Bilbao, the largest city and economic capital of the Basque Country, isn’t usually on opera lovers’ circuits. But a promising cast occasioned this trip to see Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, a coproduction between ABAO Bilbao (Asociación Bilbaína de Amigos de

Georges Bizet (1838–1875) never had the success he wanted in his lifetime. He had two hits in the operas Les pêcheurs de perles and La jolie fille de Perth, but both operas came in for criticism. The Pearl Fishers for

Every Wagner production falls into two categories: “traditional” and “modern.” The latter, in turn, can be divided into two further kinds: controversial and extremely controversial—sometimes, controversy itself seems to be the point. Since the 1976 Jahrhundertring, conducted by Pierre Boulez

Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Castor et Pollux, generally regarded as one of his finest works, is staged with some frequency. For a fully staged opera production in 2026, however, you would have to visit two mid-scale European opera houses, the Grand Théâtre

Gaetano Donizetti’s setting of the final days of Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, as Anna Bolena, is a story of love and hate, loyalty and lies, and, ultimately, one woman’s death so another can take her place. In today’s

Opera director Tang Xinxin has a new production opening in Singapore of Verdi’s Macbeth, running 27 to 29 March. We spoke with Ms Tang about this production and her other work in a recent conversation. Ms Tang is a graduate

As an homage to their long-time designer Nikos S. Petropoulos, Greek National Opera staged a revival of his 1998 Tosca. Set in 1944 Rome, the opera opened as if it were a film, with the opening credits running on a

November 14 saw a world premiere at San Francisco Opera: Huang Ruo’s The Monkey King, with a libretto by David Henry Hwang, based on Journey to the West, 16th-century multi-volume epic attributed to Wu Cheng’en. Running through November 30, with