by Jens Winther | Mar 27, 2026 | Opera, Opera
IDOMENEO • BRUXELLES ★★★★☆☆ Photo: Simon Van Rompay REVIEW IDOMENEO: CAPTIVATING MOZART AND NEUROLOGY IN BRUSSELS At first, it almost seems as if there is more vitality in Mozart’s 300-year-old Idomeneo than in Calixto Bieto’s three-week-old production at La Monnaie...
by Jens Winther | Mar 26, 2026 | Opera, Opera
BILLY BUDD • LYON OPERA FESTIVAL ★★★★★☆ REVIEW BILLY BUDD: FORBIDDEN FASCINATION IN A STORMINGLY BEAUTIFUL PRODUCTION The affable French director and opera director Richard Brunel is usually inclined toward radical interpretations, but here he focuses on clarity and...
by Jens Winther | Mar 25, 2026 | Opera, Opera
SIEGFRIED • LONDON ★★★★★★ REVIEW: SIEGFRIED—A NEW ARTISTIC TRIUMPH FOR BARRIE KOSKY In a brilliant opening scene, Erda, the goddess of the earth, swings naked, long-haired, and emaciated from a charred ash tree, where Mime lives with the young Siegfried in a shattered...
by Jens Winther | Mar 17, 2026 | Musical, Opera
WERTHER • OPER FRANKFURT ★★★★★☆ Photo: Barbara Aumüller REVIEW WERTHER: IN GOETHE’S OWN CITY, THE TYRANNY OF EMOTION BECOMES IRRESISTIBLE I have seen Werther several times before without ever being truly moved. But Oper Frankfurt has changed that for me. In Goethe’s...
by Jens Winther | Mar 11, 2026 | Opera, Opera
THE ITALIAN GIRL IN ALGIERS • DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN ★★★★★☆ REVIEW THE ITALIAN GIRL IN ALGIERS: KNOCKOUT WIN IN BERLIN Mexican star tenor and director Rolando Villazón knocks out the Berlin audience with a completely crazy wrestling staging of Rossini’s second...
by Jens Winther | Oct 28, 2025 | Opera, Opera
CARMEN • LONDON ★★★★☆☆ REVIEW CARMEN LONDON: NAKED AND COLD AS ICE Calixto Bieto, the daring Spanish director and bad boy of opera, has stripped Carmen down to her garters in a minimalist set design in his London production for English National Opera (ENO), which is...
