OperMag

Compassion as solution to the world's crises? #FlorisVisser seems to believe so in his production of #Parsifal at the @semperoper. #GeorgZeppenfeld stands out as Gurnemanz; #EricCutler is a thoughtful Parsifal, but lacks final decisiveness.semperoper.de/spielplan/stue…📷: Jochen Quast

A bit kitschy how #ManonLescaut, in this new Opéra de Lyon production, floats off into eternity in a four-poster bed. But #RiccardoMassi has everything required for Des Grieux, #ChiaraIsotton as Manon shines with technical assurance and brilliant high notes.📷: J-L Fernandez

#ErsanMondtag's work is usually anything but boring, but this production of Walter Braunfels' #TheBirds in Wiesbaden doesn't really take wing. An impressive airport setting alone doesn't quite cut it. Musically, the Nightingale (#JosefineMindus) makes one prick up one's ears.

Exciting double bill at August Everding Theatre Academy, with Rota's "I due timidi" and Milhaud's "Il pauvre matelot": a fine comedy the one, the other a bitter tragedy. Young singers deliver compelling performances in demanding roles. theaterakademie.de/de/theater/pro… 📷: Cordula Treml

The third panel of #BarrieKosky's new #Ring at @rbo_org marries grotesque comedy with startling tenderness and optimism. #AndreasSchager makes a stupendous house debut as Siegfried. #AntonioPappano continues to conduct a vital, energised, luscious account. rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-ev…

Dortmund Opera continues its journey of rediscovery of forgotten female composers – and has made a truly powerful find with Clémence de Grandval's 1892 #Mazeppa! theaterdo.de/produktionen/d… 📸: Björn Hickmann

Pascal Dusapin's #Penthesilea, based on Kleist's tragedy, offers music that is finely spun, but rarely dramatic. Despite some strong imagery, director #LorenzoFioroni further obscures the plot at the #HanoverStateOpera instead of creating helpful points of entry.📷: Bettina Stöß

With this cross-genre project of dance and opera, the #LuzernerTheatre offers a fascinating amalgam that is compact yet multifaceted and captivating: "The Loves of Berenice" - sometimes by Jommelli, sometimes by Gluck, Haydn, Boccherini, or Mozart. luzernertheater.ch/dieliebenderbe…

There's no salvaging a libretto from hell: Michel van der Aa's multimedia piece "Theory of Flames" (he is also its composer and director) is musically dull without saying much about its topic, conspiracy theories. operaballet.nl/en/dutch-natio… (stills from "Theory of Flames")

#DeborahWarner’s first encounter with Britten's "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" might be the biggest success of the @Teatro_Real this season. #IvorBolton conducts with lucid theatrical instinct, countertenor #IestynDavies dominates as a mesmerising Oberon, teatroreal.es/en/show/midsum…

Rossini's "L'Italiana in Algeri" in the Mexican lucha libre scene? Sounds bonkers, but works surprisingly well at @deutsche_oper Berlin in #RolandoVillazón's new staging, #NadezhdaKaryazina's Isabella stands out with her dark, mysterious mezzo. deutscheoperberlin.de/en_EN/calendar…

Beethoven's #Fidelio at the @MFTheater Würzburg. Vocal centrepiece are #MaidaHundeling (Leonore) with trumpet-like brilliance and #BradCooper's Florestan. Würzburg Philharmonic Orchestra in great form, the staging is simple, yet effective. mainfrankentheater.de/en/schedule/a-… 📸Nik Schölzel

The @bay_staatsoper has found a new match made in opera heaven: just a pity that soprano #SerenaSáenz and tenor #BekhzodDavronov get only that one duet Verdi granted them in his #Rigoletto. staatsoper.de/stuecke/rigole…

With #RiccardoMuti conducting, one wouldn't expect any "Regietheater" flourishes. This also applies to this ]#Macbeth in Turin, directed by his daughter Chiara Muti, which instead scores highly in its musical interpretation. teatroregio.torino.it/opera-e-ballet… 📸 : Mattia Gaido

Our focus feature in the current issue: "Free the Diva". oper-magazin.de/themen/schwerp… (paywall, German).

Backflips and somersaults around a giant molehill set in a clinically white diorama. Yet the forest comes vividly alive in this new production of #TheCunningLittleVixen by #TedHuffman at the #StaatsoperBerlin. staatsoper-berlin.de/de/veranstaltu…

New OPER! March / April 🌦️ is out! oper-magazin.de With OPER! AWARDS winners @TenorTetelman, #GianlucaCapuano and #SebastianRitschel of "Best Opera House" 2026 @theaterRGNSBRG!

#PeterGrimes as family constellation with a lot of crazy at #BraunschweigStateTheatre. Boring in its on-the-nose-ness, but saved by the magnificent #MariusPallesen in the title role and Ekaterina Kudryavtseva as Ellen Orford. staatstheater-braunschweig.de/.../peter-grim…📸: Thomas J. Jauk

#Wozzeck doesn’t have to sound beautiful. But it has to be convincing. And it is, in this new production by #EvgenyTitov at Graz. A surprise, perhaps: the eternal Papageno #DanielSchmutzhard in the title part, both tragic and moving. oper-graz.buehnen-graz.com/en/produktion/…📸: Herwig Prammer

Strong women were on trend in early 20th c. opera. Time to rediscover one who remained obscure for too long: Paul Dukas’ heroine in "Ariane et Barbe-Bleue". #PaulaMurrihy, #SilviaTroSantafé and #GianlucaBuratto give strong performances at @Teatro_Real teatroreal.es/en/show/ariane…