Review | Ponnelle’s L’occasione fa il ladro Still Works Its Magic in Pesaro
Among the many pleasures of returning to the Rossini Opera Festival is the opportunity to encounter productions that have acquired the status of living theatrical…
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 | Zeffirelli’s Turandot Returns to Verona
A century after its first performance at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Puccini’s Turandot continues to possess the peculiar capacity to transform an opera house into…
Review | Rossini’s Forgotten Le siège de Corinthe Triumphs in Pesaro
It was an excellent idea to present Le siège de Corinthe at this year’s Rossini Opera Festival, marking the bicentenary of its Parisian première. Rossini’s…
Review | Bel canto Rarities at Rossini in Wildbad
Among Europe’s summer opera festivals, Rossini in Wildbad occupies a position unlike any other. It neither sought the glamour of Salzburg nor the international celebrity…
Review | End of Season Opera Hits and Misses in Berlin
Few cities in the world can rival Berlin’s operatic riches. Three major opera houses—Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Komische Oper—sustain an astonishingly…
Review | Gärtnerplatz: Munich’s Best-Kept Operatic Secret
Munich’s Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz occupies a singular position within Germany’s operatic landscape. Unlike its illustrious neighbour, the Bayerische Staatsoper, it neither attempts to compete in…
Review | Vienna Volksoper Pushes the Envelope
An early summer visit to Volksoper Wien reaffirmed why it remains one of Europe’s most imaginative lyric theatres. Few companies today show comparable confidence in…
Review | Die Walküre, Turandot & Macbeth at Munich Opera Festival
Few opera houses today can rival Bayerische Staatsoper for the consistency of its musical standards. Within the span of a single season, one can encounter…
Review | It’s the Music: MacMillan’s Manon, Il trittico and Die Zauberflöte at Vienna State Opera
Three recent productions at the Vienna State Opera (VSO) repeatedly demonstrated that first-rate conducting and singing could transcend even the most contentious directorial concepts. While…
Review | Depth of repertoire at Staatsoper Hannover
Three days in Hanover, Germany—a city of barely half a million inhabitants—yielded three entirely different opera experiences: Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, Verdi’s Il trovatore and…
