Award shows have long perfected the art of preaching to the converted. Year after year, they gather the most devoted insiders to celebrate their achievements, affirm shared values, and rehearse familiar narratives about excellence, innovation, or social responsibility. The result

Greek National Opera, housed at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre, was host to the 2025 International Opera Awards in November. What was wonderful was its overview of the entire world of opera – not only in Europe but also

Created as a three-part collaboration between the Salzburg Easter Festival, the Royal Opera House in London, and Greek National Opera, director Oliver Mears moves the setting from the unknowable past to the current day. The costumes, by Annemarie Woods, are

Féerie opera had its start in life with the operas of the late 18th century, where experiments with staging and stage effects led to operas that were set on the moon or had trips through the fairy kingdom. The plots

If the directors of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro intended to set the fox among the chickens and shake up their audience this year, they certainly succeeded. Just the mention of controversial director Calixto Bieito set tongues wagging and

It’s not often you see a production of Rigoletto that focuses more on the louche women rather than the louche men. The revival production by Greek National Opera, originally staged in 2022, tried to set the scene in the ‘corrupt

After 48 years – mirabile dictu – Milan’s Teatro alla Scala has mustered the courage to bring back Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma. The reasons for the long absence are somewhat unclear. Were memories of Montserrat Caballé’s sensational 1977 performance still too fresh?

Where most productions of Turandot focus on the glory of the Imperial Court, NGO’s new Turandot doesn’t even get in the front door. Part of this is due to the setting, in the Greek amphitheatre of The Odeon of Herodes