On 27 September 2018 at 8pm
Italian director Romeo Castellucci is famed for his visually haunting, symbolically charged avant-garde opera productions. The artist-director’s staging of Mozart’s fairy-tale opera Die Zauberflöte at La Monnaie in Brussels stars Sabine Devieilhe as Queen of the Night under the baton of Antonello Manacorda.

On 6 October 2018 at 1pm
One moment the singer Floria Tosca is standing on the stage, next moment she is the key figure in a deadly political intrigue sparked by jealousy and the craving for power. Giacomo Puccini’s thriller continues to captivate audiences to this day. Helsinki presents an audacious new production of this classic staged by German director Christof Loy.

On 18 October 2018 at 8pm
Love beyond death: inconsolable, the poet Orpheus follows his wife Eurydice to the Underworld. Christoph Willibald Gluck managed to free the opera from its formal Baroque straitjacket and open it up to the classical era. Raphaël Pichon conducts, while the title roles are sung by Marianne Crebassa and Hélène Guilmette.

On 7 November 2018 at 7pm
How faithful are women really? That is the question that Guglielmo and Ferrando ask themselves in Mozart’s comic opera Così fan tutte. To answer it, they put their fiancées to the test. Fortunately, This new staging is Jean Liermier’s second production for Lausanne. Joshua Weilerstein pilots the orchestra through Mozart’s colourful score.

On 26 November 2018 at 7pm
Hans Werner Henze’s Das Floß der Medusa is directly inspired by Géricault’s famous painting. The German composer sets to music the fate of 150 people who have been shipwrecked and abandoned to their destiny. Fifty years after its creation, the Italian director Romeo Castellucci underscores its immense modernity, drawing a striking parallel to the current migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.

On 31 January 2019 at 10.45pm
350 years Paris National Opera, 150 years Berlioz, 30 years Opéra Bastille. In 1990, the Opéra Bastille opened to the public with Les Troyens. For the opening of its anniversary season, Dmitri Tcherniakov signs a new production of the monumental Trojan opera by Hector Berlioz, who died in 1869. Bryan Hymel, Stéphane Degout, Elīna Garanča and Stéphanie d‘Oustrac will be singing under the baton of Philippe Jordan.

On 21 February 2019 at 6pm
A rediscovery at the Latvian National Opera. The opera L’incantesimo was forgotten soon after the premiere. Its composer, Italo Montemezzi, was inspired by the great champions of Italian verismo, including Ruggero Leoncavallo. In Riga, therefore, Montemezzi’s work will be performed in a double bill with Pagliacci.

On 22 March 2019 at 7pm
In 2012, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence created Written on Skin, a landmark production that is considered to be one of the most beautiful operas of the last 20 years. For its creation of Lessons in Love and Violence, the Royal Opera House in London once again brings together the trio behind that huge success: George Benjamin, Martin Crimp and Katie Mitchell.

April 2019
A murderer against his will: Having killed his wife in a fit of jealousy Il Bravo now has to do penance – as an assassin. Saverio Mercadante’s adventure opera was a great success at its premiere in 1839 and apparently made a lasting impression on the young Giuseppe Verdi. Already famed for rescuing works from oblivion, the Wexford Festival now brings Il Bravo back into the limelight.

June 2019
“Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate”: Andreas Homoki at the Opernhaus Zurich is staging a new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s great liberation opera, whose famous Chorus of Hebrew Slaves became the unofficial hymn of Italian unification and turned the composer himself into figurehead of the Risorgimento. The leading roles are to be sung by Michael Volle, Benjamin Bernheim, and Catherine Naglestad with General Music Director Fabio Luisi at the rostrum.