The Classical Music Network (English) Sat, 04 Jul 2026 17:50:31 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/ http://www.concertonet.com/images/concertonet.jpg http://www.concertonet.com/
I. Staple, M. Nagl (© Wiener Staatsoper/Michael Pöhn)


I may be in the minority, but I haven’t been a fan of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for years. While I acknowledge its music is sublime, with several of its arias among the most memorable in opera, Schikaneder’s libretto is problematic. It’s further complicated by directors wrongly revering it as one of the noblest works ever. Worse, they interpret Act II’s notorious Masonic rites as something sacred.


Since my initial exposure to Die Zauberflöte in my late teens, I’ve found the argument nonsensical and the Masonic rites puerile. I couldn’t]]>... Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17684
(© Marie-Laure Briane)


The quintessential romantic ballet, Giselle is for a ballerina the Everest of roles. More than any other role, Giselle features two idealized aspects of femininity, the innocence of the village girl (Act I) and an ethereal quality when Giselle is transformed into a Wili, a vengeful spirit of a girl forsaken by her lover and who dies due to his perfidy (Act II).


The story of Giselle was inspired by a fairytale in De l’Allemagne (1822), an exposé of Germany, its customs and traditions including some of its legends, written by the Romantic German poet Heinrich Heine (]]>... Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17688
K. Wang, A. Maestri, N. Car (© Wiener Staatsoper/Michael Pöhn)


The Vienna State Opera’s current Il trittico proved, in the end, a musically distinguished evening that survived rather than was illuminated by its staging. Tatjana Gürbaca’s production is a characteristically severe exercise in conceptual unification, determined to read Puccini’s three one-act operas as a single study in damaged intimacy, coercion, appetite and emotional entrapment. One can admire the seriousness of that ambition without finding the results persuasive. Gürbaca’s staging is too insistent, too monochrome in its emotional outlook, and too d]]>... Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17663
(© Aleksandar Zivkovic)


Carmen is one of the most perfect operas in the repertoire, thanks to its inspired setting, its marvelous orchestration and its beautifully-conceived vocal parts. But most of all, Bizet’s masterwork still holds power thanks to its intense drama. It was greatly admired by no less than Gustav Mahler, who championed the work while Director of the Vienna Court Opera. It’s thought of as indestructible, a glorious stage success no matter whose vision we are witnessing. Carmen herself could be interpreted by a mezzo or a soprano; dialogue can be spoken or sung, as could be the recitatives; the opera ]]>... Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17669
D. Schmutzhard (© Ashley Taylor)


There are evenings whose seriousness of intent one would like to salute before saying anything else. “KaiserRequiem” at the Volksoper is one of them. Conceived as a commemorative project for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it brings together Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis, composed in Theresienstadt in 1943/44, with excerpts from Mozart’s Requiem, framed by choreography and played without interval. It is an undertaking of obvious conviction, immense labour and no small ambition. But ambition alone does not solve the artistic problem it creates. An]]>... Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17670
J. Dahdah, S. Beltrami (© Bettina Stöss)


Il Trovatore is one of Verdi’s most enduring operas. Melodically rich, it’s built on the foundation of four great roles: Manrico, the Troubadour, a tenor; Leonora, a soprano; the gypsy Azucena, a mezzo; and il Conte di Luna, a baritone. The arias, duets and trios written for these voices eclipse much of Verdi’s previous operatic output.


Dramatically, it’s intense but highly implausible. It’s easy to ridicule an opera whose plot originates with a nobleman burning a gypsy woman at the stake and her daughter Azucena then seeking revenge by attempting to bur]]>... Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17647
(© Michele Crosera)


There are a substantial number of opera lovers keen on seeing obscure rare works, especially by major composers; I’m one of them. For example, despite years of operagoing, there are several treasures by Verdi and Strauss I have yet to see. In the case of the prolific Donizetti (1797‑1848), who composed some seventy operas, I’ve barely seen half his output.


Obviously, most rarely-performed operas are not unfairly forgotten; some are true duds. Yet, even those are of interest, as they open a window into the progress of a composer’s style. Enrico di Borgogna was composed ]]>... Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17661
(© Ossama el Naggar)


The Serbian National Theatre concluded its ballet season with a production of Zorba the Greek, a ballet premiered at the Arena di Verona in 1988. In part due to the familiarity of the general public with the story and Zorba’s famous dance, it has already entered the permanent repertoire. Judging from the sold‑out performances, it is also a highly popular work.


The story goes like this: American tourist John, an intellectual, goes to Greece to enrich his experience by living in a small village. He befriends a free‑spirited local, Alexis Zorba, who teaches him to ]]>... Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17668
(© Barbara Palffy/Volksoper Wien)


Hardly any operatic work is as closely associated with Vienna as Die Fledermaus. In the distant early and mid‑nineteenth century, Vienna was the most diverse city in Europe, and its population represented by the diverse peoples of the multilingual, multi-confessional Habsburg Empire. Rivalled only by Paris, nineteenth century Vienna was the epitome of modernity, as exemplified by such luminaries as philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein; Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychology; and Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern, whose Second Viennese School transformed Western music.]]>... Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17681
A. Glaser, K. Ledoux, A. Siminńska (© Marco Sommer/Volksoper Wien)


Both Jacques Offenbach (1819‑1880) and Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1766‑1822) were ardent admirers of Mozart. Hoffmann, who added Amadeus to his birth name, was a jurist, composer, musician, caricaturist, poet and a major writer in the fantastic (horror) genre, a quintessential element of romanticism. Offenbach’s opera uses three of his works, Der Sandmann (1816), Rath Krespel (Councillor Krespel or the Cremona Violin) (1818) and Das verlorene Spiegelbild (The Lost Reflection) (1814) as the basis for ... Sun, 07 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17664
C. Ribas (© Monika Rittershaus)


Composed by the twenty-year-old Rossini, Tancredi (1813) was his first opera seria. It was also a clear shift from the late baroque operatic style that survived, despite Gluck’s reforms and Mozart’s innovations. It’s based on Voltaire’s Tancrède (1760), after an adaptation by Gaetano Rossi (1774‑1855) who wrote the libretti for several works by the likes of Niccolò Zingarelli, Simon Mayr, Giuseppe Farinelli and Nicola Vaccai. Rossi also wrote libretti for three Rossini operas: La cambiale di matrimonio (1810), Rossini’s second opera but first staged work; the]]>... Sun, 07 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17658
(© Geoffroy Schied)


There are few operas whose theatrical success depends so completely upon spectacle as Turandot. Puccini’s final masterpiece is, after all, a fairy tale rather than a psychological drama. Its mythical Peking, inherited from Carlo Gozzi’s eighteenth-century theatrical fantasy rather than from history, is not merely a picturesque backdrop but an indispensable component of the work’s dramatic fabric. Directors who seek to strip away its exoticism in search of contemporary relevance often discover that they have simultaneously stripped away much of the opera’s enchantment. Carlus Padrissa’s production ]]>... Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17686
L. Davidsen (© Fredrik Arff)


In no city in the world are the movements of a star tracked more assiduously today than those of Lise Davidsen in New York. A reigning international soprano of unusual force and equally outstanding height, she is just off a successful run as Wagner’s Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera, where she will return in September to open the new season in her company role debut as Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s first Shakespearean opera. Her Carnegie Hall debut, an all‑Schubert program assiduously accompanied by the insightful pianist James Baillieu, was a late‑season must‑attend for musical New ]]>... Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17644
I. Milos, L. Fernandez Gromova, G. Fourés (© Ashley Taylor)


Scotland’s Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s L’Histoire de Manon, based on the work of Abbé Prévost, created for the Royal Ballet in Covent Garden in 1974, parallels John Cranko’s Onegin (1965). The latter is based on Pushkin’s Evgeny Onegin and was made into a ballet in 1965, decades after being known as a popular opera by Tchaikovsky. In the case of Manon, it had been first made into an opera by several composers including Auber, Puccini and Massenet. As Cranko chose to make a ballet on Eugene Onegin using music by Tchaikovsky other than music from the]]>... Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17672
P. Kirk, J. Philips, J. Göhmann (© Herwig Prammer)


With its double bill of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Lady Magnesia and Bohuslav Martinù’s Alexandre Bis, Theater an der Wien offered an amusing evening, less about tidy operatic storytelling than the pleasures of theatrical distortion. Both one‑act operas began with the same provocation – a husband suspects his wife of infidelity – but they veer off into very different regions of absurdity.


In Weinberg’s opera, George correctly suspects his wife is unfaithful. Initially intent on stabbing her, he decides to poison her lover Adolphus inste]]>... Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17674
G. Capuçon, D. Gatti (© Oliver Killig)


A few days ago, I found myself inside one of the most magnificent concert halls on the planet. I had the good fortune to have been offered a guided tour of this majestic hall while empty, and was immediately mesmerized by its architecture, sense of grandeur and the attention to sonic detail invested in the building as a whole. However, this marvelous tour paled in comparison to being in its midst when filled to its 2,100‑seat capacity. It was humbling to be but one person in such a vast gathering, and life‑affirming to know that on this splendid June evening, so many people]]>... Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17636
M. Alsop, W. Marsalis (© Jeff Fusco)


Life may get complicated, like a big old wrinkled sheet, pulled in all directions, wadded up and tossed into a corner. But music is the iron that comes along, steams out the lumps, and smooths all the edges. Pretty soon, it holds place of pride in the linen closet, smelling of rosemary and promising sweet dreams.


That’s how I felt about this weekend’s Philadelphia Orchestra concert featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Programs were printed, soloist selected, everything was set for the world premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Symphony No. 5 with Marin Al]]>... Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17630
D. Schmutzhard, U. Pfitzner (© Monika Rittershaus/Volksoper Wien)


I did not know what to expect from Johannes Erath’s first staging of an operetta. Of his numerous opera stagings that I have seen so far, most were disappointing, be it his Otello in Frankfurt, his humourless Le nozze di Figaro in Dresden or his Gothic I masnadieri in Munich. The only bright light was his original sta]]>... Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17673
E. Kajtazi (© Elbenita Kajtazi)


Though a great opera, full of drama and alluring melodies, Verdi’s Luisa Miller hasn’t been produced frequently enough the past several decades. The reasons for its decreased popularity are manifold, beginning with its requirement of no less than six major voices – a decidedly expensive prospect for such a not so popular work.


Premiered in 1849, just before the dud Stiffelio (1850) and the hit Rigoletto (1851), it is considered the first opera of Verdi’s “middle period”. Its popularity was quickly eclipsed by Verdi’s ensuing three mega hits, Rigo]]>... Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17635 The entire plot of Mozart’s fabled opera Le nozze di Figaro (1786), based on Beaumarchais’s play La Folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (1784), takes place in one day. The frenzied action in Lorenzo Da Ponte’s exceptionally well‑written libretto makes it one of the most dramatically compact and successful operas. A successful staging of the work will make one feel this quick pace of action.


Beaumarchais’s play, which preceded the French Revolution by a mere five years, was a forebearer of the turmoil and violence to come. It was a biting critique of class‑structured society, and took the side of underlings Figaro and Susanna, demonstrating that servants can outwit their masters. A director, even one]]>... Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17631
B. Talos, L. Aleksanyan, H. Vestmann (© Jochen Quast)


The phenomenon of "Opera in Concert” has become increasingly popular of late, for several reasons. One is that opera fans are more enamored with voices and music than with staging, especially with the dearth of directors with a grasp of history, literature and even music. The majority seem only interested in shock tactics. An operatic evening where one enjoys voices and music without absurd staging is a winning formula.


However, an unfortunate number of operas in concert feature overly familiar operas, even warhorses, as witnessed recently wit]]>... Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17623
B. Miranda, M. Guerzè (© Bettina Stoess)


In stark contrast to most settings, where Don Bartolo is wealthy and living in splendour, here Il barbiere di Siviglia is set in an ugly location, as seen by the hideous sets. In the libretto, Count Almaviva tells Figaro he noticed a lovely girl in the Spanish capital and is there to pursue her (“Al Prado vidi un fior di bellezza, una fanciulla figlia d’un certo medico barbogio”). To be invited to Court, Rosina would have to be from an affluent background, lower nobility or more likely grande bourgeoisie. But in the present modern production, there is no trace of Sevill]]>... Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17643
D. Erdélyi


Perhaps more than any other piece of classical music, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana suffers from intense overfamiliarity. Clocking in at just over an hour and presenting 24 musical settings of medieval poetry in vernacular Latin across five sections, it is most famous for its driving “O Fortuna” introduction and finale reprise. “O Fortuna” is a meditation on the fickle nature of fate, which is immediately recognizable from countless popular culture borrowings.


Carmina Burana’s premiere in 1937 also placed it controversially within the torturous cultural politics of Nazi Germany, where t]]>... Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17653
A. Diehl, Y. Nézet‑Séguin, T. Sorey (© Allie Ippolito)


There is nothing like a Bruckner symphony played at full throttle by a dazzling orchestra and impassioned conductor. And that is exactly what audience members heard this weekend from Nézet‑Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Performing in Marian Anderson Hall in Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the orchestra shared a program with a piano and orchestral tone poem by Newark‑born Tyshawn Sorey, an unexpected partnership in which each work complemented and seemed to comment on the other.


I admit to being a crazed Bruckner fanatic, so]]>... Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17611
(© Bettina Stöss)


“Rien n’empêche le bonheur comme le souvenir du bonheur” (“Nothing prevents happiness more than the memory of happiness”), surmises a woman to Karim, the protagonist of French novelist Gilbert Sinoué’s novel Les Nuits du Caire. Happiness versus the memory of happiness is the gist of Korngold’s most famous opera, written in 1920 Vienna by the 23‑year‑old prodigy.


How realistic is it to look forward when the recent past is too magnificent to forget? This was the predicament of the Viennese intellectual elite after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire followin]]>... Sat, 09 May 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17649