Review | Donizetti in Bergamo: Where Rarities Steal the Spotlight
Since 1981, the city of Bergamo, one hour northeast of Milan, and the birthplace of Gaetano Donizetti, has hosted Donizetti Opera, a festival of the…
Ossama el Naggar
Ossama el Naggar
Born in Cairo, Egypt, Ossama el Naggar moved to Montréal to pursue graduate studies in Chemistry and Business Administration. He founded a classical music distribution company and later an online business. He teaches opera appreciation, history and literature at the Thomas More Institute in Montréal and travels extensively worldwide, chronicling opera, ballet and the symphonic repertoire.
From this author
Review | Wexford Festival Opera: An Antidote for Opera Ennui
For opera aficionados, a fatigue sets in, seeing the same repeated warhorses each year: Tosca, La bohème, La traviata, Rigoletto, et al. As excellent as…
Review: Zombie Zelmira & Canuck Cambiale at Rossini Opera Festival
Established in 1980, the Rossini Opera Festival (ROF) is not only one of the most popular musical events in Italy, but also, in all of…
Review | Macerata Opera Festival 2025: Dancing Macbeth, Mafia Rigoletto & Lehár
Unlike the Roman Arena di Verona, Macerata’s 2,500 seat Arena Sferisterio is a more recent creation. Created two centuries ago for an Italian variant of…
Review | Emily D’Angelo & Philippe Sly bright spots in sex chair Nozze at Munich Opera Festival
For its 150th anniversary, Bavarian State Opera’s Munich Opera Festival had the novel idea of producing all three Da Ponte/Mozart operas as a trilogy, using…
Review | Stellar cast reinvigorates Vienna State Opera Ring
This June, Vienna State Opera revived its production of Wagner’s Ring (first seen in its entirety in 2009), offering two cycles at the end of…
Review | As he exits, Martin Schläpfer puts a modern stamp on Vienna State Ballet
A revolution has erupted: the Swiss dancer and choreographer Martin Schläpfer, formerly director of Düsseldorf’s Ballet am Rhein (known for its innovative choreography), became director…
Review | Spellbinding Bruckner from Thielemann & Staatskapelle Berlin in Vienna
Christian Thielemann’s June 26th concert with Staatskspelle Berlin at Vienna’s venerable Musikverein almost felt like too much of a good thing. Works by two favourite…
Review | Marie-Nicole Lemieux shines in impromptu Paris Rossini fest
For avid Rossini fans, a logical destination is the Rossini Opera Festival held annually in Pesaro, the composer’s birthplace on Italy’s Adriatic coast. There, the…
Review | Wajdi Mouawad’s filmic Pelléas et Mélisande in Paris
Belgian playwright’s Maurice Maeterlinck’s play Pelléas et Mélisande (1892) fascinated musicians of the epoch. Both Fauré (in 1898) and Sibelius (in 1905) wrote incidental music…
