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…
Browsing: Concert Reviews
Review | Franco Fagioli Dazzles Toronto Summer Music With The Last Castrato
At the relatively young age of 44—still considered youthful for an opera singer—Franco Fagioli is decidedly on top of the countertenor world. Since winning the…
Review | MISSING Makes A Belated, Powerful Toronto Debut
MISSING, with music by Brian Current and libretto by Marie Clements, got its Eastern Canadian premiere at Koerner Hall on July 24th as part of…
Review | Jaeden Izik-Dzurko’s Self-effacing Poetry Charms Toronto Audience
For the past decade or so, Canadian pianists have been punching above their weight in major international piano competitions: from Charles Richard-Hamelin’s second prize at…
Review | Virtuosity Beyond Virtuosity: George Li at Toronto Summer Music
For its 20th anniversary, Toronto Summer Music is offering a parade of competition-winning pianists, from Canadians Jaeden Izik-Dzurko (last year’s Leeds gold medallist) to Charles…
FestivalOpéra de Saint-Eustache: When the Lights Went Out, the Voices Didn’t
For its 16th edition, FestivalOpéra de Saint-Eustache proved that all you need is a voice, a piano, and an audience willing to listen. Over three…
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 | Bold Poppea tests audience at Toronto Summer Music opener
Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, which premiered in Venice in 1643, is truly revolutionary. Opera was new. It had only just evolved from being a court…
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 | 12 Ensemble grows a British-Canadian premiere
After their collaborative season at Wigmore Hall, string orchestra 12 Ensemble are going from strength to strength. What this string ensemble might lack in a…
