Only vaulting ambition
Macbeth at the Festival Verdi in Parma aims big — on a small scale
Italy
Adriana Mater
Kaija Saariaho's opera in a live broadcast from Rome
Streamed October 14, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Comment
Moor is more
A pair of Otellos – in Madrid and Parma – is a study in contrasts.
One-woman Brutus and Cassius
Anna Pirozzi and Luca Salsi reunite in blazing form in Tosca at the Teatro San Carlo
The Turn of the Screw
A live broadcast from the Rome Opera
Streamed September 19, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Comment
Cross my heart and hope to die
Wolf Trap Opera’s stirring production of Dialogues des Carmélites was a welcome respite from a brutally hot and humid DC summer.
L’italiana in Algeri
Daniela Barcellona leads a live broadcast from the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro
Soirées musicales & La cambiale di matrimonio
A live broadcast from the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro
Zelmira
A live broadcast of the opening night of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro with Anastasia Bartoli and Lawrence Brownlee
Ice ice baby
A recent review of Olga Maslova as Aïda is as good a reason as any to share a clip of her fascinating Turandot
The gaul of some people
It’s Norma, darling. We know.
Norma demente
Jessica Pratt’s last-minute Norma in Milan might well be the stuff of legend
Visible storage
Performances of Pittori fiamminghi and Madama Butterfly in picturesque Castell’Arquato were a fine way to honor Luigi Illica, the city’s native son
Canonically ossified
When such a canonically ossified work like Verdi’s Aïda is directed at all (let alone as ambitiously as Damiano Michieletto at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), it does feel like a completely different opera
Changing habits
A new production of Dialogues des Carmélites featuring Anna Caterina Antonacci proves that it’s hard to be an iconoclast in Venice.
Turkish sound bath
A brilliant L’italiana in Algeri in Rome has Larry Wolff once again thinking about “singing Turks”
I, Claudio
Claudio Abbado made his Met debut on 7 October 1968 conducting Verdi’s Don Carlo, led five more performances through 14 November, and then never returned. Chris’s Cache offers the only complete recording I’ve run across from that run.
Carmen
Gäelle Arquez sings the title role in a live broadcast from Rome
Dialogues des Carmélites
A live broadcast from Venice featuring Anna Caterina Antonacci as Madame de Croissy
Not an asset to the abbey
Francesco Filidei’s new opera The Name of the Rose struggles to bridge the past and the present in Milan
This summer I’m reading The Uncle from Rome
Joseph Caldwell produced this charming tale from a year spent in Italy on the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
By John Yohalem
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I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).