For the music obsessed, no visit to la Serenissima would be complete without an evening at the opera. Venice’s legendary Teatro La Fenice opera house, reopened in 2004 after the catastrophic fire of 1996, was resplendent with its riotously colourful

We caught up with Martin Ng the other day when he was in the middle of rehearsals for Rossini’s L’inganno felice (The Blissful Deception), which will make its appearance in Singapore in early March. He talked about the founding of

Every year, especially during Covid, one must ask oneself if it is worthwhile to make the arduous trip to the poorly connected Adriatic town of Pesaro for the Rossini Opera Festival. This year, after a reduced 2020 program, the ROF

For one night only, the Festival in Aix-en-Provence put on Verdi’s early opera, I Due Foscari. Staging this lesser known work with its unlikely story devoid of much dramatic development, the choice of a concert version was a good one.

Aix-en-Provence’s longstanding summer music festival commands a somewhat inconspicuous position in the European landscape of music festivals. While the Festspiele dominate Salzburg during the summer months, the performances in the arena define Verona during their season, and Bayreuth pulsates during

“It truly is a show that is utterly current and one where you want to know what happens next.” Over the weekend, the Janiec Opera at the Brevard Music Center did an experiment in producing opera in a new format:

Gregory Kunde shines in Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello at the Royal Opera House, a revival of the 2017 production (originally reviewed for Interlude). From the victorious opening exclamation “Esulatate!” (Rejoice!) that rings all the way up to the rafters, to the

Richard Strauss (1864 –1949) was the major German opera composer of the late 19th to the mid-20th century. His life and music were controversial during his lifetime and remained so after his death. One can argue about his music, his