judean princess at the heat of the evening. Retracing the evening in reverse, what unfolded on stage was the collapse of a royalty engulfed by lust and excess, framed within Rufus Didwiszus’s magnificent sets. Esther... - [OTELLO | Teatro Bellini - Catania](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/22/otello-teatro-bellini-catania/): Two weeks after my Otello in Prague, you would think the excitement would calm down… but no. I arrived in Catania as thrilled as if I were seeing Otello for the first time in my life. And honestly, how could I not be? This production — the one originally created by Allex Aguilera, was in my Top 3 stagings of last year when I saw it in Rome with Gregory Kunde. So returning to it, this time in Sicily, felt like revisiting an old friend. What I still can’t wrap my head around is the following:When I bought my tickets... - [BENJAMIN BERNHEIM | Victoria Hall - Genève](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/20/benjamin-bernhein-victoria-hall-geneve/): There is something uniquely special about attending a recital at Victoria Hall — the intimacy, the acoustics, the warm Geneva audience… and when the evening is led by Benjamin Bernheim, one of today’s most refined French tenors, you know you’re in for a treat. Especially 24h after the Requiem Verdi, in the same room! This recital, organized by Les Grands Interprètes (CAECILIA), offered a beautifully hybrid program: a mix of French mélodies, operatic arias, Puccini’s rarely heard poems and songs, and even a touch of chanson française. It was the kind of program that allows a singer to show not... - [REQUIEM VERDI | Victoria Hall - Geneva](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/19/requiem-verdi-victoria-hall-geneva/): There are some works in the classical world that feel less like concerts and more like… events. Moments you prepare for, breath for, almost fear a little. Verdi’s Requiem is one of them. And on Tuesday, November 18th, inside the gorgeous, intimate, golden shell of Victoria Hall in Geneva, I experienced one of those moments again — this time with the Orchestra Symphonique et Universitaire de Lausanne (OSUL), whom I was hearing live for the very first time. Victoria Hall is famour for it warm, welcoming, not too large, but with an acoustics that wraps the orchestra like velvet. It... - [LUCREZIA BORGIA | Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/18/lucrezia-borgia-teatro-del-maggio-musicale-fiorentino/): “Poche ma buone”, few but good could be the summary of the performances of “Lucrezia Borgia” at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino! From the 1933 edition, the year of the founding of Italy’s oldest festival, which featured artists of the caliber of Gigli, Arangi Lombardi, Pasero, and Pederzini, conducted by Marinuzzi, to the 1979 performances, which featured two leading Donizetti primadonna as Katia Ricciarelli and Leyla Gencer, alongside Kraus, Zilio, and Giaiotti. After 46 years, the opera returns to Florence, to its new theater in Piazza Vittorio Gui, at the border of the most beautiful city in the world. Based on... - [AIDA | Opera de Monte-Carlo](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/16/aida-opera-de-monte-carlo/): I had so many reasons to come to Monte Carlo on Sunday, November 16—truly a lot of reasons. And the closer the date came, the more excited I was, especially with two cast changes. The first was Ludovic Tézier replacing Artur Ruciński as Amonasro. Granted, it’s a small role, but what a pleasure to see the greatest Verdi baritone take it on. Having such a man for such a small role is like bringing Zidane onto the field in the 89th minute! I’m warning you, this might be the most beautiful show of the season—certainly the most beautiful costumes, without... - [LA TRAVIATA | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/16/la-traviata-bayerische-staatsoper/): This new revival of Günter Krämer’s production was obviously worth the trip for the two headliners, in the title role and as Giorgio Germont, but the evening also reserved an excellent surprise with the discovery of a magnificent Alfredo full of promise. Under the fiery direction of Henrik Nánási, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester managed to lift us from the stupor that this not-so-thrilling staging might have put us into. Indeed, it’s in the music that everything truly works. Starting, of course, with the sublime Lisette Oropesa. Her performance is a masterclass in singing, paired with a unique sense of emotion. Perhaps... - [DIE WALKÜRE | Opéra National de Paris](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/14/die-walkure-opera-national-de-paris/): A full house greeted the première of the second instalment of the Tetralogy at the Opéra National de Paris. The performance was eagerly anticipated, following a Rheingold that had left us with rather mixed impressions. Calixto Bieito’s staging, highly controversial though it may be, strikes us as more intelligible than that of Das Rheingold. And with good reason: the lyricism of Die Walküre, the dramatic continuity inherent in the work, and, in this particular production, the excellence of the performers’ interpretations, all combined to render the director’s intentions more perceptible. Pablo Heras-Casado breathes an electrifying refinement into the score, sublimated... - [DON GIOVANNI | Wiener Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/14/don-giovanni-wiener-staatsoper/): Barrie Kosky’s Don Giovanni returns to Vienna as it has every season for the past four years, and its grip on the repertoire remains unshaken. The staging feels manic, almost delirious, pulling the drama inward and exposing the fractured core of its protagonist. It is tense, claustrophobic, and brutally coherent — a vision that still provokes and fascinates. Mattia Olivieri steps into the title role with striking authority. We discover him here despite his growing experience with the part, and it is a discovery worth noting. His lighter baritone brings clarity and bite, carving through ensembles with precision and unleashing... - [CAV/PAG | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/14/cav-pag-bayerische-staatsoper/): Last season, we praised Francesco Micheli’s staging for its coherence and bold contrasts. This revival confirms that vision while reshaping the experience through a cast that brings new colors to the same framework. The concept remains intact — Palermo and Munich in dialogue, fire and ice in collision — but the voices tell a different story. The tenorsWe have never had the same tenor across both operas in this production, and once again the split feels like a missed opportunity, even if the repertoire difference partly explains it. That said, both singers deliver. Vittorio Grigolo in Cavalleria starts with restraint... - [LA FORZA DEL DESTINO | Opernhaus Zürich](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/13/la-forza-del-destino-opernhaus-zurich/): I have about 10,000 things to say about this production — so I hope you love Verdi and stories, because if that’s the case, you’re in the right place, at the right time, with the right person on the other side of your screen. Just a few weeks after Tosca and its five-star cast, it was time for La Forza del Destino and another extraordinary lineup. Honestly, just hearing the name Netrebko announced in a theater is enough to make me want to camp outside 24 hours before opening night to make sure I don’t miss the show! The evening... - [OTELLO | The State Opera - Prague](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/10/otello-the-state-opera-prague-2/): Yes… my friends, yes — another Otello! Yet another Otello!After Parma, Madrid, and Strasbourg — while waiting for Catania and Liège — I went back to see Otello once again in Prague, in the very same theater, with the same production and the same staging I had seen a year ago.My motivation to go again? A beautiful production — and an Otello sung by the fascinating and passionate Denys Pivnitskyi! So yes, I had every reason in the world to come back for another round of Verdi’s greatest masterpiece. The evening started with a race against time — my plane... - [LA TRAVIATA | The State Opera - Prague](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/10/la-traviata-the-state-opera-prague/): For the second time in a year, I had the chance to see this magnificent production of La Traviata in one of Prague’s fabulous theaters — and let me tell you, the City of a Thousand Spires truly knows how to attract a diverse and passionate audience. I was actually quite surprised by how young the crowd was last night! Maybe it’s because Giuseppe Verdi’s music still has that irresistible power to draw in lovers on a romantic Sunday evening.Either way, I can only encourage you to visit Prague. You all know how much I love their opera house —... - [IPHIGENIE EN TAURIDE | Théâtre National de l'Opéra Comique](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/08/iphigenie-en-tauride-theatre-national-de-lopera-comique/): It is one of the leading events events of this operatic season: the tout Paris musical world speaks of little else. And with good reason: beyond the rarity of the work on European stages, the production brings together a director long lauded by the critics, conducting of the most exquisite refinement, and a cast of striking promise, uniting young talents destined for a brilliant future. Save for a few reservations regarding certain aesthetic and musical choices, we are of the same opinion: this Iphigénie en Tauride has every quality to command the highest attention. Let us begin with those aspects... - [LES PÊCHEURS DE PERLES | Opéra de Massy](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/08/les-pecheurs-de-perles-opera-de-massy/): A full house bore witness to an evening of resounding success. The enchantment was profound, for the work had been long anticipated, still a rarity when set against Bizet’s greatest triumph, and the promises were enticing. The audience was not disappointed by the delicacy and meticulous care bestowed upon last night’s rendition of Les pêcheurs de perles at the Opéra de Massy. First and foremost, the orchestra was guided with the utmost refinement under the baton of Robert Tuohy. His assured yet delicate gesture steered the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France to a state of evident inspiration, at the very height of... - [DER FLIEGENDE HOLLANDER | Opera de Monte-Carlo](https://opera-diary.com/2025/11/03/die-fliegende-hollander-opera-de-monte-carlo/): “Nur alle sieben Jahre ist es ihm erlaubt an Land zu steigen und seine Erlösung zu betreiben—” Heinrich Heine Written between May 1840 and August 1841, “the Flying Dutchman”, also known as “the Phantom Ship”, can be considered the first of Wagner’s great dramas, both for its musical structure and for the themes it addresses, which anticipate those of his later and mature works. Wagner drew inspiration from a literary source, Heinrich Heine’s maritime legend, but also from an episode recounted in his biography: during an adventurous sea voyage from Riga to London in the summer of 1839, his ship... - [FRANCESCA DA RIMINI | Deutsche Oper Berlin](https://opera-diary.com/2025/10/30/francesca-da-rimini-deutsche-oper-berlin/): This season, the Deutsche Oper Berlin presents a revival of a work that, for reasons as curious as they are obscure, remains a rarity on European stages (a few exceptions such as the Teatro Regio in Turin are quite rare). Not only the opera itself, but its composer too: Francesca da Rimini by Riccardo Zandonai, staged with finesse by Christof Loy. And yet, it is a remarkable piece in many respects: from its literary inspirations (d’Annunzio, Dante) to its musical echoes (Wagner is never far during key orchestral passages), culminating in a rare and striking harmony between the score and the libretto’s... - [OPERALIA | Sofia](https://opera-diary.com/2025/10/28/operalia-sofia/): Opera is more alive than ever. We never truly doubted it, but it’s refreshing—almost electrifying—to feel it so vividly. This year marks our first collaboration with Operalia, and what an initiation it was. Despite the stakes, the prizes, and the sheer number of competitors, two words rose above all else: Viva l’Opera. What follows is the account of a night suspended in time. Sofia, 5:30 PM. Bulgaria Concert Hall.The finals begin in thirty minutes. As is tradition, we arrive early to take the pulse of the room among a few early instrumentalists tuning up and curious onlookers quietly surveying the... - [LUDOVIC TEZIER | Opera de Lyon](https://opera-diary.com/2025/10/27/ludovic-tezier-opera-de-lyon/): You know those moments when you realize just minutes before a concert starts that what you’re about to hear is not at all what you expected? Well, that was me last Sunday at the Opéra de Lyon. I arrived thinking I was about to enjoy a recital filled with Verdi, maybe some Puccini — you know, the kind of music that Ludovic Tézier was basically born to sing.Ten minutes before the show began, I found out the entire program was… almost 100% German. And honestly? Discovering the German repertoire with Ludovic Tézier is like learning how to play tennis from... - [ARIADNE AUF NAXOS | Bayerische Staatsoper](https://opera-diary.com/2025/10/23/ariadne-auf-naxos-bayerische-staatsoper/): Circumstances aligned with understated charm to leave a lasting impression: a constellation of performers, a baton of prestige, an orchestra steeped in acclaim, and one of the most ravishing jewels ever wrought by a native son: Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss. Ariadne stands apart in Strauss’s oeuvre for its hybrid form: preludes opera in the prologue, and the opera unfolds within opera in the single act. Though not as complex as it may seem, a staged version helps guide newcomers – especially those unfamiliar with Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, the work’s origin. In concert, this clarity is harder to... - [CENDRILLON | Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles](https://opera-diary.com/2025/10/17/cendrillon-opera-royal-du-chateau-de-versailles/): Take one of Perrault’s most famous tales, add some lightning-fast music, throw in a hand picked cast, and set it all in a world where theatre and circus come together in Julien Lubek and Cécile Roussat’s colourful interpretation: the result is one of the most beautiful and exciting productions of this opera season. Virtuosity, a frenetic pace that knows how to slow down to make way for moments of suspended lyricism, and a collective talent that enchants young and old alike. An important detail: it is in exquisite French, that of the second half of the 19th century (with additions... ## Pages - [My account](https://opera-diary.com/my-account/) - [Checkout](https://opera-diary.com/checkout/) - [Cart](https://opera-diary.com/cart/) - [Shop](https://opera-diary.com/shop/) - [](https://opera-diary.com/collaborations/): – About us – Welcome to Opera Diary – your premier destination for elevating artists and amplifying their presence in the world of opera. With over five years of dedicated activity on Instagram and YouTube, Opera Diary has emerged as a trusted voice in the opera community. Boasting a loyal following of over 25,000 subscribers on Instagram, our platform serves as a nexus for connecting artists, industry professionals, and enthusiasts alike. Our founder, Geoffrey, has cultivated extensive relationships within the opera sphere, ranging from casting directors and artist agents to communication strategists. 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Beyond my admiration for the Opera, I love above all the people who do this job, singers, musicians, managers, makeup artists, dressers… I have been trying for several years to shed light on this wonderful world of entertainment , and take advantage of this knowledge to... - [](https://opera-diary.com/review/) - [](https://opera-diary.com/contact/): OPERA DIARYLe Cheminet, 10 – 1162 Saint-Prex (Switzerland – CH) ✉️ geoffrey@opera-diary.com 📞 +41 (0) 78 325 04 88 [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)