As its 112th edition draws to a close, the Bayreuth Festival 2025 reveals its programme: a new production of Die Meistersinger by Matthias Davids, the return of Christian Thielemann to conduct Lohengrin, and revivals of Tristan und Isolde by Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson, Parsifal by Jay Scheib and Valentin Schwarz's Ring conducted by Simone Young. The 112th edition of the Bayreuth Festival has just come to an end and it can boast a return of the public: unlike last year, the thirty performances of this 2024 edition were sold out, with a total of over 58,000 spectators this year - in addition to th ..read more

Before the traditional Bastille Day fireworks on 14 July, the Concert de Paris has become a must for music lovers. This year, Nadine Sierra, Fatma Saïd, Adèle Charvet and Pene Pati will perform “great classical works on the theme of Olympism” in the square in front of the Paris City Hall. The Concert de Paris has become an eagerly awaited event for music lovers, bringing together instrumentalists and opera singers every year on Bastille Day, 14 July, for an evening that culminates in the traditional fireworks display. The event usually takes place at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, with thousand ..read more

For several years now, Lise Davidsen has been blossoming in the Wagnerian repertoire. At the Oslo Opera, she sang Senta in the concert version of The Flying Dutchman alongside Gerald Finley and Stanislas de Barbeyrac. The evening will be recorded for the public. Lise Davidsen has now established herself as one of the rising stars of the opera stage, and every engagement of the Norwegian soprano arouses at least a certain amount of curiosity – after distinguishing herself in the great Strauss roles, she quickly added Wagner to her repertoire, causing a sensation at the Bayreuth Festival, among ..read more

As part of the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Franco-Swiss tenor Benjamin Bernheim performed a modernised version of L'Hymne à Apollon. This ancient Greek song was discovered in Delphi in 1893 and is one of the few surviving examples of ancient Greek music. For the last two weeks, Paris has been living to the rhythm of the 2024 Olympic Games. This sporting and festive chapter came to an end last night at the end of a Closing Ceremony that included several musical highlights. Among the highlights of the evening were Zaho de Sagazan singing Sous le ciel de Paris at sunset in t ..read more

Lotte de Beer, artistic director of the Vienna Volksoper since 2022, has helped change the image of Vienna's "popular and folk" opera house by "trying new things". The public has responded. Her mandate has been extended until 2032. The programming of an opera house takes place over a long period of time: the choice of productions and the engagement of directors and artists are orchestrated years in advance, implying that the artistic directors of an opera house have a long-term vision of their activities. Lotte de Beer has been artistic director of the Wiener Volksoper since 2022 and her manda ..read more

From 25 June, Milan's La Scala will be staging a new production of Turandot by director Davide Livermore, starring Anna Netrebko in the role of the Ice Princess. The production, which will be broadcast live on 4 July on ScalaTV and Arte Concert, is generating a certain amount of curiosity. As part of the commemoration of the centenary of Puccini's death, La Scala has programmed two new productions of the composer's operas this season. The first was La Rondine, performed last April, and the second, starting on 25 June, is Turandot in an original production by Davide Livermore, whose taste for g ..read more

Adriana Lecouvreur has returned to the Liceu, a title that is an authentic operone, with a great vocal score and an orchestration of high level and full of details; a very great drama, with four acts, ballet, three imposing characters and an intense dramatic conflict on a libretto with no special poetic relevance. A work with a very rare aesthetic situation given that, ascribed by the time of composition (it was premiered in 1902) to verismo, it is not about screams and stabbings between rutting rustics but about Parisian 18th century, with corsets, frock coats, powdered wigs, sophisticat ..read more

The young Belgian soprano Jodie Devos died of cancer on Sunday at the age of 35. Her death comes after a sunny young career that left a lasting impression on all those who saw her perform. Astonishment and deep sadness. These are the words that come to mind when reading the news from Intermezzo, the agency of Belgian soprano Jodie Devos, “who died in Paris on 16th June, surrounded by her family and close friends, at the age of 35, from breast cancer, which had forced her to cancel several recent engagements”. Jodie Devos' young career spanned ten years and she will be remembered for the energy ..read more

La Cenerentola, even more than Il Barbiere di Siviglia, is the true encyclopaedia of Rossinian singing which, in a barbarically summarized form, could be defined as a singing that must be easy, fluid, light, but in no way inconsistent; a line full of high notes to which the interpreter should never arrive puffing, exhausted, strangled and at the limit of their strength after a risky climb, but should fly over it elegantly and lightly, taking advantage of the fact that Rossini never forces the singers to climb to the treble without preparing the ground with adequate previous intervals that allo ..read more

Antonio Vivaldi’s L'Olimpiade uses an Italian libretto by Pietro Metastasio that was originally written for Antonio Caldara’s eponymous 1733 opera. Vivaldi’s own version premiered at Venice’s Teatro Sant’Angelo on 17 February 1734, while the libretto would go on to be set to music by over fifty composers including Giovanni Battista Pergolesi in 1735. The action takes place in ancient times in Sicyon during an Olympic Games. Megacle plans to enter under the name of his friend Licida, who is believed to be the son of the King of Crete. Megacle feels bound to help Licida because he once save ..read more