Orchestras once played Bach as well as Bruckner. Only specialised ensembles showed that note and performance signs have changed their meaning quite a bit over the centuries. So far, so theoretical: in practice, Handel's "Il Trionfo" awaits us, a…

When painter Gustav Klimt coated his famous paintings with gold leaf, Richard Strauss musically reveled in the opulence that was so typical of Vienna at the time. No fewer than five powerful Wagnerian voices are needed for his "Die Frau ohne Schatten…

Since their first performance together in the 2010 Paris production of Werther, they’ve often appeared side-by-side in various stage productions. And as in this concert, the works of Verdi have played a key role. When they appeared as rivals in “La…

What a strange idea Mondonville had! Based on a cruel fable by La Fontaine with a tragic ending, he wrote a charming opera libretto with a happy ending, and composed a delightful pastoral. In the prologue, Dame Clémence Isaure, the mythical founder…

Giacomo Puccini honours his own code by bringing all those elements together in a single work, Il trittico, which is made up of three one-act operas. Finding the right librettos was not easy, but one month after the end of the First World War, his…

This performance of Bach's monumental Mass in B minor is recorded live at Thomaskirche Leipzig. The masterpiece is a dazzling example of the exuberance of the late German baroque and it is produced for the first time with the new Thomaskantor Andreas…

A young call centre agent falls in love with a petty criminal street dancer. She is Orpheus. He is Eurydice. She expresses herself through singing, he articulates himself through his dance. For her great love, she descends into the underworld, faces…

Following the success of King Arthur, which was presented at major European festivals, Vox Luminis is discovering Henry Purcell's "The Fairy Queen", a semi-opera in five acts written for the Dorset Garden in 1692. The dramatic plot of the work is…

The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden hosts the Easter Festival 2022 as a great return of the Live Opera with Tchaikovsky’s classic Pique Dame. The sets and cast of this production set standards and compete with cinema set design. Together for the first time…

Can there be a more charming ambassador for Scotland than Amy Macdonald? On the other hand: On stage, there is an approachable and likable artist who has evidently found her voice, and furthermore— transforms Stuttgart's historic Schlossplatz into a…