Stephen Richardson

For many people, one’s wedding day might feel dramatic. For Mozart’s Figaro, it is quite literally an opera! The action covers one day in the castle and grounds of Aguas Frescas, near Seville. Stellar performances in John Cox’s production of this Mozart opera, featuring an unforgettable Figaro by Joshua Bloom

An open-air staging by Aldeburgh Music of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, on the beach that inspired the opera. A small seaside community struggles to accept a fisherman.

The Italian and international press were unanimous in their praise for "Peter Grimes" at La Scala, which revived the tradition of Britten's operas on the lyric stages of Italy. A top British cast was marshaled by the baton of Robin Ticciati. Richard Jones's production focuses on the fisherman as the outside in a brutal and brutalized 1980s society, cut off by mutual suspicion and misunderstanding: an unforgettable production of a 20th-century operatic masterpiece that never loses its power. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true Surround Sound.

Tan Dun portrays the Venetian explorer's travels to the Far East as a journey of both inner and physical discovery, a voyage depicting spiritual experiences as well as a geographical expedition. Pierre Audi's mythical staging and Jean Kalman's fabulous set design complement the composer's own musical direction, forging the dazzlingly versatile soloists, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Cappella Amsterdam to a stunning symbiosis of elements across time and space, a true testimony to cultures intertwined in globalization.