Over the last decade, the International Opera Awards ceremony has made huge strides in positioning itself as the leading arbiter of quality and success in the lofty world of opera. Now in its 11th year, the 2023 edition was held

The Royal Opera House’s new production of Wagner’s Rheingold, directed by the often provocative and occasionally controversial Australian Barrie Kosky, achieved what most opera houses can only dream about: it became the talk of the town. I heard from one

This very first production of Eduardo e Cristina at the Rossini Opera Festival (ROF) completes the performed oeuvre of the great Pesarese maestro. The epicentre of Rossiniana possibly left it so late because of the challenges of this barely performed

The 51st edition of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the first after several years of muted and mostly virtual performances, featured Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov among the headline artists. There is little argument that Russian-born Anna Netrebko is the

Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth at Barcelona’s prestigious Gran Teatre del Liceu was hard to ignore. Jaume Plensa is not only a globally admired sculptor, but he is also something of a Catalan hero. This new production was bound to be the

Review on Rossini Opera Festival 2022 – La Gazzetta and Otello The 43rd edition of the Rossini Opera Festival (ROF) in Pesaro, Rossini’s birthplace, featured a selection of rare Rossini operas and recitals. The nearly two week-long event again drew

Bad Wildbad is one of the least probable stations on the European summer festival circuit. Small, relatively nondescript and poorly accessible, the spa town in the Black Forest once welcomed Gioachino Rossini when he was seeking cures for his many

Music lovers often wonder how a 19th century audience would experience an opera during its absolute first performance, without the benefit of extensive written plot summaries, YouTube videos and CDs to prepare for the music, or Wikipedia guides to pinpoint