A New Years’ Toast from 1984 Covent Garden A New Years’ Toast from 1984 Covent Garden

What better sentiment can we embrace as the year ends then to hope, often against against hope, for peace and love in a world of chaos?

By Baritenor December 31, 2025 at 6:00 AM
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La fiamma è bella! La fiamma è bella!

A new recording of La fiamma from Deutsche Oper Berlin sets Respighi’s score ablaze.

By November 21, 2025 at 10:00 AM
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Let’s do the time warp again Let’s do the time warp again

Tobias Kratzer‘s time-traveling Arabella from the Deutsche Oper Berlin, now available on DVD, turns the opera’s problems into its strengths.

By November 07, 2025 at 9:00 AM
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Riddle me this Riddle me this

Turandot finally arrives on Trove Thursday, but it’s the setting by Ferruccio Busoni which predates by a decade the one by that other Italian guy, and it’s paired today with Arlecchino, the composer’s other commedia dell’arte-influenced short opera.

By October 07, 2021 at 10:00 AM
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Once more with feeling Once more with feeling

We humans tend to dislike uncertainty, therefore there is something comforting going to opera revivals; you know exactly what you are going to get. 

By February 23, 2019 at 2:23 PM
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Barenboim sings again!

Introducting a new guest critic, Giulia Grisi, who blogs regularly for “Il Corriere della Grisi.” La Scala’s 2007-8 opera season opened last night (December 7) with a new production of Tristan und Isolde. The Milanese theatre hadn’t presented Wagner’s masterpiece since 1978, when Carlos Kleiber‘s masterful interpretation became an instant classic, in spite of a…

By December 08, 2007 at 7:30 PM
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