Antonio Pappano says the London house, where he is wrapping up 22 years as music director, “will always be my home.”
By Rebecca Schmid
After 25 Years, a Singer Is the ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Met
Patrick Carfizzi, a vibrant performer in supporting roles, has grabbed attention in a new production of Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino.”
By Zachary Woolfe
Critic’s Pick
Review: A Soprano Cements Her Stardom in the Met’s New ‘Forza’
Lise Davidsen, entering the Italian repertoire at the company, was part of a superb cast as Verdi’s opera returned for the first time since 2006.
By Zachary Woolfe
In Maria Callas’s Career, La Scala Played a Major Role
The soprano appeared in more than two dozen productions at the house in Milan as she rose to become opera’s leading lady. Here are six highlights.
By Farah Nayeri
A New Production of a Verdi Opera Tightens Family Ties
“Simon Boccanegra,” a story of fathers, politics, love and duty, is returning to La Scala, where personal connections to the opera run deep.
By David Belcher
listening tour
A Pilgrimage to Verdi-land
A critic whose love of the operas of Giuseppe Verdi goes back nearly 60 years traveled to northern Italy to visit the places that shaped the man and his music.
By Anthony Tommasini
Critic’s Notebook
At the Met, a Refurbished ‘Bohème’ and an Art Deco ‘Ballo’
A gift from a board member recently paid for the company to rebuild sets for Franco Zeffirelli’s deathless 1981 production of Puccini’s classic.
By Zachary Woolfe
Critic’s Notebook
Back-to-Back Verdi Evenings Showcase the Met Opera Chorus
The company’s opening week included performances of “Nabucco” and the Requiem.
By Oussama Zahr
An Opera Director With the Mind of a Filmmaker
Mariusz Trelinski returns to the Metropolitan Opera next year with a new staging of “La Forza del Destino,” which leans into psychoanalysis and fate.
By Rebecca Schmid
Critic’s Notebook
Despite Tensions, Salzburg Remains a Crammed Summer Stage
No other festival matches the sheer profusion of classical music, opera and theater offerings at the Salzburg Festival.
The Women of ‘Don Carlo’ Portray a Moment in History
In a Verdi revival at the Royal Opera, two top female singers are discovering, and rediscovering, characters from a real-life royal love triangle.
By David Belcher
Critic’s Pick
Review: Verdi’s Falstaff Is Back at the Met, Enlarging His Kingdom
Michael Volle puts his noble voice to delightfully undignified use as the title character in Robert Carsen’s still fresh production of “Falstaff.”
By Oussama Zahr
Review: The Met Opera’s Grand Old ‘Aida’ Isn’t Dead Yet
But opening night of the huge production’s final run, shakily cast, presented a show that seemed to be begging to retire.
By Zachary Woolfe
5 Things to Do This Weekend
Selections from the Weekend section, including a review of "The Menu," starring Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult.
By Danielle Dowling
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Review: The Met Brings Back a Shorter, Weaker ‘Don Carlo’
David McVicar’s staging from last season has returned, but in a four-act, Italian-language form. In this case, less is less.
By Seth Colter Walls
Critic’s Pick
Review: Before Riccardo Muti Leaves Chicago, a Verdi Farewell
“Un Ballo in Maschera” is the last in a series of Verdi operas led in concert by the Chicago Symphony’s music director, who departs after next season.
By Zachary Woolfe
Critic’s Notebook
In Cleveland, Schubert Outsings Even the Mighty ‘Otello’
After playing Schubert’s Ninth Symphony just before the pandemic lockdown, the Cleveland Orchestra shone in its return to the sprawling work.
By Zachary Woolfe
Critic’s Pick
Review: ‘Don Carlos’ Finally Brings French Verdi to the Met
Yannick Nézet-Séguin led the sprawling masterpiece, which is being presented by the company for the first time in its original language.
By Zachary Woolfe
‘Don Carlo’ or ‘Don Carlos’? Verdi Comes to the Met in French
On Monday, the company performs the much-revised masterpiece for the first time in its original language.
By Will Crutchfield
5 Things to Do This Weekend
Selections from the current Weekend section, including a preview of “Euphoria” and other TV shows coming this winter.
By Danielle Dowling
‘Rigoletto’ at the Met Unites a Father and Daughter. Again.
Quinn Kelsey and Rosa Feola have earned raves playing a jester and his child in a new production of Verdi’s opera.
By Joshua Barone
Critic’s Pick
Review: Amid Omicron, the Met Opera Opens a Weimar ‘Rigoletto’
Quinn Kelsey and Rosa Feola lead a superb cast in Bartlett Sher’s new staging of Verdi’s classic drama.
By Anthony Tommasini
Best Classical Music of 2021
The Metropolitan Opera returned with its first work by a Black composer, the repertory slowly got richer, and other highlights of the year.
By Anthony Tommasini,Zachary Woolfe,Joshua Barone,Seth Colter Walls and David Allen
Critic’s Pick
Review: For 9/11 Tribute, the Met Opera Returns Home
The company’s first performance inside its theater since March 2020 was an inspired rendition of Verdi’s Requiem.
By Anthony Tommasini
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Met Opera to Return to Indoor Performance for 9/11 Tribute
The company plans to perform Verdi’s Requiem to mark the 20th anniversary of the attacks, an event that will also be broadcast live on PBS.
By Zachary Woolfe
Nello Santi, Conductor With His Heart in Italian Opera, Dies at 88
Mr. Santi, who led hundreds of performances at the Metropolitan Opera, was a renowned interpreter of Puccini and, especially, Verdi.
By Jonathan Kandell
critic’s notebook
An 18th-Century Opera, Supercharged for Our Time
The Paris Opera’s new production of “Les Indes Galantes” has freshness and energy that elude its “La Traviata.”
By Zachary Woolfe
Review: Plácido Domingo Is Gone, but He Still Haunted ‘Macbeth’
You have to admire the Met’s intrepid cast, chorus and orchestra for rallying. But they seemed affected by an 11th-hour upheaval.
By Anthony Tommasini
The Secret of Verdi’s ‘Otello’ and ‘Falstaff’? His Publisher
A new exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum reveals the crucial role Ricordi played in creating these late masterpieces.
By Zachary Woolfe
Critic’s Notebook
Familiar Operas Are Stunningly Fresh in English
With “Rigoletto” and “The Coronation of Poppea,” Opera Theater of St. Louis remains committed to presenting works in translation.
By Anthony Tommasini
Review: Details Matter in Riccardo Muti’s Precise ‘Aida’
The conductor led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a Verdi performance that was crystal clear, yet too cool to the touch.
By Zachary Woolfe
Critic’s Notebook
After 31 Years, Farewell to the Met Opera’s Grand, Gaudy ‘Aida’
A critic admits his love for an utterly traditional, utterly delightful production that will be replaced in the 2020-21 season.
By Zachary Woolfe
5,000 Pages of Verdi’s Drafts, Long Hidden, Will Be Made Public
A trunk full of sketches for operas like “Aida,” “Otello” and “Falstaff” was kept locked in Verdi’s villa in Italy. It’s finally opening.
By Elisabetta Povoledo
An Italian Festival Presents Verdi on His Own Turf
The Festival Verdi Parma has led a sleepy existence for most of its 18 years. But now it demands attention.
By George Loomis
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Grace Notes
‘Viva Verdi,’ Say Fans With Very Verdian Names
An Italian opera club assigns each member the name of a Verdi opera. Falstaff, Un Giorno di Regno and Messa de Requiem (which they include) spent last week in New York.
By James Barron
Inside Milan’s Opulent Retirement Home for Musicians
Each year, Casa Verdi is inundated with applications from artists who want to live their twilight years in a neo-Gothic mansion surrounded by instruments.
By Sally McGrane
Review: Plácido Domingo Takes On a New Role at the Met Opera. (His 149th.)
In Verdi’s “Luisa Miller,” the celebrated tenor-turned-baritone, after almost 60 years of singing, gives a performance not to be missed.
By Zachary Woolfe
The 25 Best Classical Music Recordings of 2017
Our critics and writers choose their favorite albums of the year, including a new “Rigoletto,” Philip Glass piano works, and free-jazz arrangements.
By Anthony Tommasini,James R. Oestreich,David Allen,Seth Colter Walls and Joshua Barone
Christoph Waltz, Directing Opera, Moves From Tarantino to Verdi
The Oscar-winning actor concentrates on subtle acting in his new production of “Falstaff” at Opera Vlaanderen in Belgium.
By Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim
Review: Verdi’s Requiem Recast as Memorial for Dmitri Hvorostovsky
A four-performance run of the great choral work has been dedicated to the memory of the Russian baritone, a beloved Met artist who died on Wednesday.
By Zachary Woolfe
Your Week in Culture: ‘Nutcracker,’ James Levine and Christmas Scripted by Charles Dickens
Also the week of Nov. 19: James Levine returns to the Met Opera; Noname and Daniel Caesar perform in Chicago.
By The New York Times
Review: A Starry ‘Don Carlos’ Brings Verdi, in French, to Paris
Jonas Kaufmann and Sonya Yoncheva shine in a cinema-influenced staging that updates the opera, seemingly to the 1940s or ’50s.
By Zachary Woolfe
Requiem for a New Metropolitan Opera Production
The Met said to save money it was canceling Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” by the director Calixto Bieito, and would have concerts of Verdi’s Requiem instead.
By Michael Cooper
TimesVideo
Excerpt: ‘Nabucco’
The Metropolitan Opera Opera chorus sings “Va, pensiero” from Act III of Verdi’s “Nabucco.”
By Metropolitan Opera
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Review: Verdi’s Requiem, in All Its Theatricality and Resonance
The London Symphony Orchestra performed two concerts over the weekend, including one with the star pianist Yuja Wang.
By James R. Oestreich
Review: 2 Murderous Men in 2 Operas About Killing for Politics
From Salman Rushdie and Shakespeare, in Kashmir and Scotland, the Opera Theater of St. Louis focuses on men who kill.
By Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim
Critic's Notebook
Operas in Contrast: ‘Macbeth’ and ‘La Donna Serpente’
A Barrie Kosky production of “Macbeth” is at the Zurich Opera House and Arturo Cirillo’s production of “La Donna Serpente” ended in Turin, Italy.
By George Loomis
Review: Riccardo Muti, the King of Verdi, Still Rules With a Firm Baton
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra conductor shows his ample gifts as Verdi’s protector and defender in “Falstaff” in Chicago.
By Zachary Woolfe
Review: Verdi’s ‘Simon Boccanegra’ at the Met, and a Question of Career Timing
When is it time for a great artist to retire? This delicate question hovers over this revival, conducted by James Levine, and starring Plácido Domingo.
Introduction: My name is Arielle Torp, I am a comfortable, kind, zealous, lovely, jolly, colorful, adventurous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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