The Classical Music Network (English) Sat, 18 Jul 2026 20:48:47 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/ http://www.concertonet.com/images/concertonet.jpg http://www.concertonet.com/
A. Grigorian (© Timofei Kolesnikov)


Few artists on today’s operatic stage generated the level of anticipation that accompanied Asmik Grigorian’s return to the recital platform. The original programme alone promised an evening of uncommon distinction, juxtaposing French melodies with Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder, repertoire that invited not merely vocal display but the highest degree of stylistic refinement. Fate, however, intervened. After a brief delay, it was announced that Grigorian had spent the previous week incapacitated by illness and had only just recovered sufficient voice to appear. Her decis]]>... Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17708
(© Geoffroy Schied)


There is a persistent tendency in contemporary opera production to regard the supernatural as an embarrassment. Ghosts become hallucinations, gods become politicians, miracles become psychological projections. Yet in certain works magic is not decorative but structural: remove it, and the drama itself risks collapse. Handel’s Alcina belongs unmistakably to this category. First performed in London in 1735 and adapted from episodes of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (1532), it is less a fairy tale than a meditation on power, desire and self‑delusion, but those themes are articulated through e]]>... Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17710
Y. Lee, J. Stén, T. Obermayr (© Marie‑Laure Briane)


Gärtnerplatztheater’s Opernstudio offered an evening of opera and musical theatre in a production that attempted to weave its varied arias, songs and ensembles into a coherent narrative. The selection of musical numbers was delightful, but the constructed storyline ultimately failed to convince.


A beach setting proved appropriate given the summer heat. Four young people applied a “magic” sunscreen that caused hallucinations, awakening passions ranging from love and sexual desire to jealousy, revenge and despair.


Dire]]>... Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17707
(© Marie-Laure Briane)


Among the many injustices of operatic history is the neglect that has befallen Johann Strauss’s Waldmeister. Premiered at the Theater an der Wien in December 1895, the composer’s penultimate operetta has long remained in the shadow of its more illustrious siblings, its inspired score burdened by a libretto of conspicuous fragility. Yet the Gärtnerplatztheater’s new production, mounted last season in celebration of Strauss’s bicentenary and presently reprised, makes a persuasive case that even this most problematic of works can, in sufficiently intelligent hands, reveal unexpected charms.
]]>... Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17703
(© Matthias Baus)


Samson et Dalila is among those operas that survived not because of their drama but because Saint‑Saëns transformed an improbable biblical tale into a work of extraordinary sensuality. The contrast between the austere, almost prosaic first act and the eroticism of the second remains striking, and it is no surprise that “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix” became the composer’s most enduring vocal inspiration.


Martinique-born poet Ferdinand Lemaire (1832‑1879), who wrote the libretto, convinced Saint‑Saëns to transform the biblical story into a through‑composed ]]>... Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17699
D. Hellberg, E. Windegger (© Anna Schnauss)


Set in a corrupt, semi-mythical Victorian London, Die Dreigroschenoper unfolded around the criminal Macheath, the charismatic gangster who secretly married Polly Peachum, daughter of Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum. Peachum, himself no less a capitalist than any respectable businessman, had built an enterprise upon the organised exploitation of London’s beggars, transforming destitution into a profitable commodity. Incensed by his daughter’s marriage, he resolved to have Macheath arrested and hanged. Macheath initially eluded capture through the protection of Tiger Brown, the cit]]>... Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17698
(© Markus Tordik)


While it was once fashionable to dismiss Austrian composer Gottfried von Einem (1918‑1996) as a conservative whose refusal to embrace the serial orthodoxy of post‑war Europe condemned him to historical marginality, hearing Der Besuch der alten Dame (1971) today, one suspects the opposite. And while his more radical contemporaries now seem historically important but theatrically inert, von Einem’s work is more relevant than ever, because dramatic truth (rather than theoretical innovation) were always his principal concern. His language may be harmonically expanded, but it never abandons l]]>... Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17695
(© Geoffroy Schied)


Premiered in 1847, Macbeth is Verdi’s best opera from his early period, prior to his middle period’s Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853) and La traviata (1853) that established him as the leading opera composer of his time. Based on Shakespeare’s play, it’s one of the most powerful tragedies since those of Ancient Greece. It describes the ambition of a weak man pushed by his ruthless wife and their eventual downfall. The witches, whose soothsaying treacherously incites Macbeth’s ambitions, have the same effect as the intervention of the gods in Greek tragedies. Dramatically,]]>... Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17692
M. Laurenz, S. Starke, A. Zaharia, M. Dietrich (© Stephan Rabold)


Since the turn of the last century, Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail has ceased to be produced with the same frequency as in earlier decades. This is despite the fact that after the three Da Ponte operas (Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte) and Die Zauberflöte, it’s his fifth most popular opera. Even his Graeco‑Roman operas, Idomeneo and La clemenza di Tito, appear more frequently at opera houses worldwide. The reason is due to the relative triviality of the subject matter and to st]]>... Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17700
(© Brescia e Amisano/Teatro alla Scala)


Un seul être vous manque... La reprise de Lucia di Lammermoor à la Scala se révèle moins attrayante qu’initialement prévu en raison de la défection de Pene Pati dans le rôle d’Edgardo. Son remplaçant, Piero Pretti, livre une performance vocalement correcte mais qui manque de charisme et d’éclat. Son incarnation reste trop effacée pour porter toute la dimension héroïque et passionnée du personnage. La Lucia de Rosa Feola s’éloigne des interprétations purement belcantistes traditionnelles. Si la virtuosité technique pure et les ornementations de la chanteuse manquent parfois]]>... Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17697
A. Anger, I. Roberts, J. Baeckstroem, N. Brownlee
(© Monika Rittershaus)


Few opera houses could claim Munich’s Wagnerian authority. It was here that Das Rheingold and Die Walküre premiered, and any new Ring at the Bayerische Staatsoper inevitably had to contend with that legacy. Tobias Kratzer’s new Die Walküre succeeded because it pursued innovation through a profound reading of the text rather than gratuitous provocation. His imagery arose organically from the libretto’s psychological logic, so that every scenic gesture felt dramatically inevitable rather than symbolic for its own sake.... Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17694
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
(© Tatjana Dachsel)


One hundred and twenty-five years after its 1902 première, Pelléas et Mélisande remains avant garde, at least dramatically. Debussy’s œuvre is familiar to many thanks to such seminal orchestral works as La Mer and piano works such as Suite bergamasque, neither of which are a challenge for the contemporary listener. However, the libretto for Pelléas, a variant of Dante’s Francesca da Rimini love triangle, is more aesthetic than realistic.


Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1892 play Pelléas et Mélisande fascinated musicians of the epoc]]>... Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17704
(© 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