There was little to commend the new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Aix-en-Provence Festival 2017. The stage set lacked any recognizable theme, and the intermittently raised and dropped metallic curtains offered no discernible purpose. Ditto on the costumes

It’s hard to justify the arduous trip to Pesaro. The unremarkable town on Italy’s Adriatic coast has poor train connections, it’s a dull two hour car ride from Bologna, and the nearest airport is Ancona Falconara, a run-down and inefficient

A tacky Italian beach resort in the heat of the summer holiday and a moderately quaint old town with a strong operatic tradition make an odd contrast. Yet Gioachino Rossini’s hometown, Pesaro on the Adriatic, hosts a longstanding opera festival

Every now and then the Salzburg Festival puts on a performance of such perfection, we are reminded how this festival became the leading operatic summer event in Europe. This year’s new production of Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro (Marriage of Figaro)

A highlight of this year’s Salzburg Festival was a new production of Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio. It was largely deemed a vehicle to show off leading German tenor Jonas Kaufmann at his vocal and artistic zenith. And indeed, he did

How and why is the city of Xian 15 million strong and host of the “Silk Road Festival“ so immaculate? The answer is an army of street sweepers working nonstop, 24 hours. It all starts in the morning with the

In its 30th year, the 2014 Lufthansa Festival presented a variety of music heard in Britain during the early 18th century under the reign of the Georgian dynasty. There were many favourites on offer, such as Handel’s Coronation Anthems, Ode

written by Melissa, for Juliette. In her annual attempt to inject some culture into her nineteen-year-old daughter’s life, my mother forced me to attend the Festival International d’Opéra Baroque in Beaune. So it was with resignation and not a little