Opera & Ballet

Collected opera and ballet reviews

Visually compelling but sometimes incomprehensible staging of Gounod’s Faust in Valencia

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SpainSpain Gounod, Faust: Soloists, Generalitat Valenciana Chorus, Comunitat Valenciana Orchestra / Lorenzo Viotti (conductor). Palau de Les Arts, Valencia, 5.10.2025. (JMI)

Alex Esposoto (Méphistophélès), Gemma Coma-Alabert (Marthe), Ruth Iniesta (Marguerite) and Iván Ayón-Rivas (Faust) © Arts Fotografía

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Sir Simon Rattle conducting in Munich allowed for more discovery of detail in Berg’s Wozzeck

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GermanyGermany Berg, Wozzeck (concert performance): Soloists, Chorus of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Children’s Chorus of Bavarian State Opera, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle (conductor). Isarphilharmonie, Munich, 5.10.2025. (AL-L)

Christian Gerhaher (Wozzeck), conductor Sir Simon Rattle, Malin Byström (Marie) and BRSO  © BR/Astrid Ackermann

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Auspicious start to the Kratzer and Wellber Hamburg tenure with Robert Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri

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GermanyGermany Robert Schumann, Das Paradies und die Peri: Soloists, Hamburg State Opera Chorus, Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra / Omer Meir Wellber (conductor). Hamburg State Opera, 30.9.2025. (DM-D)

Vera-Lotte Boecker (Peri, centre front) and chorus of Hamburg State Opera © Monika Ritterhaus

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