Opera & Ballet

Collected opera and ballet reviews

Fine singing and a convincing production for Oldenburg’s Les contes d’Hoffmann

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GermanyGermany Offenbach, Les contes d’Hoffmann: Soloists, Chorus, Extra Chorus, Oldenburgisches Staatsorchester / Vito Cristofaro (conductor). Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, 6.5.2025. (DM-D)

Dorothee Bienert (Nicklausse/Muse) and Jason Kim (Hoffmann) © Stephan Walzl

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Barrie Kosky’s minimally staged, flawed Royal Opera Walküre, is great music theatre nonetheless

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United KingdomUnited Kingdom Wagner, Walküre: Soloists, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor). Broadcast live (directed by Peter Jones) from the Royal Opera House, London, to Cineworld Basildon, Essex, 14.5.2025. (JPr)

Soloman Howard (Hunding), Natalya Romaniw (Sieglinde) and Stanislas de Barbeyrac (Siegmund) © RBO/Monika Rittershaus

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John Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra at the Met: relentlessly forward, less inward

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United StatesUnited States John Adams, Antony and Cleopatra: Soloists, Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra / John Adams (conductor). Metropolitan Opera, New York, 12.5.2025. (ES-S)

Gerald Finley (Antony) and Julia Bullock (Cleopatra) in Antony and Cleopatra © Karen Almond/Met Opera

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A Vienna Lohengrin that demanded to be heard and was also worth seeing

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AustriaAustria Wagner, Lohengrin: Soloists, Vienna State Opera Chorus, Extra Chorus, and Choir Academy, Stage Orchestra, Vienna State Opera Orchestra / Christian Thielemann (conductor). Vienna State Opera, Vienna, 1.5.2025 (MB)

Gottfried (child of the opera school) and Camilla Nylund (Elsa) © Michael Pöhn/WS

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