Classical Source Reviews

La cambiale di matrimonio (1810) is the work with which the 18-year-old Rossini burst upon the operatic stage (San Moisè, Venice in this case). Although it wasn’t the first opera he composed (Demetrio e Polibio […]

Staging a long, serious opera such as Zelmira (1822) based on myth and ancient history presents quite a challenge on its own terms, to keep an audience engaged with its plot twists and extensive arias. […]

Unveiled during weather inclement enough to recall Ostrovsky’s storm over the Volga, Damiano Michieletto’s COVID-era production garnered mixed reviews on its initial outing. This first revival will fare similarly. I gather there have been some […]

Longborough’s closing offering this season pairs its emerging artists with the Norwegian ensemble Barokksolistene in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (1689). Erlend Samnøen’s production expands the work to recreate something of the immersive and colourful spectacle […]

On the second night of its two-performance visit to City Center Will Crutchfield’s Teatro Nuovo presented Vincenzo Bellini’s melodramatic La Sonnambula. Set in an early-19th-century Swiss Alpine village, the story is frequently criticized for its […]

For the first performance in their two-day visit to City Center, Teatro Nuovo, a company and training institution specializing in bel canto opera established by Will Crutchfield in 2018, mounted an electrifying rendition of Verdi’s […]

For all that Shakespeare’s Macbeth combines something of history and tragedy, it’s probably the play’s elements of fantasy and supernaturalism that stand out most in many people’s minds, and which clearly inspired Verdi and Piave […]

In this superb concert presentation, the cast moved about in front of the orchestra, successfully telling the story with wonderful singing (from memory) and acting. The three principals at the center of the plot brought […]

This recital was a major event in Tanglewood’s celebration of the 150th-anniversary of Maurice Ravel’s birth, Seong-Jin Cho playing Ravel’s works for solo piano in the chronological order of their composition, taking nearly three hours. […]

Sir Bryn Terfel’s focus in the first half of this delightful recital was on the national identity and culture of his native Wales. With Bradley Moore at the piano, Terfel began with three Welsh-language songs, […]