We're less easily shocked today. But watching Florentine Opera's new production of "Carmen," it's easy to see what startled its Parisian audience when Bizet's opera debuted in 1875. Carmen's brazen ...

As the overture ends, the red curtains at His Majesty’s Theatre rise to reveal a flat, white floor-to-ceiling wall. This suddenly transforms to show a young man being chased through a forest by a red ...

A massive crystal chandelier descended from the ceiling of the Orpheum Theatre’s house as its lights flickered and the classic “The Phantom of the Opera” theme boomed throughout the theater. Curtains ...

“The Magic Flute” has enchanted audiences ever since it opened in 1791, just months before Mozart’s untimely death. On the surface, “Flute” is a fairy tale about a prince who sets out to rescue a ...

The Royal Opera’s long-serving, much-loved Music Director will probably beg to differ from a position of infinitely greater experience, but it struck me that so much of Puccini’s swansong, special ...

Puccini’s Turandot, with its combination of myth, ritual and emotional extremity, suits dark evenings and the build-up to Christmas, when audiences seem especially ready for spectacle and intensity.