The opera Orgia, for three voices and chamber orchestra, with music by Hèctor Parra and libretto by Calixto Bieito, which had its world premiere at the Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao in June 2023, has now arrived at the Liceu in Barcelona. Orgia, of which only two performances will be offered in Barcelona, is based on the play of the same name by Pier Paolo Pasolini, which was premiered -some say not very successfully- in Turin in 1968. Bieito's libretto has reduced the theatrical text by two thirds, but it is constructed with phrases that strictly respect the author's text and also respects the ori ..read more

Based on Prosper Mérimée’s eponymous novella, Georges Bizet’s Carmen of 1875 is the story of the ultimate temptress. A gypsy and cigarette factory worker in Seville, Carmen has the power to entice any man she chooses. Once, however, they are besotted with her she quickly moves on, leaving them heart broken and unable to accept what has happened. In the opera Don José, an army corporal, has almost everything he could ever desire. He has the sweet, loving Micaëla who is more than willing to marry him, the blessing of his mother, a job he is proud of and the opportunity to see his home village. W ..read more

Béla Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, with a libretto by Béla Balázs, is a one act Symbolist opera, based on the French folk legend as told by Charles Perrault. Bartók originally composed it in 1911, but made quite a few modifications before it premiered at the Royal Hungarian Opera House in Budapest on 24 May 1918. Lasting around an hour, and involving just two singing characters, it tells the story of when Bluebeard brings his new wife Judith to his castle for the first time.  When they arrive all is dark, and Bluebeard actually offers Judith the chance to leave, which she rejects. She ..read more

Jenůfa, which premiered in Brno in 1904, is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer. It is based on the play Její pastorkyňa by Gabriela Preissová, and is one of the very first operas to be written in prose. Set in a Moravian village in the nineteenth century, the plot concerns a series of tangled relationships, deriving from the fact that two brothers died leaving behind both children and stepchildren. The elder brother married a widow, and thus became stepfather to her son Laca, before having Števa with her. The younger son married twice, and had ..read more

Giant, with music by Sarah Angliss and libretto by Ross Sutherland, was commissioned by Britten Pears Arts and first appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2023. It explores the relationship between the eighteenth century British surgeon John Hunter and Charles Byrne who, measuring seven feet, seven inches (judged by his skeletal remains) was known as ‘The Irish Giant’. Following Byrne’s death in 1783, Hunter arranged for his body to be stolen while it was on its way to Margate in order to study it. This went against Byrne’s express wishes, who had specifically planned a burial at sea in order ..read more

The Flying Dutchman, which premiered in Dresden in 1843, is the fourth of Richard Wagner’s thirteen operas, and considered to be his first mature one. This is because it is the first still to be regularly staged, with Wagner himself having ruled that the three that preceded it should never be performed at his Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. The composer had been inspired to write the opera following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in 1839, and the story is taken from Heinrich Heine’s retelling of the legend, which possibly originated in the seventeenth century, in his 1833 satiric ..read more

The high musical level reached in Un Ballo in maschera that in the last days has been offered at Liceu has managed to bring success to the performances, which otherwise  in the strictly theatrical scope would have been a failure. The main merit in the triumph of this Ballo must be attributed to maestro Riccardo Frizza, who managed to get the orchestra to offer one of the best performances of the season. Frizza got from the instrumental ensemble the relatively restrained, intimate and somewhat chamber-like sound that Verdi wanted for this opera. There were details of great sound quality an ..read more

Several composers have based operas on plays in Pierre Beaumarchais’s Figaro trilogy, which comprises The Barber of Seville (1775), The Marriage of Figaro (1784) and The Guilty Mother (1792). By far the most famous of these were written by Mozart, whose 1786 opera has its origins in the second, and Rossini, who in 1816 utilised the first for his own comic masterpiece.  Like Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier that were to follow, The Barber of Seville is the story of an ageing man attempting to put himself between two young lovers. Coun ..read more

For its 2024-25 season, Opera Philadelphia welcomes the American premiere of Missy Mazzoli's opera The Listeners (following its premiere at Oslo Opera in 2022), as well as Chevalier de Saint-Georges Joseph Bologne's rare comic opera L'Amant Anonyme. Philadelphia may not be the most vibrant of American cities when it comes to opera, but its Academy of Music (home of the Opera Company of Philadelphia) boasts the oldest opera house within the United States to be continuously in use for its original purpose since its founding in 1855. The Opera Company of Philadelphia has announced its (short) 202 ..read more

Written in 1998 to a libretto by Paul Bentley, Poul Ruders’s The Handmaid’s Tale is based on Margaret Atwood’s eponymous novel of 1985. This means that when he wrote it no-one had even heard of Bruce Miller’s television series that aired in 2017. English National Opera first staged the work in 2003, and then introduced a new production by ENO’s Artistic Director Annilese Miskimmon in 2022. This version has now returned, under revival director James Hurley, and, if anything, feels even stronger than before. With six principals reprising their roles from two years ago, and many others being ..read more