It is not entirely clear what story director #YonaKim seeks to tell in her new production of #SimonBoccanegra at the Nationaltheater Mannheim. The lack of direction for the cast offers no help. Luckily, the performance is salvaged by a superb cast. nationaltheater-mannheim.de/…

This #FlyingDutchman at @deutsche_oper Berlin by #MiloRau is a conceptual paper tiger, feebly driven by the dullest conducting of the opera ever (Giedrė Šlekytė). It manages to be overly didactic, yet still leaving the cast without directorial guidance. deutscheoperberlin.de/en_EN/…

Pascal Dusapin’s adaptation turns the "Divine Comedy" into an oratorio of introspection - and one that's mostly marking time, musically speaking. After his gripping #Penthesilea in Hanover, #IlViaggioDante leaves a rather austere and detached impression. staatstheater-hannover.de/de…

Wagner in Italy, that’s always interesting. #DanielHarding, who launched his #Ring cycle last year at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, is not exactly a conductor who enjoys much favour among critics. His #Siegfried, however, hits the mark. santacecilia.it/en/siegfried…

World premiere of #MissyMazzoli's "Lincoln in the Bardo" at @MetOpera. Special effects galore (in a graveyard, fitting for the season) and all-star cast, including #PeterMattei, #ChristineGoerke and #AnthonyRothCostanzo. Much applause. metopera.org/season/2026-27-…📷: Karen Almond

Sometimes, the spectacle after the opera can be more compelling than the opera itself. Case in point: the @operamrhein in Düsseldorf, where director #DanielKramer has mangled Richard Wagner’s #Meistersinger and was met with a chorus of boos. operamrhein.de/en/schedule/a…

In Krefeld, Roman Hovenbitzer presents a dark staging of #Otello, distilling Verdi’s drama of power, manipulation, and love down to the central triangle of Otello, Desdemona. Musical and vocal performances are, for the most part, very solid. theater-kr-mg.de/spielplan/o…

#Rossini’s "Il viaggio a Reims" in a Munich first at Gärtnerplatztheater is a spectacular fusion of music and theatre: bravura arias, spirited choreography💃& wry humor. 👏 for Réka Kristof (Corinna) and Ludwig Mittelhammer (Lord Sidney) gaertnerplatztheater.de/en/p… 📷: Anna Schnauss

The celebrated American operatic soprano #MartinaArroyo has died at the age of 90. She passed away on 13 October 2026 in her home town, New York City. Arroyo was an instrumental, barrier-breaking figure in the classical music world. operawire.com/obituary-legen…

While no one anymore believes that he murdered Mozart, Antonio Salieri still stands in his shadow. Yet with #Tarare, the Opéra Royal de Versailles demonstrates how much this once immensely popular composer has to offer. oper-magazin.de/kritiken/auf… (paywall, 🇩🇪 ) 📷 : Maeva Sentein

At the #StaatstheaterWiesbaden, #DennisKrauß stages "The Tales of Hoffmann" as a nightmarish journey through a circus world. #PaulTaubitz conducts an Offenbach score that is fluid and flexible, kissed by the muse of the fabulous #FleuranneBrockway. staatstheater-wiesbaden.de/s…

Pity: #Cherrytown at @DutchNatOpera adds cool breakdance moves but looses the satire. #BassemAkiki, leading the beautifully sounding Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, avoids dramatic tension in the score too, so the show noticeably starts to drag. operaballet.nl/en/dutch-nati…

#Götterdämmerung at @operadeparis: #PabloHeraCasado conducted with exquisite sonority, #TamaraWilson a captivating, magnificent Brünnhilde. Director #CalixtoBieito got bogged down with AI-generated architecture, something we have seen all too often by now. operadeparis.fr/en/season-26…

#TheaterBasel and Theater Freiburg have joined directorial and choral forces for #Schoenberg’s "Moses und Aaron": the premiere at Basel is provocative and musically powerful. theater-basel.ch/en/mosesund… 📷: Ingo Höhn

This #Zemlinsky-#Bartók double bill at @WrStaatsoper - pairing "A Florentine Tragedy" with "Bluebeard’s Castle" and featuring, surprisingly, a double happy-end - works well. Musically, it didn’t exactly break new ground, even with Asmik Grigorian in the central female roles.

Opera, that's when lovers hold hands, park and bark. At least, this seems to be director Angela Denoke's idea of the emotional ecstasy between Riccardo and Amelia in Verdi’s "Un ballo in maschera" at @semperoper. The result is closer to a concert performance. 📷 : Jochen Quast

Berg's #Wozzeck at #MiRGelsenkirchen with a sharp political edge, musical sophistication, and compelling performances. Director #IlariaLanzino transposes the story to the Nazi era as a dark social drama exploring power, obedience, and responsibility: mirgelsenkirchen.de/produkti…

With "Das Wunder der Heliane", #AaltoMusiktheater has pulled off a season opener that is bold and intoxicating. The convoluted plot almost feels like a fin de siècle parody, and the vocal demands are formidable. Yet the audience is left astonished in the best possible sense.

With "Journey to the Moon" - loosely based on Jules Verne - composer Alexander R. Schweiß and librettist Jan Dvořák have created a piece that confidently defies easy categorization, but which is, most importantly, genuine fun: nationaltheater-mannheim.de/… 📷 : Christian Kleiner

#EvgenyTitov makes an impressive @rbo_org debut with an ambiguous #Parsifal full of shadows and hints of light. #StanislasDeBarbeyrac is a dynamic, ardent Parsifal, #ChristianGerhaher a vulnerable Amfortas. Jakub Hrůša conducts a full-blooded account. rbo.org.uk/production/parsif…